An Assessment Of Secondary School Students Enrolment Of Islamic Studies In Ssc Examinations In Abeokuta From 2012-2016
[CASE STUDY OF ABEOKUTA SOUTH, LOCAL GOVERNMENT OGUN STATE]

“The search for knowledge is an incumbent duty on every Muslim, Male or Female”.
Islamic studies promotes the realization of human equality and brotherhood with emphasis on practical means of achieving social solidarity and ethic harmony in place of greed and selfishness. It is the concern of Islamic studies to ensure a balance development of the individual and community by giving him physical, social, intellectual, moral and spiritual training. Islamic studies instills in the heart the consciousness of the presence of Allah as a witness of all our actions, thought and behaviours. This acts as a control on wrong doing, whether in public or private and as a motivation to a good behaviour.( National Teacher Institute, 2000).
Islamic studies is one of the major subjects for the Senior Secondary School Students in the Art Department in lieu of Christian religious studies. It is a subject that principally focus on good knowledge of the Holy Qur’an and Hadith. It is a subject that teaches moral and the words of wisdom from God through the Prophets.
Islamic studies is one of the basic subjects in the current National Senior Secondary School Curriculum and one of the subject entered for by students in the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination. This subject is sometimes made compulsory to be passed by students seeking admission into faculty of law  Arts and Education in the universities for Muslim students while Christian religious studies is for the Christians Abdul (2011).
However, Nigeria being a “Multi-Religion” nation has not realized importance of religious education. It regulates religions education to the background. It makes Islamic studies an elective subject and provides no adequate teachers in secondary schools (Azeez and Adeshina, 2013). According to National Policy on Education (2004), Islamic studies is not a core subject at the senior secondary schools, rather, it is an elective subject.
This gives the Senior Secondary School Students the option to either offer it or drop it. This is a factor that led to the statement of Bidmos (2003) that Islamic studies is offered by less than one percent of student population of any institution where it is offered at all (Azeez and Adeshina 2013).  
The use of examinations to carry out assessment according to Alonge (2003) has been on the increase worldwide with the establishment of examination bodies like: West African Examination Council (WAEC 1953), National Teacher Institute (NTI, 1975), National Board of Educational Measurement (NBEM, 1992), National Board of Technical Education (NBTE, 1993) AN National Examination Council (1999).These Examination Bodies were established to replace the activities of the colonial examination bodies.
WASSCE is a Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) conducted by West African Examinations Council; together with NECO conducted by the Nigerian Examinations Council. The choice of WASSCE and NECO results was due to its credibility and acceptance by tertiary  institutions for higher education. Kpolovie, Ololube, & Ekwebelem (2011) are of the view that because of the economic and social importance attached to Senior Secondary School Certificate and the opportunities for Higher Education for those who possess such Certificates, the awarding of this Certificate, one of the most importance event in the Nigerian academic calendar.
This utter disregard for Arabic and Islamic Studies as an instrument of education, social and moral development had caused incalculable damage to our corporate existence.
No nation can develop when moral decadence overthrow good virtue, because morality is a vehicle to success. Religious studies in its character, therefore more relevant in passing good moral instruction from generations to generation. Azeez and Adeshina (2013).                                     
 Statement of the Problem
    Islamic studies can be seen an a basic need for its learner for social refinement, spiritual upliftment and cultural integrity, since it contains divine guidance. With this and inspite of the numerous benefits attached to the study of Islamic education as it seems that students in secondary school show little or no importance to the subject. They feel that it is not lucrative in terms of income generation unlike the subjects that lead to Accounting, Engineering, Medicine courses etc. Another problem is that  they assume that Islamic course will only make them to become Islamic studies teachers. Many researched work have been carried out on Assessment of Secondary School Students performance of Islamic studies and other subjects in SSC Examination. This includes – Science, Mathematics and English,  John and Badau (2015); Who wrote on An assessment of the trend of secondary school students academic performance in West African Senior School Certificate (WASSCE) in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematic and English as these subject are the germane to the attainment of the millennium development goals and vision2000-2020.