Individuals are no longer only expected to be good citizens in their countries, but effective world citizens as well (Kezban, 2014). Therefore, the failure of Civic Education in schools might pose a negative effect on the attitude of the students. It is therefore not amazing, today, to see some of the Nigerian youths engaging in violence, non-tolerant attitudes and antisocial behaviour. This could be the reason why the Federal Government of Nigeria re-introduces Civic Education as a compulsory subject. According to Sam Egwu, the former Minister of Education, it is part of President Umaru Yar’Adua’s 7-point reform agenda to focus towards the growth of the human capital development. The introduction of the Civic Education is to refocus and reposition the country to further realize her full inert potentials as envisioned by the founding leaders.

In the light of this, Nigerian school system will help to develop in the students’ desirable social norms and national ethics. This is because primary and secondary school levels are the basic foundation for other stages of the education system upon which students will be taught the basic norm and ethics and become responsible adults for their own actions. Fan et al. (2008) revealed that Nigeria is facing many problems of which decline in education and cultural values is among with a very large proportions and some of these problems include antisocial activities, undemocratic behaviour, huge examination mal-practice and misconduct among learners, that are not in our characters. The socio-political and economic problems emanate majorly from loss of civic values and unpatriotic practices demonstrated by some Nigerian citizens.

Ajibade (2011) revealed that Civic Education is concerned with the democratic skills and values that citizens need to function effectively in participatory democracy towards civilization. Civic Education is capable of inducing those values, attitudes and skills that will enable the learner to live patriotic and democratic lives and contribute meaningfully to the progress of the nation (UNDP, 2004). Finkel (2000) reported that Civic Education aims at providing learners with useful information on their rights, responsibilities and requirements for political engagements with the purpose of enabling the citizens to make meaningful contribution to the political system. Curriculum refers to the lessons and academic contents taught in a school or in a specific course or program. In Education Reform (updated 2015), curriculum refers to the knowledge and skills students are expected to learn, which includes the learning standards or learning objectives they are expected to meet; the units and lessons that teachers teach; the assignments and projects given to students; the books, materials, videos, presentations, and readings used in a course; and the tests, assessments, and other methods used to evaluate student learning. An individual teacher’s curriculum, for example, would be the specific learning standards, lessons, assignments, and materials used to organize and teach a particular course. It  is  important  to note that while curriculum encompasses a wide variety of potential educational and instructional practices, educators often have a very precise, technical meaning in mind when they use the term. Most teachers spend a lot of time thinking about, studying, discussing, and analyzing curriculum, and many educators have acquired a specialist’s expertise in curriculum development, that is, they know how to structure, organize and deliver lessons in ways that facilitate or accelerate student learning.

Civic Education is an important component of education that cultivates citizens to participate in the public life of a democracy, to use their rights and to discharge their responsibilities with the necessary knowledge and skills.  As one step of this education process, higher education has been assuming the mission to foster citizens with the spirit to lead. In a related sense, Civic Education is concerned with promoting understanding of the ideals of democracy and a reasoned commitment to its values and principles in a very realistic manner (Carter and Elshatain 1997). This could be done by making teaching of civic principles real and relevant to the child’s environmental needs, situation and demands.

According to Adenipekun (2010), the new review senior secondary school education curriculum which include Civic Education and whose implementation commenced from September 2011 has placed big challenge on educators, especially secondary school teachers. The quality and competence of Civic Education teachers at the school level cannot be over emphasized. The National Policy on Education (2008) pointed out that “no educational system may rise above the quality of its teachers”. For the implementation of every curriculum development, the teacher is the most important key. Civic Education teachers are expected to have good knowledge of civic and political concepts. Absolute knowledge of the subject will help to strengthen the teacher to explain and simplify the concept being taught to learners (Jibril and Abba, 2011).

The competence of a Civic Education teacher, to a large extent, depends on his knowledge of civic issues and concepts. This is because the teacher cannot teach effectively any concept that he is not well grounded in (Danjuma, 2005). There is no doubt that if a teacher does not have thorough knowledge of the subject matter, he/she is not an authority in the classroom (Adepoju, 2008). Adu, and Olatundun (2007), Ali (2009) and Akinsolu (2010) submitted that the availability of qualified teachers determines the performance and attitude of students in both school and society. However, the attainment of the objectives of Civic Education in Nigerian schools depends to a large extent on the effective implementation and teaching of civic concepts.

Statement of the problem

Education is the major  instrument for civilization  and every nation aspiring to be civilized must invest in its educational sector. The neglect of Civic Education at the secondary school level may have effect on the behaviour of the secondary school students. It is therefore, not surprising, today to see some secondary school students engaging in indiscipline, antisocial behaviour, examination malpractice and violence. In line with this, the re-introduction of Civic Education in the new curriculum of secondary education may encourage morals and national ethics. However, the school breaks the content of the curriculum down into teachable units when the government provides the materials (textbooks and facilities) and select relevant teaching methods. The extent to which teachers in senior secondary school do these therefore require investigation; hence this study.

Purpose of the study

The purpose of the study is to determine the extent to which the Civic Education curriculum content is used in senior secondary schools in Osun State. Specifically, the objectives of the study are to:

1. Investigate students’ assessment of relevance of the Civic Education curriculum contents;

2. Examine students’ assessment of the adequacy of the curriculum contents as provided in selected Civic Education textbooks in schools;

3. Determine the availability and adequacy of the instructional facilities used for the teaching of Civic Education;

4. Determine level of quality of teachers’ classroom curriculum contents implementation during teaching/ learning process and

5. Examine if there exists a significant difference in students’ assessment of relevance of the Civic Education curriculum contents based on class level.

Research questions

1. Are the Civic Education curriculum contents relevant to students?

2. Are the Civic Education textbooks contents adequate in covering curriculum contents?

3. Are the instructional facilities used for the teaching of Civic Education available and adequate in schools?

4. What is the level of quality of teachers’ classroom curriculum contents implementation during teaching/learning process?

Hypothesis

There is no significant difference in students’ assessment of relevance of the Civic Education curriculum contents based on class level.

The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population for this study comprised all Civic Education teachers, senior secondary school students, textbooks and instructional facilities in Ife-Ijesha Senatorial District of Osun State, Nigeria. The sample size consists of 15 Civic Education teachers and 150 secondary students selected using multistage sampling technique. Three Local Government Areas (LGAs) were selected using simple random sampling technique. Five senior secondary schools were also selected from each LGA using simple random sampling technique. One Civic Education teacher and ten students were selected from each school using simple random sampling technique. Two senior secondary school Civic Education textbooks were equally selected using simple random sampling technique.

Three research instruments were used for the study. These are Teaching Assessment Form (TAF), Civic Education Textbook Content Checklist for Teachers (CETC²) and Instructional Facilities Checklist (IFC). The TAF consisted of observable behaviours which were divided into six (6) basic sections namely: lesson plan, teaching aid, subject matter, presentation, class management and control, and teachers personality which were further simplified into various sections. These observable behaviours were also rated from 0-5 and were awarded by the researcher. The TAF was used to examine the extent to which the Civic Education curriculum is being implemented. It was divided into 6 sections– A, B, C, D, E and F, indicating different observable behaviours and were rated. The minimum obtainable score is three (3) while the maximum obtainable score is 15. Also, the Civic Education Textbook Content Checklist (CEC²) was used to sort information about adequacy of the Civic Education textbook to the Civic Education Curriculum. Textbook content analysis was used to determine the adequacy of the curriculum content in the textbook that is being used. Instructional Facilities Checklist (IFC) consisted of a list of recommended materials for teaching of Civic Education; this was adapted from the 9-Year Civic Education Curriculum. The IFC was used to take an inventory on the availability, adequacy and utilization of instructional facilities for teaching Civic Education. The data collected were analyzed using frequency count, percentage and One-Way ANOVA.

Research question one: Are the civic education curriculum contents relevant to students?

Table 1 shows students’ assessment of relevance or otherwise of the Civic Education curriculum contents. It can be observed that majority of the students indicated that all the contents of Civic Education curriculum are relevant. This is shown as none of the contents of the topic in the curriculum received a score less than 84.0%. The Table revealed that topics like HIV/AIDS, our values, the major pillars of democracy, meaning and forms of political apathy, and rule of law respectively received 98.7, 98.7, 98.0, 97.3 and 96.7%. This is an indication that the vast majority of the students acknowledged that the Civic Education curriculum contents are relevant to them.

Research question two: Are the Civic Education textbooks contents adequate in covering curriculum contents?

Table 2 shows that 85.3% of the  students  indicated  that the recommended textbook contents adequately covered the curriculum contents of Civic Education.

Research question three: Are the instructional facilities used for the teaching of Civic Education available and adequate in schools?

Table 3 shows teachers’ responses to the availability and adequacy of instructional facilities used for the teaching of Civic Education in  secondary  schools,  indicating  that all the expected instructional facilities were available with value ranging from 60.0 to 93.3%, except for duster which has 26.7%. On the other hand, the result on the adequacy of the instructional materials revealed that materials and facilities such as textbooks, teaching aids, and whiteboard/chalkboard in the classroom had 100.0% adequacy as indicated by the teachers, whereas, vocabulary and diagrams in the textbooks, and conducive classrooms were inadequate at 73.3 and 60.0%, respectively.

Research Question Four: What is the level of quality of teachers’ classroom curriculum contents implementation during teaching/learning process?

In order to answer this research question, teachers were scored on the contents/behaviour on TAF such that 0 was allotted to very low, 1 to low, 2 to moderate, 3 to high and 4 to very high. TAF has six sub-components with 20 items in all. The maximum score obtainable is 100. Therefore, scores of each teacher on these items and subcomponent were cumulated. In order to determine the level of quality of teachers’ classroom curriculum contents implementation during teaching/learning process, scores of 1-20 were described as very low, 21-40 as low, 41-60 as moderate, 61-80 as very high while scores of 81-100 were described as very high. The categories were then subjected to descriptive analysis. The results are presented in Tables 4 and 5.

Hypothesis

There is no significant difference in students’ assessment of relevance of the Civic Education curriculum contents based on class level. In order to test this hypothesis, students’ assessment scores on relevance of curriculum contents were cumulated and subject to a one-way analysis of variance using class level as differentiating factors. The result is presented in Table 6.

Table 6 shows that the mean squares between groups and within groups are 811.65 and 1402.591.90, respectively. These values yielded an F-value of 0.58, which is not significant at 0.05 levels. This implies that the observed differences in the mean scores of the SS1 to SS3 on relevance of the Civic Education curriculum contents are not statistically significant. This result shows that there is no significant difference in students’ assessment of relevance of the Civic Education curriculum contents based on class level.

The finding of the study indicated the relevance of the contents of Civic Education curriculum as observed by the students. This is a good template for better performance as the learners who are the direct beneficiaries of the knowledge embedded in the curriculum acknowledged its contents to be appropriate and relevant to bring about the expected learning outcomes in them. This aligns with submission of Branson (1998) who stated that it is essential that the development of participatory skills begins in the earliest grades and that it continues throughout the course of schooling. The youngest pupils can learn to interact in small groups or committees, to pool information, exchange opinions or formulate plans of action commensurate with their maturity. They can learn to listen attentively, to question effectively, and to manage conflicts through mediation, compromise, or consensus-building. Students not only need to be prepared for such experiences, they need well planned, structured opportunities to reflect on their experiences under the guidance of knowledgeable and skillful mentors.

It was also revealed that the recommended textbook contents adequately covered the curriculum contents of Civic Education. This is  not  surprising  because  in  time past, Civic Education was squeezed into Social Studies curriculum which also reflected in the textbooks used. In the findings of Nwaubani and Azuh (2014), they discovered that contents or themes directly related to Civic Education are not adequately reflected in the Basic education Social Studies curricula with exception of the upper basic level (JSS 1-3) which seem to have more civic issues. However, the findings uphold that of Katz (1989) who found out that the contents of the Civic Education curriculum were carefully planned to take adequate care of students need about civility in the society.

On the availability and adequacy, the findings showed that the instructional facilities used for the teaching of Civic Education in secondary schools were available and adequate. Ehiametalor (2011) argued that school facilities are the operational inputs of every instructional programme. Ivowi (2004) noted that to ensure that curriculum is effectively implemented, infrastructural facilities, equipment, tools and materials must be provided sufficiently. Nwagu (2004) affirmed that quality of education that our children receive bear direct relevance to the availability and lack of physical facilities and overall atmosphere in which learning take place. Emetarom (2003) asserted that school facilities can be said to be the physical and spatial enablers of teaching and learning which will increase the production and attainment of desired results. On the other hand, vocabulary and diagrams in the textbooks, and conducive classrooms were found to be inadequate. These facilities are equally important to facilitate teaching and learning as revealed in the studies. United States District of Education (2002) reported that school buildings that can adequately provide a good learning environment are essential for students’ success. In a study of high schools in Nepal, India, Subedi (2003) found a significant relationship between students’ achievement and the availability and use of physical and material resources. Other studies (Okebukola, 2005; Okunola, 2005; Agusiobo, 2004) indicated that the availability of resources is an important variable in student learning.  

The results equally revealed that the level of quality of teachers’ classroom curriculum contents implementation during teaching/learning process was high and encouraging. This result showed that there is no significant difference in students’ assessment of relevance of  the  Civic  Education  curriculum  contents   based   on class level.

It is noticeable from the study that Civic Education curriculum is well implemented in senior secondary schools in Osun State. Also, it is clear from the study that the selected Civic Education textbooks contents are adequate and are in line with the curriculum. Finally, it is concluded that instructional facilities for teaching Civic Education are quite available in the schools in the study area.

Based on the findings of the study above, the following recommendations were therefore made:

1. All Civic Education textbooks used for teaching students need to be periodically revised with a view to making them have acceptable content validity and enrich them in terms of content and chapter summary. A good chapter summary promotes a more permanent learning and transfer.

2. Selection and recommendation of Civic Education textbook for teaching and learning should be done by experts such as civic teachers, curriculum experts, parastatals like SUBEB, SEB, library and scholarship boards based on acceptable criteria.

3. All Civic Education textbook should be properly evaluated before recommending them to any class level with particular attention paid to content and chapter summary of the textbooks for intended class level.

4. There is need to re-orient the Civic Education teachers and indeed all social science teachers on the provision and utilization of instructional materials.

5. Government should pay more attention on education and provision of instructional materials for teaching and learning.

The authors have not declared any conflict of interests.