Secondary School Students' Attitude towards Arabic Components of Islamic Studies in Kwara and Oyo States of Nigeria

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the attitude of students towards Arabic components of the senior secondary schools (SSS) Islamic Studies Curriculum in Kwara and Oyo States of Nigeria. Descriptive method was adopted for the study. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 400 students from eight Senior Secondary Schools in the areas covered by the study. A questionnaire developed by the researcher was used to collect data. One null hypothesis was tested using chi-square statistics at 0.05 level of significance. It was found that students' attitude towards Arabic components of the senior secondary schools (SSS) Islamic Studies Curriculum in Kwara and Oyo States of Nigeria was generally negative. However, there was a significant difference in the attitudes of male and female students (X 2 =6.11). It was therefore concluded that gender may influence students' attitude towards Arabic aspects of the SSS Islamic Studies Curriculum. Based on these findings, it was recommended that both male and female students should be enlightened on the fact that Islamic Studies is for all and the knowledge of Arabic boosts one's competence in Islamic Studies. Female students should be enlightened and motivated to change their attitude towards learning Islamic Studies by provision of incentives through Qur'anic competition and scholarship awards.