Afterschool Artisan Apprenticeship and Students’ Academic Performance in Mathematics

Abstract

Students are expected to rest then practise exercises given from school after school but some students resume at a master's shop to learn an handiwork, this action makes students have their attention divided as they have to resume at their masters’ workshops as soon as they leave school and any delay or lateness is met with stiff penalty. The study investigated the influence of afterschool artisan apprenticeship on secondary school students’ academic performance in Mathematics. A total of three hundred and sixty-seven students from three public junior secondary schools in Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State were used as the sample for the study. An Apprenticeship Enquiry Questionnaire (AEQ) and students' third term 2014/2015 Unified Promotion Examination result in Mathematics were used. Hypotheses formulated for this study were analysed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. The results showed that students’ academic performance in Mathematics was not affected by the students’ engagement in afterschool artisan apprenticeship and that there was no significant influence of afterschool artisan apprenticeship and gender on students’ academic performance in Mathematics. The study recommended among others that because of the peculiarity of the subject students should be encouraged to cultivate the habit of practising exercises on their own even when they are in their master;s workshops.