NIGERIAN POLYTECHNIC STUDENTS' PERCEPTION OF THE VOCATIONAL BENEFITS OF THE USE OF ENGLISH CURRICULUM

Abstract

The focus of polytechnic education is on the development of appropriate skills, abilities, and
competencies. The objective of teachingUse of English (UoE) should, therefore, be primarily to
develop students' language skills so that they could practice the skills for self-reliance as advocated in
the National Policy on Education. Given the dynamics of skill acquisition, this study was conducted
to investigate the perception of the students on the vocational benefits they derived from the UoE
curriculum. Two hundred students were randomly selected from ND and HND levels in private-,
state- and federal-owned polytechnics. The UoE Vocational Benefits Questionnaire (UoE-VBQ)
was designedby theresearchers.Results showed that students' entry-level awareness of the vocational
benefits of polytechnic education is very high (Mean=2.63) and students' assessment rating of the
UoE curriculum content is high (Mean=2.09). However, students' value rating of the UoE as a
vocational curriculum; students' assessment rating of the UoE curriculum implementation process;
and students' assessment rating of the skill acquisition end-product of the UoE curriculum are all low
with mean values of 1.63; 1.80; and 1.62 respectively. The Pearson Correlation coefficient (r = -.039)
shows a negative correlation between students' entry-level awareness of the vocational benefits of
polytechnic education and students' value rating of the UoE as a vocational curriculum; while the
t.test reveals significant differences based on school type (7.115, p>.05) and course of study (11.664,
p>.05) while gender (-1.418, p<.05) and program (.565, p<.05) are not significant.

Keywords: Curriculum implementation strategy; vocational training; language skills; self-reliance