This study assessed the level of awareness of forestry as a profession among senior secondary school students in Ekiti State. A total of two hundred and forty pre-tested questionnaires were randomly administered to respondents to collect data in selected secondary schools in the state. The study reveal that 86.7 % and 75.8 % of the students in public and private schools respectively were aware of forestry as a course of study, while 63.3 % and 60 % of the respondents in public and private schools respectively already knew about tree planting campaigns. But only 9.2 % of the students were willing to study forestry, while career preference by the students show that Medicine was ranked first, while Forestry was ranked nineteenth with 21.2 % and 0.5 % respectively. The study recommended that Government should include forestry into the secondary school curriculum to further broaden studentsÂ’ knowledge so as to increase their interest in the course.
Key words: Perception, Forestry, Career, Secondary school, Students, Ekiti-State
|
