Abstract
This study was conducted to determine how to improve the quality of trade/entrepreneurial subjects in
secondary schools to address the pervasive mediocrity and unemployment among Nigerian youths.
To achieve this, the study adopted descriptive survey research design. Three research questions
were formulated to guide the study. The population of the study was 147 made up of 63
administrators from the Federal and the State Ministries of Education and 84 trade/entrepreneurial
subjects‟ teachers in secondary schools in the South-west, South-east and South-south geo-political
zones of Nigeria. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire based on fivepoint
Likert scale. The instrument was validated by three experts and Cronbach Alpha was used to
establish the internal consistency which yielded a coefficient of 0.79. The data collected were
analysed using mean values. A mean of 3.5 and above were accepted while any mean less than 3.5
was rejected. The findings of the study revealed that to improve the quality of trade/entrepreneurial
subjectsin secondary schools; there is the need for enhancement in the implementation. This will
foster steady economic growth and drastically reduce unemployment such that every graduating
student would have a trade to do even if the individual could not further in educational career
engagement. It was recommended that government should increase funding of the programme,
provide basic facilities, provide incentives to encourage entrepreneurs and ensure regular evaluation
and improvement of trade/entrepreneurship programme.
Keywords: Secondary school, Mediocrity, Unemployment, Trade/Entrepreneurship,
Implementation, Nigerian Youths
Publication Date: 2018-06-09