Teaching Law Courses in Nigerian Polytechnics: Challenges and Improvement Strategies for Non-law Students

Abstract

The paper examined the teaching of Law to non-law students in the Department of Accountancy,
Building Technology, Business Administration and Management, Banking and Finance,
Purchasing and Supply, Quantity Surveying, Office Technology and Management in Nigerian
Polytechnics. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study.
Purposive sampling technique was used to 500 students out of 1384 students drawn from five
Polytechnics in the South-East geopolitical zone were used for the study. A 226-item questionnaire
of 4-point rating scale was used to gather data. face validity of the instrument was assessed by
three research experts, and the reliability of the instrument was ascertained using Cronbach Alpha
coefficient which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.96. mean and standard deviation were used
to answer research questions while the hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance using
independent t-test for data analysis. The findings of the study revealed that non-law students in
Nigerian Polytechnics are inadequately exposed to the Nigerian legal system set up by National
Board for Technical Education. The study recommended that provision of adequate instructional
resources, classrooms and facilities, funding for in-service training, employment of qualified and
experience lecturers are the best strategies to eliminate the challenges facing non-law students’
exposure to the Nigerian legal system in Nigerian Polytechnics in South-East geopolitical zone