Basic Accounting Education: A Necessity for All (Published)
The paper examined the extent to which Accounting Education is taught to public secondary school students in Akwa Ibom State. The survey research design was adopted for the study. The population consisted of all SS1 students in Public Secondary Schools in Akwa Ibom State, totaling 2493 (1392 males and 1101 females). The cluster sampling technique was used in selecting 249 (136 males and 113 females) students as sample for the study. Data collection was done with a researcher-developed instrument tagged “Basic Accounting Education Questionnaire” (BAEQ). The instrument, which had 10 items, was duly validated and tested for reliability using the Cronbach alpha formula. Data analysis was done using the independent t-test. The result indicated no significant difference in the mean responses of the two groups of respondents regarding the poor status of Accounting education and dearth of accounting teachers in public secondary schools in the state. On the basis of this, it was concluded that Accounting Education is not given adequate attention in public secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State. The teaching of Accounting Education at the secondary school level in Akwa Ibom State is impeded by dearth of qualified teachers and teaching aids. It was recommended, among other things, that bookkeeping and financial accounting should be made a core and compulsory subjects at both the junior and senior secondary school levels in the state.
Keywords: Accounting, Akwa Ibom, Education, Public Secondary Schools, basic