PERCEIVED IMPACTS OF SCIENCE EDUCATION ON ECONOMIC RECESSION IN OYO TOWNSHIP

Economic recession strongly impacted on lifestyles and the generally living conditions of the citizens of the recessed economy. It leads inflation, increase in food prices, low budgetary allocation for education and general negative effects on societal development. Science education was found to be pivotal to the individual and national development. Thus, this paper investigated the perceived impacts of science education on economic recession in Oyo township. Two research questions and five null-hypotheses guided the study. A descriptive type of survey design was adopted for the study, sampled randomly 400 participants from the four local government areas of the state using a validated instrument titled: Perceived Impacts of Science Education on Economic Recession Questionnaire, PISERQ (r=.75). Simple frequency counts and percentages, t-test and ANOVA were used for data analysis. The results indicated that there are 294 male, 46 15-26 years age- group, 93 NCE and below educational qualification and 235 civil servants among the respondents., significant perceived impact of science education on economic recession (t= 133.05; df= 399; p<.05). The perception index was not beclouded by gender, age-group and occupation type while the respondents’ educational qualification significantly influenced the index (F(2,237)= 6.93; p<.05). It was therefore recommended that science education should be made available to all irrespective of gender, age-group and occupation type., organization of seminars, conferences and workshops sponsored by Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) as avenue to hike people’s perception of science education in unraveling economic recession in Nigeria.