ABSTRACT

The study is a descriptive survey on evaluation of implementation of English language studies curriculum at the lower basic of public and private schools in Abia State, and it was guided by six research questions and six null hypotheses. A sample of 320 teachers was drawn from a population of 1599 made up of 610 public and 989 private lower basic English language studies teachers in 1,223 government approved public and private schools in Abia State. The sample size was determined using Taro Yamen's formula for estimating sample frame. The instrument for data collection was a researcher designed questionnaires, validated by three experts, two from curriculum and instruction and one from measurement and evaluation. Reliability index of 0.87 was established using Cronbach Alpha statistics. Data were collected through the administration of 320 copies of the research questionnaires 304 were completely filled and returned. This represents 95% returned rate. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research question posed, while t-test statistics was used to test the six null hypotheses formulated at 0.05% level of significance. The findings revealed that public schools have higher perception on the content adequacy of English language studies curriculum. Private schools were found to have few qualified teachers; however it was revealed that private school teachers make better use of teaching materials than their public school counterpart. The study recommend that ministry of education should be encouraged private schools proprietors to employ qualified teachers to teach English Language studies at lower basic education. Equally teachers should be encouraged to use recommended teaching methods and teaching materials during teaching.