Challenges of Teaching Literature-in-English in Secondary Schools in Borno and Yobe, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper investigates challenges of teaching Literature-in-English in secondary schools within Yobe and Borno states in north-eastern Nigeria, and the impact this has on university admission requirements. A core requisite for admissions into B.A English and LL.B. in all Nigerian universities is an O’ level credit pass in SSCE or its equivalent in Literature-in-English. This poses a major challenge to many candidates from Yobe and Borno States due to either the non-teaching or the inability of the students to pass with the required credit in the end of secondary school examinations. Adopting a mixed-method approach, the paper investigates reasons that bring about these problems within the period 2009 – 2019. Quantitative and qualitative approaches, through questionnaires and interviews, and Consensus Workshop, through Focus Group Discussion (FGD), were adopted to gather the data. The paper finds and concludes that socio-cultural factors, unavailability of effective and specialist teachers and gender issues were the major reasons for the non-teaching of the subject and the failure of students in public secondary schools to pass with credit in the two states. The paper recommends amenable measures to be taken to address these problems and challenges.