ASSESSING THE BENEFITS, CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS TO ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA

This study evaluated the implementation status and perceived impact of entrepreneurship education in public secondary schools in Kwara State, Nigeria. It adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study covered 7,675 teachers in all the 371 public secondary schools in the state. A multi-stage sampling technique was used, involving stratified sampling by senatorial districts and simple random sampling to select six LGAs out the 16 in the state. LGAs. A total of 337 teachers were purposively sampled from the selected 69 schools. Data were collected using the Entrepreneurship Education Assessment Questionnaire (EEAQ). The instrument was face-validated by experts, and a pilot test yielded a Cronbach Alpha coefficient of 0.83. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyse data where the mean scores from 1.00 to 2.49 were considered ‘Disagree’, while 2.50 and above were adjudged ‘Agree’. The findings indicated that entrepreneurial education affords students opportunity to acquire relevant skills to be self-employed (Mean = 3.84) and helps students to have means of survival (Mean = 3.62). The study recommends that the Kwara State Government should establish specialized entrepreneurship hubs and provide dedicated grants for workshop equipment to ensure practical-based learning.