ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effects of various co-curricular activities on the development of social skills among history students in secondary schools in the Buea municipality. The specific objectives were to examine the impact of club activities on communication skills, sporting activities on leadership skills, debate competitions on relationship-building, and spelling bees on empathy. The study employed a survey research design, collecting data from 90 students across one private, one confessional, and one government school using a questionnaire.

The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation. The findings revealed strong positive correlations between: Club activities and history students’ academic achievement on communication skills, Sporting activities and history students’ academic achievement on leadership skills, Debate competitions and history students’ academic achievement on relationshipbuilding, Spelling bees and history students’ academic achievement on empathy.

Based on these findings, the study made several recommendations: Schools should provide academic clubs to foster collaboration, communication, and professional development, Schools should support sporting activities like football and handball to develop teamwork, decision-making, and leadership, Schools should organize debate competitions to enhance interpersonal skills and relationshipbuilding and Schools should host spelling bee challenges to improve language proficiency and empathy. However, certain limitations should be acknowledged. The study was conducted within the Buea Municipality and focused specifically on secondary schools, which may limit the generalizability of the results

Keywords: Co-curricular activities, club activities, sporting activities, debate competition, spelling bees and academic performance

CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Introduction Education, according to Tambo (2010) refers to the process of which individuals acquire knowledge, skills, and competences which are of positive value to them and the society as well
According to John Dewey (1859-1952), he believed that education should be learner-centered, experimental, and focus on problem-solving and inquiry. Dewey further emphasize on the integration of knowledge across subject areas and the importance of learning through hands-on experiences.
According to Charles and Coombs (2010) education consists of two components. He classified the two components into input and outputs. Where, input consists of human and material resources and outputs are the goals and outcomes of the educational process. Both the inputs and outputs form a dynamic organic whole and if one wants to investigate and assess the educational system in order to improve its performance, efforts of one component on the other must be examined.
Co-curricular activities are those organized activities and programs that compliment the academic curriculum and provide students with opportunities to further develop their skills, interest and talents outside the classroom. The aim of education is the overall development of students. These co-curricular activities includes a wide range of pursuits such as sports, clubs, arts, music, drama, debate, community service, leadership programs and more, which helps in developing the Mental, Social, Physical, Moral and Emotional growth in the students. Co-curricular activities brings out some moral ethics in the students such as Competitiveness,Creativeness, Teamwork, Leadership and Responsibility roles, Decisionmaking, Quality Archievments and Enthusiasm in them.
Non-academic activity in the form of co-curricular activities provides support to students to go into professional fields like fashion, music, painting, art, acting, photography, printing and many more. That’s why students need co-curricular acventuretivities, which helps in enhancing many skill developments. Extracurricular activities refers to the various social and other types of activities like literary, dramatic, social services etc which attracted the attention of the child. These extracurricular activities have been renamed by educationists as co-curricular, which implies that all these activities are a part of school curriculum”.- according to Mittal (1999). Education alongside co-curricular activities are two interconnected components of a holistic learning experience. That is, while educations primarily focuses on academic instruction and acquiring knowledge, cocurricular activities completely enhance the educational process of providing opportunities for practical application, skill development, personal growth and social interaction. Co-curricular activities brings out psychological growth in the students, such as goal setting and motivation, resilience and adaptability, emotional intelligence, self-esteem and selfconfidence amongst others. Co-curricular activities is also an effective platform that makes students to absorb and learn values which are listed above in their schools and the society in which they live. Background