The Impact of Civic Instructional Goals on the Character Formation of students in Benue State, Nigeria West Africa

The study examined the impact of civic instructional goals on the character formation of students in Benue State, Nigeria. The study explored three primary questions and subjected three null hypotheses to empirical testing. This study utilised a correlational survey to examine the relationships between the identified variables. A total of 8,864 SS2 students from 99 government grant-aided secondary schools in Benue Education Zone C constituted the study’s target population. A sample size of 215 (116 male and 99 female) students was selected from 4 co-educational schools using multi-stage approach. The study employed two instruments: Moral Development Scale (reliability = .95) and Civic Education Objective Inventory (reliability = .93). The research questions while answered via multiple regression analysis while the hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Variance (α = 0.05). The study demonstrated that: There was significant relationship between Civic Education objectives and moral development of students in senior secondary schools in Benue State F(1,214) = 0.162; p = 0.038 < 0.05. There was significant relationship between Civic Education objectives and moral development of male students in senior secondary schools in Benue State F(1,115) = 0.902; p = 0.011 < 0.05. There was significant relationship between Civic Education objectives and moral development of female students in senior secondary schools in Benue State F(1,98) = 30.806; p = 0.000 < 0.05. Drawing from the result, the following recommendations were advanced among others that curriculum designers should modernise the civic instruction to focus on the social and moral needs of male and female students. Civic Education curriculum developers should enhance instructional materials by integrating a greater emphasis on students’ moral development. Recognising the distinct nuances in how different genders approach moral growth, schools should invest in dedicated facilities and tailored programming to support comprehensive moral development for all students.