GENDER REPRESENTATION IN CHEMISTRY EDUCATION IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANKPA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, KOGI STATE

This study is designed to examine gender representation in Chemistry education in ten selected secondary schools in Ankpa Local Government Area, Kogi State. The research design for this study is an expo- facto which involved the use of already existing data on the 27,756 chemistry students in Senior Secondary Schools (SSS) I-III and 165 Chemistry teachers in all secondary schools in Ankpa Local Area of Kogi State. A sample of 4,514 students' enrolment, 1,094 students that sat for chemistry in WAEC, 1,001 students that sat for Chemistry in NECO, all for five consecutive academic sessions (from 2016/2017 to 2021/2022) and 15 Chemistry teachers as at 2022 in ten (10) randomly sampled coeducational secondary schools in the study area. Four research questions guided this study. Descriptive statistics such as frequency counts and percentage were employed for data analysis. The results of this study revealed that male enrolment and achievement tend to outshoot the females in Chemistry education for the period studied. In addition, female Chemistry teachers are under-represented in secondary schools studied. The implication of this study is that the under representation of females has definitely given birth to meagre number of Chemistry teachers who could have served as role models. It is recommended that government and other non-government organizations should undertake a more vigorous enlightenment campaigns to disabuse the minds of females from accepting that they are less intelligent than their male counterparts.