ABSTRACT
Clay is used in Nigeria for different purposes. Among these are the making of utilitarian objects such as pots, moulding of animal figures in front of houses in Yoruba land, and mixing with mud to build houses with elaborate decoration, in the north.It has been observed that some secondary school students do not use clay as a creative art material. The study was therefore designed to ascertain the ' position of the use of clay in the junior secondary schools. Methods and procedures. A total of 300 students and four art teachers in Zaria post-primary schools were involved in the study. The instruments included two sets of questionnaires: one for the art teachers and the other for sampled form three students. The art teachers and students were also observed during some clay-work activities, although the observational study was not absolutely acceptable due to possible observer effect. Discussion was also held with the principals of the schools to ascertain the authenticity of the information provided by the teachers. Major findings were: Majority of the students demonstrated a moderatelypositive attitude towards clay-work; some of the art teachers were not; qualified professionally to teach art, and there was acute i shortage of art teachers; students and art teachers lacked important physical facilities for art education and clay-work in particular. Lastly, time allocated for art on the time-table is short that clay activities had little or no time at all. (vii) Conclusion: There is some indication of students' strength positive attitude towards clay-work, and so the research work suggests ways to enhance and strengthen the status of clay-work aspect of three diemensional art programme in our schools in these years of indigenous technological development.