Assessment of the Decline of Geography as a School Subject at Senior Secondary School Level in Kenema City, Eastern Sierra Leone

Geography was one of the major subjects offered in Sierra Leonean schools in the 1980s but has seen a downward turn in most of the schools in the country in the recent past. Educationist has raised some concerns in recent times over the declining interest of academics (geographers) and the negative impacts it would have on the quality of geography taught in schools. This article assess the decline of geography as a school subject at Senior Secondary schools in Eastern Sierra Leone. The objective is to assess pupil's perception and teachers, school administrators and inspectors' perception on the decline of geography as a school subject in Senior Secondary School (SSS) in Kenema City, Eastern Sierra Leone. The study community was selected by purposive sampling because there were many SSS offering geography either as compulsory or elective. The respondents were selected by simple random sampling. Five (5) SSS were selected and from each school fifteen (15) pupils offering geography were selected which totals seventy-five (75) pupils. They form the respondents of this study. They responded to the first objective. Fifteen geography teachers were also sampled, three (3) from each school, three (3) school administrators and two (2) inspectors of schools who were supervising teachers from the selected schools. In total, twenty (20) respondents were also selected to respond to the second objective. They form the discussion forum. Results reveal that, geography as a school subject is declining speedily in the selected schools due to reasons ranging from inappropriate use of teaching methods to the attitude of geography teachers skipping challenging topics according to the pupils. On the part of geography teachers, school administrators and inspectors, reasons for the decline of geography as a school subject ranges from the curriculum delimiting geography as an elective to its integration into Social Studies as a component. It is concluded that the decline of geography in SSS is been attributed to curriculum changes over the decades, lack of fieldwork, exclusion of surveying and GIS in the curriculum. It is therefore recommended that in-service training be conducted for geography teachers in areas bordering around map work, field work, improvisation of instructional materials, teaching methodology, GIS etc