Abstract
The study was conducted to identify
strategies for improving the teaching of financial accounting in secondary
schools in Abeokuta, Ogun State. This was necessitated to address the
continuous poor performance of secondary school students in Financial
accounting in the study area. Four research questions and four null hypotheses
were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted descriptive survey
research design. The population for the study consisted of 171 respondents
which include 69 Teachers of Financial accounting, 51 Principals and 51 Vice
Principals. Due to the manageable size of the population, the entire population
was studied; therefore, there was no sampling. The instrument for data
collection was a structured 49-item questionnaire titled: Enhancing the
Teaching of Financial Accounting Questionnaire (ETFAQ). The instrument was
validated by three experts. To determine the reliability of the instrument,
Cronbach Alpha reliability method was used in which reliability coefficient of
0.78 was obtained for the instrument. The data collected were analyzed using
mean for answering the four research question while analysis of variance (ANOVA)
was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The
findings of the study identified 14 strategies for improving the recruitment of
financial accounting teachers, 15 strategies for motivating Financial
accounting teachers, 10 strategies for improving the instructional materials
and facilities for effective teaching of financial accounting and 10 strategies
for improving the capacity of financial accounting teachers for effective
teaching in secondary schools. There were no significant differences in the
mean ratings of the responses of the respondents on the identified strategies
based on their years of working experiences and academic qualification. Based
on these findings, the study among others recommended that: only competent and
trained teachers of Financial accounting should be allowed to teach students.
This is because, by their training and orientation, they are in better
positions of stimulating students in developing more career interest and
achievement in Financial accounting and that teachers of Financial accounting
should be trained in the use of modern and interactive instructional strategies
for improved teaching and learning.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background
of the Study
Everyone is affected by accounting
information. It is seen to be an everyday activity, not minding the individual,
career, organization etc. Accounting can be seen to revolve around life, as
everyone, in one way or the other is involved in one accounting practice or the
other. The need to have in place, a system of recording financial transactions,
brought the inception of accounting as a profession. (Nolan, 1998, p.6).
Accounting is often called the “language
of business” because it is used to communicate financial information.
Accounting, as opined by John, Haddock Jr. and Brock (2007, p.15) “is the
process by which financial information about a business is recorded,
classified, summarized, interpreted and communicated to owners, managers and other
interested parties.” The concept of accounting is further defined as the
process of recording, classifying, selecting, measuring, interpreting and
communicating financial data of an organization to enable users make decision
(Longe and Kazeem, 2012, p.5).
The history of accounting as a separate
discipline dates back to the end of the Nigerian civil war. Until then,
accounting was not a discipline on its own, but was rather treated as an
integral part of its parent discipline which was Economics. Okereke (2008,
p.3).
The study and practice of accounting, therefore, has a very important
role to play in the economic development of any nation. As a measurement and
reporting information system, accounting covers both micro- economic activities
and it consists of various subsystems which relate to economic events and
decisions (Ajayi, 1997, p.7). These subsystems can be identified as the major
accounting fields: business accounting, government accounting, auditing and
taxation, all of which aid in economic planning, project appraisal, capital
formation and a host of other socio-economic activities. Accounting as a subject is taught amongst the numerous subjects
taught in the secondary schools. It has several attractive characteristics. The
study of accounting in secondary schools in Nigeria came up since the end of
the civil war (Longe and Kazeem, 2012, p.21).
The reasons for offering accounting in the senior secondary school level
are in four fold as viewed by Nolan (1998, p.27).
i.
To enable students obtain a background in bookkeeping and accounting.
ii.
To enable the students to obtain a marketable skills by which he/she can
earn his/her living in an appropriate business or government job.
iii.
To enable students to understand that systematic and accurately kept
records are the basis for financialdecision
that has to be made by businessmen, government officials and others.
iv. To
enable students manage wisely his/her own personal business affairs with
particular emphasis on the wise planning of his/her income and expenditure
Danladi (2006, p. 45), views education as a process of
teaching and learning, in which students acquire practical knowledge, value and
skills for effective participation in the society. He further said that the
process of acquiring the relevant knowledge, attitude, values and skills must
be made as concrete as possible for easy learning. Teaching and learning of
accounting should also follow this same process of acquiring practical
knowledge, values and skills for effective participation in the society. Also,
the process of acquiring these should be made concrete for easy learning. This
gives us the reason for the study as some things required to make learning easy
and effective seems lacking.
According to Yusuf (2009, p.19), one of
the problems facing the teaching and learning of accounting is lack of good
textbooks. He further observed that if accounting is taught in secondary
schools by non-professionals and poorly motivated teachers, the students end up
not understanding anything and the efforts made for effective implementation of
accounting curriculum will be a waste.
Also, from the view of Okereke (2008,
p.32), some of these problems facing teaching and learning of accounting in
some secondary schools include: poor decline in funding from the government,
the rigidity in the syllabus which makes it difficult for flexibility to be
achieved and the shortage of qualified staff and teaching facilities.
To add to what has been said by different
authors/authorities, from experience as a student, teachers that were assigned
to teach accounting had no teaching qualification. This, most likely
contributed to poor performance in the external examinations, as they were not
equipped with the right teaching skills and methodologies to positively impart
the accounting knowledge to the students.
The table (see Appendix I) shows the
result of students who took accounting in secondary schools in Abeokuta
Municipal, as an indication of students’ poor performance in accounting.
Having seen the
challenges facing the effective teaching and effective learning of Accounting
in Secondary Schools and the indication of poor performance in the table above,
it therefore motivated the researcher to carry out this research work to find
out and proffer solution where necessary.
1.2
Statement of the Problem
The primary objective of financial accounting in the
secondary school curriculum is to prepare the students for Senior Secondary
School Certificate Examination (SSCE) which will enable the holders pursue
further education or to go into lower clerical work in the office. This,
nevertheless, gave rise to support of government, teachers and parents to help
to see that the performance of students in accounting improves.
However, the researcher through discussion with some of the financial
accounting teachers in secondary schools and through interaction with some of
the students offering financial accounting at secondary school level realized
that financial accounting has not recorded a remarkable success. Many of the
students that offered the subject in SSCE have failed woefully. Some of them
that secured clerical job have not been able to adjust to the practical working
of financial accounting and finally some of those that gained admission for
further studies have not been able to cope due to their poor foundation in
financial accounting. This has been seen in the table given above. Also, from
my experience as a student, accounting subject was offered by very few, as some
said that the subject is difficult, seeing the poor performance of students who
took accounting subject at the external examination level. There was no
in-depth knowledge of the subject, which might have led to the poor
performance. Could these be said to be
as a result of teacher factor, instructional materials, teaching method,
teachers’ motivation, unconducive environment for effective teaching and
learning or what?
It is as a result of the students’ poor performance that the researcher went
into investigating the perceived factors that militate against effective
teaching and learning of accounting in secondary schools in Abeokuta, Ogun
State
1.3
Purpose of the Study
The major
purpose of the study is to the strategies to enhance the teaching and learning
of accounting in secondary school in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Specifically, the
study aims at determining the:
i.
number of financial accounting teachers that are qualified to teach accounting
in the secondary schools in Abeokuta, Ogun state;
ii. available accounting resource materials in
the secondary schools;
iii.
teaching methods utilized by accounting teachers in the classroom;
iv.
regularity of the accounting teachers in utilizing the available accounting
resource materials in the classroom;
v. level of motivation to the teachers by the
Ministry of Education/Government.
1.4
Scope of the Study
The research work has been narrowed down
to examine the perceived factors militating against the successful teaching and
learning of accounting in secondary schools in Abeokuta, Ogun State, using the
SS1-SS3 students. It endeavored to cover as many as possible, the number of
professionally qualified accounting teachers in the schools, the available
accounting resource materials, the teaching methods used in teaching and
learning of accounting in the classroom, how often the teachers utilize the
resource materials and how well the teachers are motivated in their work.
1.5
Significance of the Study
The findings of this study identified some
factors that may have affected the successful teaching and learning of
accounting in secondary schools. This study will act as a guide towards solving
the problems of providing the necessary human and materials resources for the
successful teaching of accounting. It will aid curriculum planners since this
work will highlight some difficulties in the teaching of the subjects. It will
also in addition, help students of accounting to identify the problems they
encounter in the learning of the subject and tackle it. It is hoped that it
will help improve the future standard in accounting examinations and managerial
roles of accounting to business organizations at large. It will be useful to
the government by letting them know some challenges facing teaching and
learning of accounting in secondary schools and the possible ways of solving
these problems.
It will also help the teachers to know
where they are contributing to the causes of students’ poor performances in
accounting with the aim of finding corrective measures. The findings will act
as reference work for further investigation in this particular area by other
researchers.
1.6
Research questions
To guide the process of gathering data for
this study, the following research questions are raised:
1. What
is the number of professionally qualified accounting teachers in the secondary
schools in Abeokuta, Ogun State?
2. What
are the available accounting resource materials for teaching and learning in
the classroom?
3. What
are the teaching methods utilized by the accounting teachers in the schools?
4.
How regular do the teachers utilize the available accounting resource materials
in teaching accounting in the classroom?
5. How well are the teachers motivated?