ABSTRACT

 The Senior Secondary School (SSS) chemistry curriculum has been in use in the Nigeria sec?n ary school system for the past years. Over these years, the performances of ents in chemistry in acquiring entrepreneurial skills have been persistently low. arious techniques have been used to solve this problem but have not yielded the desired result. In order to achieve the objectives of the curriculum, the curriculum planners emphasized the use ofthe learners centred and practical based method in the teaching and learning process and the adequate provision ofhuman and non-human resources to effectively implement the curriculum. This study therefore evaluated the Nigerian Senior Secondary School (SSS) chemistry curriculum in terms ofwhether it is adequate for acquisition of entrepreneurial skills in Ukanafun local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. The study adopted a descriptive design survey design. The sample comprised of 80 SS2 chemistry students and 4 chemistry teachers drawn from the secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State. Random sampling was used to select 20% Of the students and teachers which is 84 from the secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. One instrument was used for data collection viz: Entrepreneurial Skill Acquisition Questionnaire (ESAQ). Data were analysed using mean, standard deviation and chisquare statistics for the research questions and testing the hypotheses. The findings revealed that the teachers perceived the contents ofthe SSS chemistry curriculum to be relevant. However, the teachers perceived that the content of the SSS chemistry curriculum were not adequate. From the findings the content was overloaded, and had some difficult concepts. Also, that the content was too wide with much theoretical work which had made it difficult to be covered within the stipulated period of time. The findings also .identified some constraints that affected the effective implementation of the SSS chemistry curriculum, Teachers were mostly using the conventional method of teaching instead ofthe recommended leamers-centred and practical based method fbr the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills among secondary school students. The schools studied had no adequate facilities and resources. The achievement ofthe students in the sampled schools was low. It was recommended that government should employ more qualified chemistry teachers and science laboratory technologists. The existing chemistry teachers and chemistry laboratory assistants should be trained and re- trained. Teachers should use the recommended teaching method such as practical based methods and problem-solving in the teaching and learning process.