Students Perception Of Practical Agricultural Science In Senior Secondary Schools
[A CASE STUDY OF IFELODUN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF OSUN STATE]

Egbule (1998) noted that the teaching and learning activities of vocational agriculture at the secondary schools are grossly insufficient to elicit the desired level of initiative and creativity in students. It noted that the recommended instructional strategies is full of “showing”, ‘telling’ and ‘observing’ with a few cases of ‘doing’ and ‘practice’ thus contradicting the recommended ‘learning by doing’ and ‘guided discovery’ instructional strategies (National Policy on Education, 2004). Studies have also shown that graduates of vocational agriculture in senior secondary schools in Nigeria have often not been able to take up   paid jobs at the completion of their secondary education thus defeating the goal changing of secondary agricultural science to a vocational subject (Olaitan, 1997; Okorie, 2000; Obi, 2005; and Ikeoji and Agwubike, 2006).   Education, according to the global monitoring report should focus  its attention to the solution of challenges faced by  the growing numbers of unemployed youths and who are also trapped in poverty [UNESCO,] (2005); UNO, (2005).       
Empirical Studies on Attitude of Students Towards Practical Agricultural Science
Students’ attitudes to science and how students’ view the contents of science are extremely influential for having the potential to significantly affect their disposition towards attainment and their retention within science both in and out of school (Bricheno, Johnston & Sears, 2001; Gardner, 1975; Kind, Jones & Barmby, 2007; Lakshmi, 2004; Osborne, et al., 2003; The Royal Society, 2008). There has been an ongoing focus in attempting to understand students’ attitudes to science within science education research (for example, Barmby, Kind & Jones, 2008; Schibeci, 1984; The Office of Science and Technology and the Wellcome Trust, 2000), along with the struggle to actually define and differentiate these attitudes towards science (Zain, Rohandi & Jusoh, 2010). Such areas have had a greater focus in the social world more recently with the view regarding a shortage of science graduates (House of Commons, 2002a) alongside the claims that employers are feeling graduates have a lack of practical experience and laboratory skills which is becoming a barrier to recruitment of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) staff (Confederation of British Industry, 2011).
These concerns, alongside the fluctuating number of student post compulsion in science(Taylor, 2009), suggests that more research is needed to understand students’ attitudes to practical work, especially when students spend “between one third and a half of all lesson time” (SCORE, 2008) doing practical work in secondary school science. Research has suggested the need to understand why students think the way they do to better understand and hopefully benefit student uptake as well as enhancing student engagement and enjoyment in science (Barmby et al., 2008). Also, researchers have often discussed (Chen & Howard, 2010; Kim & Song, 2009) the potential links between positive student attitude and its influence on continued participation and attainment.
It could be understood that positive attitudes towards science may mean students are more inclined to participate and/or be more motivated to achieve In order to understand attitudes to science, it is important to understand what is meant by an ‘attitude’ although it is a concept that is not easily definable. An attitude according to Ajaja (2008) is a mental or neutral state of readiness organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influences upon the individuals response to all objects and situations with which is related. Anders and Bergs (2005) viewed attitude as a way of thinking or feeling of a person which makes him or her to behave or act in a particular way. The attitude of youth towards a subject or course of study influences the amount of content materials he/she internalizes and the acquisition of the appropriate skills for the subject (Anders and Bergs, 2005, Ajaja, 2005 and Dutse et al, 2010).