Typology and Preventive Strategies of Accident in Technical College Workshops in Kwara and Kogi States

Abstract

This study investigated the typology and preventive strategies of accidents in technical college workshops in Kwara and Kogi States. Three research questions were posed and two hypotheses were formulated for the study. A descriptive research design was employed. The area of the study was Kwara and Kogi states. A total of 793 technical teachers made up the population of the study, while stratified random sampling was used to select the sample which was 397. Research instrument was a questionnaire named ‘Questionnaire on Typology and Preventive Strategies of Accidents in Technical College Workshop (QTPSATCW)’. Three experts validated the instrument and a reliability test using Cronbach Alpha method yielded 0.92. Mean rating was used to answer the research questions while z-test at 0.05 level of significance was used to test the hypotheses. The findings among others revealed that cuts from sharp objects, scratches, crushing of the toe or heel by objects, piercing of foot or hand by sharp objects, eye injury, hitting/cutting of the finger with tools, burns from hot objects (e.g. oven, forge), fall from height and electric shock are some of the types of accidents that could occur in technical workshops in Kwara and Kogi States. There exists no significance difference in the mean ratings of male technical teachers and female technical teachers of strategies that could be adopted to prevent accidents in technical college workshops. Based on the findings, recommendations were made among which were that technical teachers should organize the workshop activities with good housekeeping and that government should ensure availability of training equipment in adequate quantity and quality to commensurate with students’ ratio in technical college workshops.