Perception of Forestry as a Career among Senior Secondary School Students in Oyo-State, Nigeria

Abstract

Forestry education in many universities and colleges in Nigeria is currently suffering from serious drawbacks as there is a decline in enrolment into forestry related courses across the tertiary institutions. The importance of forestry education at the tertiary level as a medium for producing professional foresters cannot be over emphasized, hence the need for this study. This study assessed the level of awareness of forestry as a career among senior secondary students in Oyo state, Nigeria. A total of two hundred and forty questionnaire were randomly administered to respondents in the study area. The study reveals that 89.9% and 95.5% of the students in government and private schools respectively were aware of forestry as a course of study while
61.3% and 59.9% of both government and private schools’ students got aware through their teachers. Career preference by the students show that medicine was ranked first while forestry was ranked nineteenth with 24.6% and 0.8% respectively. The level of awareness of forestry among the respondents is high with 69.7% and 57.9% in government and private schools respectively. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) result reveals a significant interaction between perception of forestry and type of school in the study area. A set of concrete  recommendation for stakeholders involved in the development of forestry education is presented.