CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

 Background of the study

One of the fundamental rights for every human being is education.  Education prepares the individual for changes in life.

Consequently Gujjar, Khan, Baig, Ramzan, and Saifi (2010) opined that education does not only deliver information but for developing complete personality of the child.

In Nigeria there are three levels of education; primary, secondary, tertiary level. Secondary education is the level between primary and tertiary education.  It equally prepares students to be productive members of the society (Jegede and Owolabi, 2003).  In developed countries, secondary school is seen as the gateway to providing not only citizens but also a capable workforce.

According to the world bank in etim (2006), secondary education is now being recognized as the cornerstone of educational system in the 21st century.  It is therefore means that quality secondary education is indispensible in creating a bright future for individuals and nations alike.

Economics is one of the subjects in secondary schools.  It is an important subject that is being taught in the secondary schools. Economics is important both to the students and the society at large because it cuts across all spheres of human endeavors.

    Professor lord Robbins, 1932 defined economics as a science that studies human behaviors as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.  The above definition is widely accepted by the generality of economics and the main fundamental problems of man wants, scarcity, choice, exchange and opportunity cost.

       Economics according to Horny, 1973, is the study of production and distribution of money and goods of a country.  It is the study of how the people of the society choose to use their limited resources like land, capital, labor, goods and technical knowledge to provide various goods and services for the consumption of the people in the society.

Economics is relevant to the field of science and art.  It enables the individual to think in the sense that he or she is able to apply its principles to solve practical problems and avoid unnecessary cost mistakes; it enables the individual to understand better relationship between himself and his fellow human beings in his effort to make a living.

Notwithstanding, it has been observed that there are many problems militating against teaching and learning of economics in secondary schools as enumerated by many writers on problems of economics in Nigeria. They attributed that the high level of failures in economics to lack of students concentrations in the classroom, their view steamed from observed students performance in economics.  Thus, observed failure could be as a result of inability of the students to understand economics terms of lack of finance to buy relevant textbooks, inadequate teachers, inability of the students to interpret economics tables and graphs, inappropriate and ineffective method of teaching, lack of control over the students attitudes and teachers attitudes and others which have contributed to the low level of teaching economics in secondary schools.

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