Perceived influence of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme on youth development among ex-corps members in the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the perceived influence of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Scheme on youth development among ex-corps members in the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ibadan. Using a simple random sampling technique, 120 post graduate students of agriculture who had just concluded the NYSC programme were sampled from the university and data were collected using structured questionnaire on respondents’ personal characteristics and their perception of the scheme’s influence on their development. Almost half (43.3%) of respondents adjudged the schemes influence to their development as favourable. Six out of the eight development agenda of the scheme rated above average in their performance. The attainment of the NYSC objective was highest in the area of making youths contribute to the accelerated growth of the national economy and below average in helping the youths acquire the spirit of self-reliance. A significant relationship existed between respondents’ economic background and their perception of NYSC (X² = 0.235, p<0.05). The study concluded that the influence of the NYSC scheme on the development of the youth corps members was perceived to be poor by majority of the respondents. While several calls for abolishing of NYSC may not be clearly justified, the improvement of the scheme especially in its areas of poor performance is necessary to meeting the needs and expectations of the nations teeming youth population.

Keyword: Perceived influence, Youth development goal, National Youth Service Corps.