Effects of Civic Education on Learners' Response to Governance Tenets: A Case of Selected Secondary Schools in Kitwe District of Copperbelt Province, Zambia.

Civic education is the study of the rights and obligations of citizens in society and it enables citizens to participate in democratic and development processes. Citizens need to participate in governance through voting, volunteering, participating in other activities that benefit society. Therefore, the study aimed at analyzing the effects of Civic Education on learners’ responses to governance tenets in Kitwe district of Copperbelt Province. The study further suggested that since some factors that influence Civic Education bordered on policy, culture and laws of the country, both the government and the citizenry should address these issues. The study adopted a mixed methods approach which is a combination of quantitative and qualitative data. The sample involved a total of 173 respondents which included; one (1) officer from DEBS office, four (4) Head teachers, twelve (12) Civic Education teachers, twenty (20) parents for learners of Civic Education and one hundred thirty-six (136) Civic Education pupils. The respondents were obtained through purposive and simple random sampling. Data was obtained through interviews and questionnaires from the selected secondary schools. Data analysis consisted of content analysis of the interview responses and item analysis of the questionnaire responses; The data gathered was analyzed according to the themes of the study and the order of the research objectives.  Data generated from the questionnaires was analyzed manually by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 26) and Microsoft Excel (version 16) to come up with frequency tables, pie charts and bar graphs to analyze data. The findings indicated that civic education had an effect in understanding public Issues as well as inculcating civic responsibility. Findings in many cases were consistent in all the selected schools. It was generally agreed that Civic Education subject had a critical role to play on the learners as well as society at large.