EXTENT OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BUSINESS STUDIES CURRICULUM AT THE SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATION FOR EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

The study investigated extent of implementation of the mandate of business studies curriculum at the secondary school level for employability skills development in Delta state. The purpose of the study was to determine the business subjects taught in secondary schools, instructional equipment/materials available for teaching and learning and the teaching techniques adopted by business study teachers to achieve the mandate of business studies curriculum. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Three research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study was 254 business teachers in public secondary schools in the eight local government areas that make up Delta South senatorial District. A sample size of 190 was used for the study. A 49 items questionnaire built in three clusters addressing the three research questions was used for data collection. A total of 187 administered questionnaires were retrieved out of 190 administered and used to analyze the outcome of the study using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, while t-test statistical tool was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 levels of significance. The findings of the study revealed that most business subjects added to the business component of business studies at the secondary school are not taught; also equipment and material resources available were lowly rated, while respondents rated techniques used in teaching business subjects high. It was recommended that public secondary schools administrators should include the business subjects newly added to the business studies component among subjects taught, and that equipment and material resources should be provided to achieve the mandate of business studies curriculum at the secondary school education for employability skills development in Delta state.