Analysis of the Performance Objectives of Nigerian Higher National Diploma Building Technology Curriculum

Abstract

Polytechnics produce technical manpower in various technical and professional disciplines to make nations self-sufficient through efficient man power planning, and optimum utilization and management of resources (Awere, Edu-Buandoh, Dadzie, and Aboagye, 2016). Building construction programme in polytechnics supplies manpower to the various sectors of the economy, notably the construction industries. But documented evidences show that the Nigerian graduates of this programme do not meet up to the requirements of the construction industries regarding the attainment of effective occupational competences (Onwuka,2009). Consequently, this study analyzed the performance objectives of the HND Building Technology curriculum to establish the sufficiency of the occupational competencies. We generated the data from the curriculum using content analysis and analyzed it with the help of descriptive statistics. Results show that the performance objectives tilted towards cognitive domain with 88.87%. Psychomotor and affective domains were rarely represented in the curriculum with 9.68% and 6.45% respectively. The findings provide curriculum developers with information regarding the inadequacy of basic occupational competences in the Building Technology curriculum for consideration in the event of curriculum review. This study opens the stage of analyzing the content of curriculum of various courses at HND level in Nigerian polytechnic, with a view to identifying the satisfactoriness of the occupational competence therein.