CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Education has played a critical role in the survival of individuals and civilizations in all human communities, past and present. A well-planned and well-directed education may gauge a country’s growth capability. As a result, education is seen as a behavioral attribute. It has an impact on one’s talents, attitudes, beliefs, reasoning ability, knowledge, and any other form that helps one to adjust and interact successfully with others. The development of talents allows an individual and a community to grow toward the fulfillment of the individual’s destiny.
Financial accounting as one of the subject taught in Nigeria senior secondary education is based on principles that may be presented using basic teaching materials. The introduction of Financial Accounting in the Senior Secondary School Curriculum intends to expand on the work done in Book-keeping at the Junior Secondary School while also providing the teacher with a framework within which to teach. According to WAEC (2004), bookkeeping and financial accounting are the most popular occupational optional subjects offered by students, making the use of instructional materials vital in any interaction aimed to promote learning. There should be no excuses or justifications for instructors not using educational media. In general, instructional materials are tools used to promote successful teaching and learning. They are used to promote successful communication in order to give the fullest possible teaching learning interaction between the teacher and learners.
According to Franzer, Okebukola, and Jegede (2002), no matter how well-prepared a professionally trained scientific teacher is, he or she will be unable to implement his or her ideas if the educational environment lacks the necessary equipment and instruments. In order to impart instructions, instructional materials act as a conduit between the teacher and the pupils. They may also be used to motivate students throughout the teaching-learning process. It is used to keep kids’ attention and avoid boredom. Teaching resources are extremely crucial, especially for inexperienced teachers. In every element of teaching, teachers rely on instructional resources. They require content to provide context for the subject they are teaching. When new instructors enter the classroom, they typically do not have a foundation of knowledge. Teachers frequently utilize instructional materials to design lessons. These resources are also required by teachers in order to test their pupils’ knowledge. Teachers frequently evaluate pupils by assigning assignments, developing projects, and delivering tests. All of these activities require instructional materials.
According to Asaba (1990), teaching materials are valuable instruments that allow students to see, hear, identify, and enjoy as they learn, employing almost all five sense modalities at the same time. According to Ehiemetator (1990), in the developed world, Financial Accounting theory and practice must first achieve its apex before sufficient textbooks and associated workbooks can be established to ease the teaching and learning of the subject. Adeyanju (1991) defines instructional materials as “information-carrying technology utilized for instructional purposes with the goal of conveying educational information extremely fast and extensively.
Unfortunately, the students in Nigerian are less privileged since most Financial Accounting textbooks and some of the text books are written to meet the needs of the students of develop country. It is a common practice for people to forget instructions easily within a relatively short time. Howbeit, when teaching aids are well chosen and used appropriately the following values are enhanced in learning.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
It has been noticed that some teachers believe that teaching materials have little or no impact on students’ academic achievement in Financial Accounting. As a result, some teachers who should take educational materials seriously believe it is a waste of time. Because of this mindset and erroneous thinking, the use of instructional resources for teaching and learning Financial Accounting has been overlooked. At the same time, not all instructors who are required to employ instructional resources in their classrooms are able to do so for a variety of reasons. Teachers have either lost interest in or ignored instructional resources for teaching Financial Accounting as a result of the aforementioned and other issues. According to Obioha (2006) and Ogunleye (2002), there are insufficient resources in Nigerian secondary schools to teach financial accounting concepts. They went on to claim that most of the ones that are available are in bad condition. Other issues that have been identified in the teaching and learning of Financial Accounting in Senior Secondary Schools: which includes: inadequately qualified instructors in the educational system. Some schools have a shortage of qualified instructors. Inadequate government financing Inadequate time allocation on the timetable for the Financial Accounting cluster of disciplines. Therefore is upon this premise that this study seeks to critically  assess the availability and utilization of instructional aids in the teaching and learning of financial accounting in secondary schools
