Students academic performance in the transition period before choosing areas of specialization in Nigeria Certificate Education (Technical) programme

Abstract

The study examined the level of academic performance in the compulsory and related courses offered by all the students in technical education during the transition period of the first and second years of a three years NCE Technical programme before choosing their area of specialization. The study comprises 237 students: 22 Automobile students; 8 Building students; 21 Electrical/Electronics students, 24 Metalwork students and 4 Woodwork students admitted into year one in 2002/2003, 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 academic sessions and who transited to third year of NCE (Technical) programme in 2004/2005, 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 academic sessions, respectively. Data consisted of raw examination scores of 20 compulsory and related courses offered by all the students. The arithmetic, F-test (one-way ANOVA) and the Scheffe’s test were used to analyze the data. The study established that, the Electrical/Electronic students performed better than their counterparts in Automobile, Building, Metalwork and Woodwork, and the academic performance of the five groups of students differed significantly. Key words: Academic, performance, transition, specialization, technical, automobile, building, electrical/electronics, metalwork, woodwork.