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Assessment of Senior Secondary School Students’ Interest and Ability for Stem
Content and Career.

In light of a looming security crisis in Nigeria, the issue of decline in the number of professionals entering the
field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) should be addressed. Reports from
research have shown that increase in the number of these professionals is among the pathways to national
development and capable national security. One of the ways this could be achieved is to ensure that high level
of interest, ability, and value among students who are potential professionals in these fields is attained.
Herewith, this study sought to assess students‟ interest, ability, and value for STEM content and career. The
study adopted a descriptive survey research design. Four research questions were posed for the study. The
population for the study comprised all senior secondary school two (SS2) science students in all government
secondary schools in Enugu education zone. A sample of three hundred and twenty five (325) senior secondary
two science students was used for the study. The instrument for data collection was STEM Content and Career
Instrument Survey (STEM-CCIS) adapted from Tyler-Wood, Knezek, & Christensen (2010) with reliability index
of 0.75 using Cronbach‟s alpha method. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The
findings of the study reveal that students show high level of interest in STEM content and career. It was also
revealed that students attached high value to STEM career. However, low STEM content ability was displayed
by the students. The implication is that the number of workforce or human capital may increase in this century
and the next. Also, lives and economy could be improved which consequently translate to protection from threat
to all elements of national security. It was suggested in the study that students are to be taught STEM lessons
with new and improved pedagogical approaches to improve content ability of students in STEM.