Evaluting The Effectiveness Of The Skills Acquisition Programmes For School Drop-Outs In Nigeria

ABSTRACT

The scourge of out-of-school children is real in Nigeria today. It is a common sight to see school-age children, particularly teenagers, who are supposed to be in school roaming the streets. Some are found outside the school performing one form of economic activity of another. Some have been to school but did not complete their education while some of them have never been to school at all. Some of these out of-school children, especially the school dropouts, claimed to have acquired some form of skills at some skills acquisition centres run by the government, private individuals and non-governmental organisations. The competency of the products of these programmes is oftentimes in doubt. Most of the time very many of them still remain unemployable and, as such, become nuisance to the society. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the skill acquisition programmes for school dropouts in Nigeria using survey and quasi-experimental research designs. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used. First, three out of the six geo-political zones Nigeria were randomly selected for the study. Three states (one from each zone) were randomly selected from the three selected geo-political zones. At the end, Lagos, Kano and Anambra states were selected for the study.