Abstract
The study was designed to investigate the factors affecting retention of students in Electrical Installation and Maintenance Works Trade (EIMWT) in Technical Colleges in North East, Nigeria. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. A descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The population for the study was all the students and EIMWT teachers in all the Technical Colleges in the North East. Purposive sampling was employed to sample 11 Science and Technical Colleges from the existing 28 Technical Colleges in the North East Nigeria which gave a population of 338 made up 44 teachers and 294 students. The instrument used for data collection was structured questionnaire containing 60 items, name “Questionnaire for Improving Retention of Students in Electrical Installation and Maintenance Works Trade in Technical Colleges (QIRSEIMWTTC) in North- East Nigeria. The instrument was validated by three experts in the Department of Electrical Technology Education ModibboAdama University of Technology, Yola and trial-tested on 4 teachers and 26 students totaling of 30 respondents at Government Technical College Kano. Cronbach Alpha formular was used to determine reliability co-efficient of the instrument which was found to be 0.997. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while the t-test was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of confidence. Findings of thestudy revealed among others that; lack of public enlightenment on the prospects of EIMWT, poor public perception of EIMWT, Lack of guidance and counseling service, wrong notion in the society that EIMWT is meant only for less privilege, lack of educational facilities such as Computer, library, books, standard workshop, Students level of proficiency in reading, writing and mathematics, affect student retention in technical colleges EIMWT programmes. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that: career guidance service should be provided in technical colleges, parents should develop interest and enroll their children in EIMWT, teachers should possess the necessary skills needed for training their students, workshop facilities should be upgraded to acceptable standards, In view of the above, it is believed that these strategies could improve students’ retention of students in EIMWT in technical colleges and this, could lead to the production of adequate number of manpower required to turn the nations’ economy around and usher in the desired technological advancement which is very much required for the elevation of Nigeria from a “consumer nation” to a “producer nation”, from a “developing nation” to a developed nation”.