Lack of Adequately Equipped Biology Laboratories in Secondary Schools

Lack of Adequately Equipped Biology Laboratories in Secondary Schools  

          With unnumbered botanical (for plants) and scientific (for animals) names, chemical transactions and transformations and biotic and abiotic intra and inter-relations, biology will only amount to boredom if there are no well equipped laboratories to perform experiments which will internalize the principles and practices of the subjects. Bad enough, there are no laboratories in many secondary schools, while the available ones are poorly equipped or mismanaged. This is a serious set-back to the teaching of biology.

          Okeh (2008) argued that science subjects are not to be taught outside laboratories. He further declared that the out-of- laboratory teaching of biology is the chief cause of biology students inadequacies in the art of instrumentation and their poor performance in biology examinations.

          Every tradesman uses tools. A teacher is a worker like the farmer. He uses his own brand of tools which are instructional materials.

          According to Nwokolo (2005), instructional materials are those materials employed by a teacher to improve the effectiveness of instruction. The materials helps to maximize teaching and learning because to appeal to a variety of senses. They could be visual aids, auditory aids, audio-visual materials and stimulation devices. The biochemical changes that occur in biology laboratories also comes with notable sensory effects that are identifiable and so improve students’ understanding, assimilation retention and consequent reproduction of whatever has been instructed.

          However, the availability, technicality and willingness of biology teachers, science laboratory technicians and assistants and laboratory attendants and even laboratory equipment are grossly inadequate. This is a minus to effective teaching and learning of biology and the achievement of the subject in a broader view.

          Imoh (2006) complained that some untrained teachers who are engaged to teach in our schools and colleges cannot use instructional materials and laboratory instruments properly. Some of them think that they are more time consuming owing to their ignorance, they do not appreciate the place of gadgets in learning.

          WAEC chief examiners report 2001, 2002,2003) on the failure of biology candidates is due to the fact that there are no laboratories for teaching through participatory demonstration of biology. These show that lack of adequately equipped biology laboratories contribute to in-effective teaching of biology and students poor performance in its examinations.