POLITICAL LITERACY AS CORRELATE OF CIVIC CONSCIOUSNESS LEVEL OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NSUKKA EDUCATION ZONE ENUGU STATE.

ABSTRACT

The study investigates political literacy as correlate of civic consciousness level of secondary school students in Nsukka Educatiuon Zone. Correlational research design was adopted for the study, nine research questions and five null hypotheses guided the study.  450 senior secondary school students were selected from the population of 4,519 in 58 secondary schools in Nsukka education zone, Enugu state. Data was collected using 40 items of political literacy test (PLT) and 15 items structured questionnaire of civic consciousness level (CCL). Political literacy test was drawn from SS2 civic education  curriculum  and it was based  on  five  political  literacy concept using teacher made table of specification. 50 items were generated and the test was subjected to three stage validations to ensure face and content validity to three experts in faculty of education  and  it yielded  reliability  coefficient  values  of 0.71  and  0.91  respectively.  The reliability coefficient was determined using Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient technique. Analysis was done using mean and standard deviation for answering the research question 1, 4 to

9 while 2 and 3 was analysed using Pearson product correlation. Liner regression and Anova was used for testing the null hypotheses. Findings revealed that urban students have higher political literacy than rural students, among others; it revealed  that there is a moderate, positive and significant  relationship between  the political  literacy of students  and the level of their civic consciousness. It was recommended government should provide rural areas with social infrastructure  to enable rural students have access to national news and television politically enlightening shows and programmes without much cost.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Political literacy is generally recognized as a vital aspect of democratic governance by many nations of the world including Nigeria. This is because, it assists the citizens (among whom are students and youth) to identify how to exercise their civic responsibilities and dutiesaccordingly under democratic settings. This position underscores the rationale behind the teaching of many social science and related subjects such as Government, civic, social studies, History  and  so  on  at  the  basicand  Senior  Secondary  School  levels  in  Nigeria,  (National Orientation Agency, 2012). Indeed, part of the general expectation is that students should not only  gain  requisite  functional  civic  or  political  knowledge  accruing  from  the  teaching  and learning of these subjects but also develop corresponding civic consciousness which they require to play their role as citizens under ademocratic dispensation or process (National Council for Social Studies, 2007; Crick, 2000).

Political literacy is perceived as tool of political empowerment which resonates with the broad values, beliefs and norms that exist in a given society to prepare citizens for constitutional and other related citizenship roles and responsibilities.   Operationally, political literacy is one means of directing citizens of a country on how to identify and perform their political rights, duties and responsibilities. Indeed, in liberal democracies, the concept of literacy is much more inclusive.It involves political understanding or education in the procedure and purpose of voting. It also constitutes the basis for informed political opinions, participation, political awareness,

knowledge   of  political   concepts   and  facts,  political   interest,  civic   competence   and  so

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on(Huddleston &Rowe 2001). Definitions and understanding of political literacy first require proper acquaintance with concepts of education, civic education and civic consciousness respectively.

Education is usually seen as a vital transformation tool, or the wheel around which the political growth of the individuals and that of any nation revolves; It is no doubt a major tool for national development and  for personal socio-economic  empowerment  (Ukeje, 1991). It is in recognition of this that the federal government of Nigeria usually commits immense resources to ensure the provision of education for its citizenry (Uruakpa&Ihebereme, 2006). Education is the process by which  the learner  is socialized  into  the learning system  and  prepared  for social participation in society, Its aim is for socializing citizens who are themselves moral agents and smaller communities  into bigger communities  (the  state).  This  means  that  the  main  aim of education  is  to  create  morally sound  individual, (Okorodudu,  2004).  This  particular  aim of education shows that education is not just about making citizens literate but making them participants in the life of the state as bona-fide members who are active and not dormant citizens.

Civic education in  a democracy is education  for the promotion of active citizenship participation. This suggests that citizens are properly informed to be actively involved in the process of governance.Civic education simply defined is that education which assists citizens to become actively involved in their own governance (Centre for civic education, 1991). Indeed, participation which is vital to civic education is not merely for its own sake but must be based on informed critical reflection, understanding and acceptance of the roles/responsibilities of being a citizen

The word “civic” is a Greek coinage for citizens of a city or an area (Ukegbu, Mezieobi, Ajileye, Abdulrahaman and Anyaoha, 2010). By implication, civic education is a carefully taken

educational decision by government of a state to promote the civic vision and virtues of different political communities through the inculcation of certain kinds of knowledge, values, and skills/abilities. It is therefore geared towards the production of well informed, articulate  and effective citizens of the state. This aspiration is based on the fact that the production of well- informed, responsible and well behaved citizens is the primary concern of the state all over the world.In  a  relatedsense,  civic  education  has  been  described  as  the  process  and  means  of promoting an understanding of the needs of democracy and reasoned commitment to the inherent values/principles of democratic governance in a realistic manner (Douglas, 2002). This is done by making political literacy real and relevant to the child’s situation and environmental demands.

Political literacy or education is all about helping people become politically aware and effective. It is also about giving people the opportunity toact responsibly in political issues and events.Thus, Political education focuses on developing political ideas and promoting knowledge of political institutions among citizens of a society (Crick, 2000). Political literacy refers to being literate enough on political issues in order to ensure active political participation. It requires from citizens knowledge of basic political concepts, civic rights and duties as well as the political right attitude and values in order to nurture and promote requisite civic consciousness. In this present work,  the concept  of political  literacy  covered  the  following  content scope:National  values, Citizenship, National consciousness and identity, Nigerian constitution, Human rights, Rule of law, Capitalist democracy, Political apathy, popular participation and so on.

Civic consciousness is a form of social consciousness co-existing with the concept of citizen. It is the process of being conscious of what is happening in the political system. Civic consciousnessrefers  to  the  relationship  between  the  individual  and  the community,  state, or nation.It could be seen as an importantaspect ofcitizen’srights/duties, and responsibilities within

a  political  community.  Thus,  in  a broad  sense,  modern  civic  consciousness  consists  of the following issues: the initiative knowledge of the relationship between individuals and the state or society, the rational cognition of citizenship, civic rights and duties, civic virtues; internalization and identification of the social behavioral norms and basic values (Kathleen and Knight-Abowitz

2009).

Apparently,  effective  civic or political education  has remaineda  major concern  of all democracies in recent times including Nigeria. This is because from the earliest times, education has remained an effective tool for creating political awareness and civic consciousness among citizens (Ayeni, 2009). This position is influenced by the overall emphasis which governments have  placed  on  individual  rights  and  responsibilities  in  the  affairs  of  society.  In  Nigeria, education has been seen as an important factor or veritable tool for political literacy or training (Ezekwesili,  2006).  This  explains  why education  is seen  as  the basis  for the  integration  of individual, into the society (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004).

The basic assumption in most recent political education literature is that civic and other related subjects such as Social studies, Government, and History could enhance thepromotion of political awareness and civic consciousness of Nigerian citizens (Falade, 2007). This assumption is underscored  by the  fact  that  effectively socialized  individuals  should  be  able  to develop values, attitudes, skills and so onwhich are required for proper understanding of political issues and concepts as well as decision making and participation within a democratic setting (Iyamu,

2003).Udoh cited in Ogundare (2000; 19) argues that “no nation can develop in state of moral, social and political vacuum”. This implies that any system of education that fails to promote political enlightenment and literacy as well as awareness of citizens is detrimental to justice, national stability, unity and survival of such country or nation. It was perhaps in recognition of

this position  that certain  subjects  were  introduced  into senior secondary schools to promote political literacy and civic consciousness of Nigerian youths (Faruk, 2008; NERDC, 2007).

Indeed, certain negative issues in Nigeria have not only necessitated in the above needs, but also seem to have brought to light the relevance of education to national development. These include  corruption,  electoral  mal-practices,  violence,  drug  abuse,  cultism,  child  trafficking, political  apathy  etc(Federal  Republic  of Nigeria2000).  Similarly,  other negative  acts  youths engaged in such as prostitution, riotous behaviour in public places, recklessness in driving, lack of respect for law and order, intolerance, fraud, cheating, kidnapping constitute  vices which negate civic responsibilities of youths (Onah, 2005). These vices have no doubt affected political literacy and civic consciousness level of youths in Nigeria. This trend does not in any way augur well  for  sustainable  democratic  culture  or  popular  participation  of  citizens  in  governance especially the youths in Nigeria’s current political dispensation.

In  recent  times,  there  has  been  compelling  evidence  to  show  that  youths  need  to participate  in political  life of the nation  (O’Toole, 2003).This  situation  among others things inform the presidential directives in 2006 that civic should be introduced into the educational system. According to Falade (2011), the introduction of civic education was based on the resolve of Federal Government of Nigeria to strengthen democracy in Nigeria. Similarly, Faruk(2008) asserts that re-introduction of civic education by federal government will help in the inculcation of right ways of doing things in the society.Indeed, the basis of democracy is the people or citizens who through civic education are provided with values, skills and principles for informed decision making in the process of national development. Therefore, civic education is very vital in Nigerian educational system, especially at the basic and senior secondary school levels respectively.

It  is  therefore  strongly  believed  that  a  well  articulated  civic  education  or  political education programme is one of the ways of promoting both political literacy and civic consciousness  especially  among  the Nigerian  youths.  However,  it is one  thing  to  introduce certain  curricula  offerings,  it  is  yet  another  altogether  to  find  out  the  extent  the  expected outcomes have  been  achieved. Based on the  foregoing, it is expected  that young people  in Nigeria especially those at the senior secondary school level acquire values which they require for effective citizenship participation in Contemporary political settings in Nigeria.Against this background, this study seek, to find out if there is a relationship between senior secondary school students’ political literacy and civic consciousness level bearing in mind the teaching of civic education  and  other  political  education  related  subjects  at senior  secondary  school  level  in Nsukka education zone, Enugu state.

Presently, extant literature on political literacy and civic consciousness level of senior secondary school students’ underscores the importance  of some differences  probably due  to influence of gender, location and parental occupation and their level of education.(Uko, 2002; Udoh 2000). They further argued that political knowledge, values and attitudes of students could be influenced by some inherent traits in gender, location or even parental occupation and level of education

Gender is an important factor in political literacy and civic consciousness level of students. Gender according to Polland and Morgan (2002) is the socially constructed expectations for male and female behaviors which prescribe a division of labor and responsibilities between males and females.  while  some  research  studies  showed  evidence  of male  superiority  over  females  in responsibilities performance  (Uko, 2002), some others shown  that females perform  better in society  (Daresh&  Male,  2000).  Following  these disagreements  over which  gender  performs

better, this work seeks to contribute in resolving this controversy on gender as it affects student’s performance in the society.

Location is another factor that is suspected in political literacy level and civic consciousness of senior secondary school students. Location is the locality or the setting within which an event takes place; it is a specific position or point in physical space (Merriam- Webster, 2000).it is used to identify a point, School location  is classified into Urban and Rural. There could be variations in educational opportunities in schools due to location. Some places may have enough schools with good facilities, professional teachers while others do not.

Location  related with political literacy level and civic consciousness of senior secondary school students, students whose schools were located in urban areas were more effective  in performing their civic responsibilities and this could be attributed to student’s performance in the society. Ikediugwu (1999) in a study found that location was a strong factor in secondary school student’s performance.Edho (2009) stated that student’s inability to perform their civic duties in the society is one of the constraints that affect the success rate of introduction of civic education in Nigeria. Similarly, Adiodogun (2006) stated that rural areas experience greater challenges in educational development than urban centers, due to the peculiar socio-economic and institutional structure of the rural areas; these probably may have a correlating effect on political literacy and civic consciousness level of the students under study.

The issue of parental occupation has always been a controversial issue in political literacy and civic consciousness level of secondary school students in Nsukka education zone. Parental occupation according to Ogunshola&Adewale, (2012) refers to the main work undertaken by the parents or guardians. It is the job parents do  as parental characteristics  that can predict the educational achievement, health, occupational success, and status attainment etc. of children of

those parents. Both are of the view that the parents occupation  are associated with students performance,  that children  whose parents work as an instructors   have, on  average the best results and perform well. The gap in performance between the children of professionals and other students to be narrow in reading, they involve their children in home assignment instead of allowing  physical/electronics  facilities  like  television,  computer,  and  internet  and  cable  to distract them.

Oladele  cited  in  Hassan  (2005)  stated,  that  parental  occupation  plays  a  crucially important  role in  the dissemination  of education, the status  is based  on  the family income, parents  with  high  socio-economic  status often  are more successful  in  preparing their young children for future because of the access they enjoy to harness resources responsible to promote and support young children’s developments, while families with low socio-economic status often lack the financial, social and educational supports that characterize families with high socio- economic  status.  Poor  families  also  may  have  inadequate  or  limited  access  to  community resources that promote and support children’s school readiness.Parental occupation plays a significant role in the political literacy level of secondary school students, (Odoh, 2000) stated that students whose parents belong to professional occupations generally perform better than students whose parents do not belong to professional occupations tend to underachieve compared to their peers.

The consequence of this anomaly is that most students grope illiterately around in the society, this gives rise to low morale and poor political literacy that affect the society. There is empirical  evidence  of  the  likely  connection  between  these  variables  and  students  political literacy  and  civic  consciousness,  such  as  some  students  in  secondary  whose  parents  are politicians tend to study political science in higher institution in order to be succeeding their

parents in their political position. The relationship may differ depending on the task areas of literacy level of senior secondary students. Therefore, there is need to examine the relationship of these variables with the students in the task areas of political literacy and civic consciousness level of senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone, Enugu state, and the extent to which variables have become factors to the political literacy and civic consciousness in the society.

Statement of the problem

Poor  political  literacy  in  Nigeria  has  manifested  in  different  ways  namely  voter  or political  apathy,  low  level of political  awareness,  poor political  literacy,  political  thuggery; electoral  malpractices  and  so on. Indeed, most of these could be attributed  to  low political literacy or low civic consciousness among the youths. This situation compelled both past and present governments in Nigeria to establish certain politicalmobilization strategies for citizens such as Mass mobilization agency, war against indiscipline and corruption, National Orientation Agency, Teaching of Civic, Government and Social studies as school subjects, etc.In spite of the awareness  being created by Nigerian  governments  through  the above political strategies, the situation still remain uncertain due to some noticeable signs of low political literacy usually manifested in such actions as political thuggery, ballot box snatchingsand cultism among the youths, most of whom are senior secondary school students. Thistrend no doubt necessitated the recent re-introduction of the teaching of civic as a separate school subject from Social studies and  Government  in  a bid  to  improve  the political  literacy and civic  consciousness  level of students in Nigeria. Although these subjects are taught in schools but the possible impact they may have had on political literacy and civic consciousness  level of senior secondary school students are yet to be empirically verified. This study therefore, seeks to ascertain the possible

correlationor relationship between the teaching of political literacy and civic consciousness level of Nigerian senior secondary school students in Nsukka Education zone, Enugu State, Nigeria.

Purpose of the study

The general purpose of the study is to determine the possible relationship between political literacy  and  civic  consciousness  level  of  senior  secondary  school  students  in  Nsukka education zone, Enugu state. Specifically the study sought to:

1.   ascertain  the  political  literacy  level  of  senior  secondary  school  students  in  Nsukka education zone.

2.   find out the civic consciousness level of senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone.

3.   determine the relationship between political literacy and civic consciousness of senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone.

4.   determine how gender could predict political literacy of senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone.

5.   determine  how  gender  could  predict  civic  consciousness  level  of  senior  secondary students in Nsukka education zone.

6.   determine  the relationship between  location  and political literacy of senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone.

7.   determine  the  relationship  between  location  and  civic  consciousness  level  of  senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone.

8.   determine how parental occupations  can predict political  literacy of senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone.

9.   determine  how  parental  occupations  can  predict  civic  consciousness  level  of  senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone

Significance of the study

This study has both theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, the study hinges on the socialization agents’ theory. The theory emphasizes that political interest and exposure indicate  a  separate  political  involvement  construct.  The  importance  of socialization  agents’ theory  is  that  it  narrows  down  knowledge  of  basic  political  concepts  and  facts  in  senior secondary schools.Student’scivic consciousness level will be predicted and will also be significantly influenced by political literacy alignment with socialization agents’ theory.

The benefits  that  shall  accrue  from  this  study  are  many;especiallystudents,  teachers, government and non-governmental organization will all benefit from this study.

Students will benefit from the findings of this study because the teaching pf political literacy content in schools will help to increase their civic consciousness level in school and in society at large.

Teachers  will  benefit  from  this  study  when  their  employers  are  abreast  with  the knowledge  of these  findings of study,  by being more  responsible  in providing  instructional materials for teaching political literacy contents and other benefit which will strengthen their civic consciousness.

Government will be well informed with understanding that being the employers of the teachers,  they  need  to  provide  the  necessary  things  that  are  needed  by  teachers,  organize seminars and workshops for teachers that will support their already appropriate teaching methods in teaching political literacy content. It will also help the government to achieve the objectives of introduction of civic education as stated on civic education curriculum.

Non-governmental will benefit in that of development, greater output will come from students because of the knowledge inculcated in them to the growth of society.

Scope of the study

The study was carried out in senior secondary schools in Nsukka education zone, Enugu state. It focusedprimarily on political literacy and civic consciousness levelof senior secondary school students. The  scope contents  therefore  focused  on  political  literacy and  civic  consciousness which  resonate  with  some  of the  common  themes  in  subjects  such  as  social  studies,  civic education  and  Government  respectively.  These  themes  include  national  values,  citizenship, national consciousness and identity, Nigerian constitution, human rights, rule of law, capitalist democracy,  Nigerian  constitution,  duties  and  obligations  of  citizens,  popular  participation, political apathy, peace and conflicts respectively (Nigerian Educational Research Development Council, 2008) p. vi-vii. These themes are vital to effective acquisition of political literacy skills and corresponding development of civic consciousness among senior secondary school students.

Research questions

The following research questions guided the study:

1.   What  is  the  political  literacy  level  of  senior  secondary  school  students  in  Nsukka education zone?

2.   What is the civic consciousness level of senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone?

3.   What is the relationship between political literacy and civic consciousnesses of senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone?

4.   What is the influence of gender on political literacy of senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone?

5.   What is the influence of gender on civic consciousness level of senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone?

6.   What is the influence of location on political literacyof senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone?

7.   What is the influence of location civic consciousness level of senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone?

8.   What is the influence of parental occupation on political literacy levelof senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone?

9.   What  is  the  influence  of  parental  occupation  oncivic  consciousness  level  of  senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone?

Hypotheses

The following hypotheseswere testedat 0.05 level of significance:

Hoi:  There  is  no  statistically  significant  relationship  between  political  literacy and  civic consciousness level of senior secondary school students.

HOii:  There  is  no  statistically  significant  difference  between  political  literacy  of senior secondary school students in urban and rural areas of Nsukka education zone.

HOiii: There is no statistically significant difference between civic consciousness level of senior secondary school students in urban and rural areas of Nsukka education zone.

HOiv:There  is no statistically significant difference  between  political literacyof male  and female senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone.HOv: There is no statistically significant difference between civic consciousness level of male and female senior secondary school students in Nsukka education zone.

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