Assessment of Correspondence of Standard Measures of Facilities and Equipment in Chemistry Laboratories in Secondary Schools in Anambra State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed Standard Measures of facilities and equipment in Secondary Schools that have Chemistry laboratories in Anambra State. The study was prompted by poor achievement of students in Chemistry in external examinations in Anambra State which was attributed to the non-correspondence of secondary schools' Chemistry laboratory facilities and equipment to WAEC standard measures. The study adopted a descriptive design.  Two research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study used checklist instrument from West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to collect data on the level of correspondence of available Chemistry laboratory facilities and equipment to the standard specified by WAEC. The dependence of location to the level of correspondence to WAEC standard was also investigated. The instrument was not face validated because it is standardized being WAEC document. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Kendall Coefficient of Concordance (W) which gave reliability coefficients of 0.82 and 0.78 respectively for items in the two clusters (1 and 2) of the instrument.  The population of the study comprised two hundred and eleven (211) public secondary schools that have Chemistry laboratories in Anambra State. The sample for the study was forty eight public secondary schools that have Chemistry laboratories which were selected by stratified random sampling. Observed and expected frequencies and ratios were used to answer the two research questions while the two hypotheses were tested using Chi-square (X²) at 0.05 alpha level. The results revealed that (1). For Chemistry laboratory facilities: (i) laboratory room, storage room, laboratory tables and laboratory chairs corresponded to the standard stipulated by WAEC (ii) Chemistry laboratory equipment, running water, adequate electricity, storage room for chemicals, preparatory room and fume cupboard did not correspond to the standard stipulated by WAEC, and (iii) dark room was unavailable in all the schools. (2) Out of 79 equipment available in schools, 38 items corresponded to the standard stipulated by WAEC while 41 items did not correspond to the standard stipulated by WAEC. HO₁ and HO₂ had significant dependence of school location on the correspondence of Chemistry facilities and Chemistry laboratory equipment in the Chemistry laboratories to the standard specified by WAEC. Based on the findings of the study, the researchers recommended that Chemistry teachers should maintain a proper stock/inventory of Chemistry laboratory facilities and laboratory equipment in order to provide periodic reports to schools’ management for guidance and budgeting of schools’ requests on chemistry; laboratory facilities and equipment. The State Ministry of Education should conduct periodic monitoring of Chemistry laboratories in secondary schools to ensure that schools’ Chemistry laboratories are adequately equipped in Chemistry facilities and equipment to correspond to standard measures specified by WAEC.

Keywords: Chemistry, Laboratory, Facilities, Equipment, Standard, Correspondence.

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-23-04

Publication date:August 31^st 2023