Assessment of Knowledge and Competences in Agricultural Engineering Acquired by the Senior Secondary School Students for Farm Mechanisation
This study was designed to assess the agricultural engineering knowledge and competencies acquired by the senior secondary students for farm mechanization in technical colleges in Ebonyi state of Nigeria. A survey research design was adopted for the study. Three research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study was 1,858 comprising of 174 teachers and 1,684 final year students. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 370 as sample for the study. A structured questionnaire with 21 items was employed for the study. The instrument was face validated by 3 experts. Two of the experts from the Department of Technology and Vocational education while one specialist from measurement evaluation, all from Ebonyi State University; and the reliability coefficient of 0.183 was obtained using Cronbach alpha technique to determine the internal consistency of the instrument. The data collected were analyzed using weighted mean and standard deviation for the research questions white t-test statistics was used to test for the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significant. The result of the analysis of the data reveals that the students have the knowledge in recognizing and identifying tillage machines, tools and equipment but do not have the competencies in the use of tillage, planting, weeding and harvesting farm machines tools and equipment except the use of simple farm tools like hoe, spade and sickle. The result of the hypotheses showed that there was no significant difference in the opinions of the teachers and the students on the knowledge and the competencies acquired by the senior secondary students in agricultural engineering for farm mechanization. It was recommended among others that the teachers should expose the students more on the practical use of the tillage, planting, weeding and harvesting farm machines, tools and equipment. Keywords: Knowledge, competences, agricultural engineering, secondary school students