Abstract

Co-curricular activities are activities that provide students with an opportunity to integrate skills acquired with actual experience. It is a means through which students assume responsible positions of leadership thereby developing skills that will help them cope with the increasing pace and change of modern life.

The study was guided by Erikson’s psychosocial development and Albert Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory. It reflects in part his psychoanalytic training, but, it embraces society’s influence and the social aspects of development to a much larger extent the objective was to find out by investigating the effects of co-curricular activities and life skills development, three hypotheses were formulated based on athletics, school clubs and debate competition.

Using a proportionate sampling technique, quantitative data were generated from the administration of questionnaires to 300 students in form 3 and form 4, from three randomly selected schools in Fako Division.

Spearman’s Rank Correlation was used to analyze data. The findings revealed that there is a significant effect of co-curricular activities and life skills development on adolescent students. It was therefore recommended that teachers and stakeholders should often incite their children with knowledge on the importance of acquiring skills and developing them in school.

The study concluded that, although co-curricular activities have a significant effect on life skills development in adolescent students. It is evident from the findings that students are highly involved in school curricular activities taking into consideration that there are a variety of these activities which enables students to acquire different skills from different activities such as athletics, debate competition. Therefore, school authorities should often sensitize students on the importance of participating in co-curricular activities.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

This chapter focuses on the background to the study, statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, research objectives, research questions, hypotheses, and significance of the study, the scope of the study as well as an operational definition of terms.

Background to the Study

Co-curricular activities play an important role in today’s secondary education programs (Holland & Andre, 1987). When one considers a large number of activities available, one realizes the diversity of the programs. Included are athletics, publications, student government, fine arts, academic clubs, service organizations, and special interest activities.

The function of education is to bring change in child behavior and personality in a more desirable form. These are also recognized as a source of enrichment and vitalization of the school’s curriculum, mainly through the cultivation of hobbies, interests, etc. these activities are no longer looked upon as extras but as an integral part of the school program.

The distinction between curricular and extracurricular is gradually disappearing in modern educational practice and the coordination and integration of all the experiences of the pupils’ intellectual, social, moral, emotional, and physical abilities have become the object of the persistent efforts of the school.

Co-curricular activities, as the name implies, are those, not directly related to the prescribed curriculum and include; sports, athletics, scouting, cubing, various hobbies, excursions literary societies, dramatics, debates, etc. to bring social and physical development in the child. The basic idea behind such activities in educational institutions is the building up of the student character and personality as well as training of their mind that may help/facilitate academic achievement and life skills development in the child.

Co-curricular activities, previously known as Extracurricular Activities are activities that educational organizations in some parts of the world create for school students. They are activities which all school students must attend alongside. The aim of curricular activities is to make the students fit for the future time and to develop a sense of competitive spirit, co-operation, leadership, diligence, punctuality, team- spirit as well as to provide a backdrop for the development of their creative talents.

Additional activities for school students are a means to enhance social interaction, leadership, healthy recreation, self-discipline, and self-confidence. Competitions may also be organized to create a competitive environment and groups with an objective to work towards a better society and the world as well.

Despite the lack of a precise term, co-curricular activities seem more student-centered than regular classes. In co-curricular activities, students assume responsible positions of leadership; students’ spontaneous interests and immediate needs determine affiliations and experiences; and the teacher-supervisor is often a mentor or guide rather than an instructor (Stevens, 1999).

Since recognized co-curricular activities under the supervision of an institution can take place in both regular class time and after school, they provide students with the opportunity to integrate skills acquired with actual experience (Scales &Taccogna, 2000).

Although schools are concerned with the students’ sufficient development in both academic and social aspects, somehow more attention has been given to their academic performance. This has been reflected in numerous researches in the past ten years, which found that co-curricular activities played an important role in students’ academic success (Chambers & Schreiber, 2004; Huang & Chang, 2004; Hunt, 2005; Stephens &Schaben, 2002; Tan & Pope, 2007).

Co-curricular activities exist at all levels of education, from primary, secondary-higher secondary school, college, and university education. These activities are compulsory in some institutions while in others it’s voluntary. Where these are compulsory all students must participate in them alongside the standard study curriculum.

At higher levels of education student participations generally include academic points in lieu of the efforts put by a student in a particular activity. These are held outside standard curriculum hours and the activities partaken depend on the nature of the institute and occasion. Today these activities have become more profound than ever before.

Most of the institutes highlight them as a crucial advertising factor in their prospectus or advertisements in order to attract parent-students attention. Though not all of these activities may pursue with great enthusiasm these are however popular and leave a lifelong lasting experience for most.

These activities are not examined in the same way that the academic curriculum is, and because most of them take place outside lessons, such activities have less status in education than the main curriculum. However, they are often held to be very important to the wider education of young men and women.

Two positions appear to be prevalent in today’s academic community. These are referred to as either the academic or developmental perspective. The academic perspective considers co-curricular activities as pure leisure and not part of the purpose of schools. The developmental perspective considers co-curricular activities necessary to the total development of the student in today’s schools (Holland & Andre, 1987).

Educators who believe in the academic perspective argue that time spent away from the classroom decreases the student’s chances for success. Even those activities that don’t require loss of classroom time are perceived to take away study time. These educators support cutting or eliminating activities for budgetary reasons.

Educators who believe in the developmental perspective see activities as an extension of the educational program. Activities allow students to develop skills such as leadership, sportsmanship, self-discipline, self-confidence, and the ability to handle competitive situations. Co-curricular activities offer an opportunity to interact in ways that allow the previously mentioned skills to blossom. The developmental-minded believe that many of these skills would be impossible or very difficult to develop in a classroom setting.

Marsh (1992) stated

According to different theoretical perspectives, extracurricular activity participation may be posited to;

(a) Divert attention from academic pursuits, as evidenced by its negative effects on narrowly defined academic goals;

(b) Have little or no effect on academic outcomes but contribute to desirable non-academic outcome

(c) Have positive effects on nonacademic outcomes and facilitate academic growth, perhaps indirectly, as well. (p. 553)

The theoretical orientation of this study will be based on Bandura’s (1977) Social Learning Theory and Erik Erikson’s (1950) theory of psychosocial development.

Bandura (1977) emphasized that children are essential actors and agents in their own learning and behavior as they model, observe and duplicate responses to a social situation.

Erikson (1950) saw development as a passage through a series of stages, each with its particular goals, concerns, dangers, and accomplishments. Accomplishments at later stages depend on how conflicts are resolved at earlier stages, and for Erikson, it is important to resolve these crises, especially earlier on in life.

Statement of the Problem

There are questions that are generally raised by students, parents, teachers, and schools on how co-curricular activities help in education. The adolescence stage is a period of turmoil and restlessness, where the energy of children has to be tapped before it’s used on unproductive works. In a constantly changing environment, having life skills is an essential part of being able to meet the challenges of everyday life.

To cope with the increasing pace and change of modern life, students need new life skills such as negotiation skills and creative thinking skills. There are a number of students at the adolescent stage of development who do not show enthusiasm towards co-curricular activities. The school administration often pays less attention to students’ involvement in co-curricular activities. Appropriate playground or space is also a constraint to most schools.

Teachers are also not well versed in organizing different activities. In the modern education system, students are loaded with homework, so get less time to engage in co-curricular activities. Some parents also show their disinterest in these activities. If these activities are not implemented suitably, the students will be unable to harness their benefits to the fullest. It is against this backdrop that the researcher set to carry out a study on co-curricular activities and their influence on life skills development in students.

Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to find out the influence of co-curricular activities on life skills development in adolescent students.

Specific Objectives

This study is specifically aimed at:

1. Exploring the extent to which athletics influence life skills development in adolescent students.
2. Finding out the extent to which school clubs influence life skills development in adolescent students.
3. Investigating the extent to which debate competition influences life skill development in adolescent students.