Equity in Gender Enrollment of Students in Pre-Nce Science Programmes in Nigeria: Implications for Sustainable Development

Abstract

The study investigated equity in gender enrollment of students in preliminary Nigerian Certificate in Education (Pre-NCE) science programmes and its implications for sustainable development. The descriptive survey design was adopted in the study. One Federal College of Education was selected out of I2 in the North East geo-political zone of Nigeria using purposive sampling technique. Students enrolled in five departments of Pre-NCE science programmes in the college used constituted the study sample and students’ enrolment records for five years were analyzed. Two research questions and two hypotheses were used to guide the study. The research questions were answered with frequencies and percentages while the hypotheses were tested for significance with chi square statistic at 0.05 level. Findings of the study showed that for five consecutive years, the percentage enrolments of male students into Pre-NCE science programmes were between 73.30% and 76.70%, whereas, for female students, the percentage enrolments were between 23.30% and 24.90%. Furthermore, more male students (97.44 % ) enrolled into physical sciences department than female students (22.56%). Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that considerable attention should be directed at the participation of females in science-oriented courses at the basic and secondary school levels of education in order to strengthen their access to the study of scicnce- oriented courses at the tertiary level of education. The implications of the findings of the study for sustainable development were finally discussed.