Challenges of Enrolment in Technology Education in Nigeria: A Focus on Technical and Vocational Education Program in Colleges of Education

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges of enrollment in technology education in Nigeria with a particular focus on technical and vocational education (TVE) program being offered in colleges of education. A qualitative approach was applied to elucidate the views of the participants (administrators, teachers, and students in TVE). Purposive sampling technique was used to select six participants comprising 2 administrators, 2 teachers, and 2 students in TVE from colleges of education within the North Central Region of Nigeria. A semi-structured interview was used data gathering and constant comparative was used to analyze the data. The findings of the study indicated that personal interest, entry qualification, gender, age and economic status are the individual-related challenges of enrollment in TVE program. The participants identified family influence, economic status, peer group influence, public attitude towards TVE as societal-related challenges. Admission policy, capacity of training facilities, availability of instructional personnel, tuition and others charges are among the institutional-related challenges of enrollment in TVE program according to the participants. Governmental-related challenges were also found to include policies, funding, supervision, and evaluation of program. The study concluded by calling all the stakeholders in education especially TVE to be more committed their responsibilities so that, the challenges of enrollment in TVE program in colleges of education in Nigeria can be tackled individually and collectively.