school environment and on the academic performance of students in secondary school

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the study

The school environment, which include the classrooms, libraries, technical workshops, laboratories, teachers’ quality, school management, teaching methods, peers, etc are variables has role to play when it comes to students’ academic achievement (Ajayi, 2001 and Oluchukwu, 2000).  Hence, the school environment remains an important area that should be studied and well managed to enhance students’ academic performance.

School’s physical environment in the other hand includes the school building and the surrounding grounds, such as noise, temperature, and lighting as well as physical, biological, or chemical agents.  The alarming increase in the number of students with asthma is one problem that may, in part, be affected by poor physical conditions in schools.

        Instructional spaces planning, administrative places planning, circulation spaces planning, spaces for conveniences planning, accessories planning, the teachers as well as the students themselves are essential in teaching-learning process especially business studies.  The extent to which student learning  could be enhanced depends on their location within the school compound, the structure of their classroom, availability of instructional facilities and accessories. It is believed that a well planned school will gear up expected outcomes of education that will facilitate good social, political and economic emancipation, effective teaching and learning process and academic performance of the students.

        The physical characteristics of the school have a variety of effects on teachers, students, and the learning process. Poor lighting, noise, high levels of carbon dioxide in classrooms, and inconsistent temperatures make teaching and learning difficult. Poor maintenance and ineffective ventilation systems lead to poor health among students as well as teachers, which leads to poor performance and higher absentee rates (Frazier, 2002 Lyons, 2001; and Ostendorf, 2001). These factors can adversely affect student behavior and lead to higher levels of frustration among teachers, and poor learning attitude among student.

Beyond the direct effects that poor facilities have on students’ ability to learn, the combination of poor facilities, which create an uncomfortable and uninviting workplace for teachers, combined with frustrating behavior by students including poor concentration and hyperactivity, lethargy, or apathy, creates a stressful set of working conditions for teachers. Because stress and job dissatisfaction are common pre-cursors to lowered teacher enthusiasm, it is possible that the aforementioned characteristics of school facilities have an effect upon the academic performance of students.

Previous studies have investigated the relationship of poor school environment including problems with student-teacher ratio, school location, school population, classroom ventilation, poor lighting in classrooms, and inconsistent temperatures in the classroom with student health problems, student behavior, and student achievement (Crandell & Smaldino, 2000; Davis, 2001; Johnson, 2001; Lyons, 2001; Moore, 2002; Stricherz, 2000; Tanner, 2000). To complement these studies, the present research will examine the aforementioned areas of school variables as it affect students performance in business studies.

1.2    Statement of the Problem

In Lagos State of Nigeria, some school environment dotted with dilapidated building, equipped with outdated facilities and teachers at times work under unsafe condition. It is not unusual to find teachers and student interacting academically under collapsed school building. Likewise student are sometime left with no option but to receive lessons under poor ventilated classroom, poor lighting and sound system, large class size, because of lack of structures (building) and teachers are poorly motivated resulting to decline number of teacher in the school environment.

The issue of poor academic performance of students in business studies in Nigerian schools has been of much concern to the government, parents, teachers and even student themselves. The quality of education not only depends on the teachers as reflected in the performance of their duties, but also in the effective coordination of the school environment (Ajao 2001).

Emphasizing the importance of school resources to students academic performance, Oluchukwu, (2000) asserted school environment is an essential aspect of educational planning, he went further to explain that “unless schools are well suited, buildings adequately constructed and equipment adequately utilized and maintained, much teaching and learning may not take place.

The high levels of students’ academic performance may not be guaranteed where instructional space such as classrooms, libraries, technical workshops and laboratories are structurally defective. However, little is known on the impact of school variables on students’ academic performance in business studies in L.G.A of Lagos State.

1.3     Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of the study is to examine school environment and on the academic performance of students in secondary school in…. L.G.A of …… Lagos State. specifically, this study seeks to examine:

1. The relationship between school climate and the student academic performance
2. The impact of school facilities on the academic performance of  students  in the secondary school
3. the factors such as class size that have been perceived to promote or inhibit students learning in the academic process of students in secondary school
4. whether teacher use of instructional materials enhance students academic performance.

1.4     Research Questions

1. Is there any relationship between school climate and the student academic performance?
2. To what extent do school facilities affect student performance in secondary school?
3. What effect does class size has on the academic performance of students in secondary school?
4. To what extent do instructional materials influence academic performance students?

1.5     Research Hypothesis

i.      There is no significant relationship between school climate and the student academic performance

ii.      There is no significant relationship between school facilities and academic performance  of students

iii.     There is no significant relationship between class size and academic performance of students

iv.     There is no significant relationship between teacher’s use of instructional materials and academic performance in English language.

1.6     Significance of the Study

It is hoped that this study will provide information for parents, educators and school administrators to reflect upon various factors that help students in achieving their academic goals. In so doing, they can investigate the possibility of introducing those factors to their school, which may consequently lead to enhancing students’ educational outcomes in school. In addition, the fact that this study is conducted in public schools, it shares quite a lot of similarities with  many other counterparts. In this connection, this study provides a valuable reference for other schools to reflect upon the school environment as it affect the academic performance of student in secondary school.

1.7     Scope of the Study

This research work focuses on school variables and academic business studies students academic performance of secondary school students in some selected schools in  ….. Local Government Area of Lagos State. This research work  covers all public secondary schools students in ………… Local Government Area of Lagos State.

1.8  Limitation of the Study

Apart  from  time-frame  and  shortage  of  finance,  the  major  limitation to  this  research  is  the  inability  of  the  researcher  to  cover  the  whole public secondary school in ………….. Local Government Area of …….. State as the title suggest.

1.10   Definition of Terms

School: A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students (or “pupils”) under the direction of teachers

School Environment: A school’s physical environment includes the school building and the surrounding.

Academic Achievement – Knowledge attained or skills developed in school subjects by  test scores.

Secondary school (also”high school”)is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place. It follows elementary or primary education, and may be followed by university (tertiary) education.

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impact of nursery education on pupils academic performance

Impact of nursery education on pupils academic performance




CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background to the study

Education being an indispensable tool in nations building is a process of systematic training and instruction designed to transmit

knowledge and acquisition of skill, potentials and abilities which will enable an individual to contribute efficiently to the growth and development of his society and nation. It involves all round development of an individual physically, socially, morally, intellectually, and mentally, (Osakwe 2006).

 The unhidden evidence that early experiences influenced later academic achievement has motivated the development of a number of pre-school institutions. More recently, formal kindergarten programmes have been designed to prevent high drop-out and low levels of intellectual functioning that are found in disadvantaged children as early as two or three years of age. Scholars like Fafunwa, (1967) Hunt, (1957) and Yoloye, (1975) and Ministry of Education discovered extensively the importance and role of nursery or formal kindergarten education on the achievement of pupils both in the developed and developing countries like Nigeria.

Nursery education as defined by Omozeghian (1995) is the education meant for children between the ages of 3 to 6 years. The National Policy on Education (2004) sees preprimary education as the education given in an educational institution to children aged 3-5 years plus prior to their entering the primary school.

That is to say that early education is a special kind of education provided in an institution for children, prior to their entering the primary school.

Having realized the importance of pre-school or formal kindergarten education, the government encouraged private efforts in the establishment of this institution. Also, in recent years, the government now sponsors the pre-school levels of public primary schools in the country.

Learning, according to Osakwe (2006) is a natural process of pursuing meaningful goals, discovering and constructing meaning from information and experience filtered through the learners’ unique perceptions, thoughts and feelings. Hence, when a child is born into the world learning commences immediately to enable him get adapted to the new system. The child learns to feed, hear, see and respond to stimuli, before learning to sit, walk, talk and behave like people around him. Day-to-day fluctuations in a child’s behaviour may be expected as he strives between dependency of infancy and the dependency of childhood. He goes further to expose the world around him curiously seeking to acquire knowledge. The drive for curiosity is innate in every child and can be developed to yield greater results by given him early education.

Nursery childhood education experiences according to Barnard (2001) positively affect later home and school involvement in education. A child who fails to acquire early education may suffer emotionally, socially, intellectually and even physically if he is trusted into the primary school without a sustainable early childhood education experience that will give him a solid foundation in the primary school. Therefore for the effective and efficient unlocking and development of a child’s latent abilities, attitudes and other forms of behaviour of positive values in the society in which he lives, early childhood education becomes very imminent. This is of utmost importance because researches on early childhood education have shown that early childhood education experiences have great impact on all areas of a child’s development and had suggested that the first teacher is an extremely important person in the child’s life.

According to Feeney, Christensen and Moravick (1987), early childhood education is an asset of immense value in the later academic pursuit of a child and much more lately in life.

This early experience exposes the child to all fields which make him more apt to learn in the primary level as the confidence in his learning capabilities which he acquired from the nursery school is lifted to the primary school. This eventually aids and facilitates his learning. The early childhood institution aims at developing the  cognitive and affective potential at an early age. Anderson (2002) is of the view that when children are exposed to early childhood  education, they develop superior communication skills, necessary physical ability and social unity needed in adult life and an increased cognitive and effective educational balance.

Having realized the importance of nursery education, the government encouraged private efforts in the establishment of this institution. Also, in recent years, the government now sponsors the pre-school levels of public primary schools in the country.

Thus, this paper tries to examine the impact of nursery education on academic performance of pupils in Ilorin South Local Government Area of Kwara State.

1.2    Theoretical framework

Piaget (1956) spoke on the different effects of the environment on the growth of mental structures of the child which facilitates learning.

He said that the environment stimulates learning and the development of the cognitive domain that the early years hold the key to learning. There is therefore the need for special attention to be given to the sensitive nature of early learning by affording the child the right environment where he will develop the potentials and skills for later life experience and education.

1.3    Statement of the Problem

        In recent time educators in Nigeria have been increasingly concerned about the need to improve on the academic achievement of students (Akubuiro, 2008). In the same vein Akomolafe (2009) asserted that parents, teachers and society in general are worried and apprehensive about the best way to improve academic standards, achievement and performance. Consequently the decline in the academic performance of students in Nigerian’s tertiary institutions call for a serious concern.

The rearing practices which the child is exposed to influences the values, norms, and belief of individuals even in later life. The contents of the knowledge which the child is exposed to early in life are bedrock to later education and life. There is a scriptural injunction that says “train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it, proverbs 22 verse 6. From this injunction, conclusion can be reached quickly that the manner of teaching a child to learn in nursery  school days go a long way to help him through his educational pursuit and even more in his later life. Therefore the problem of this study is to find out the extent to which nursery education affect their pupils’ academic performance.

1.4    Purpose of the study

          The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of nursery education on pupils academic performance in Ilorin West Local Government of Kwara State. Specifically, this study seeks to examine whether:

i.             Any difference exist in the cognitive ability of pupils with nursery and without nursery education.

ii.            There exists any difference in the social skills of pupils with nursery and without nursery education.

iii.          There is a significant difference in the motor skills of pupils with nursery and without nursery education.

1.5       Research questions

i.             There is no significant difference in the cognitive ability of pupils with nursery and without nursery education.

ii.            There is no significant difference in the social skills of pupils with nursery and without nursery education.

iii.          There is no significant difference in the motor skills of pupils with nursery and without nursery education.

1.6    Statement of Hypotheses

To direct the thrust of this study, the following null hypotheses were formulated and tested:

i.             There is no significant difference in the cognitive ability of pupils with nursery and without nursery education.

ii.            There is no significant difference in the social skills of pupils with nursery and without nursery education.

iii.          There is no significant difference in the motor skills of pupils with nursery and without nursery education.

1.7    Significance of the study

          The study would be significant because of its following dimensions;

It would limelight the effect of nursery education on the academic achievement of students in the normal educational rut leading the educators to follow the most beneficial ways of schooling, the parents to go for process of schooling that goes in the favour of their wards. It would also lead to the development of tiers of schooling the best supporting the successive ones. It may also be added that the teachers’ training may take new forms and shapes. The intricacies of learning would also be made known.

1.8    Scope and limitation of the study

          This study is restricted to all nursery/primary school in Ilorin South Local Government Area of Kwara State. It is also delimited to the variable under study.

The psychological state of the students, which include their temperament (joy or Sadness) as at time they were supplying the information in questionnaire might affect their response thus influencing the research result.

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Internet usage has any remarkable influence on students academic performance

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background to the study

The Internet is a relatively new channel for scholarly resources, and contains vast quantities of information that vary a great deal regarding its contents, aim, target group, reliability etc. Hence, it is important that the end-user is aware of the diverse information available on the Internet, and educated in the criteria by which the information content should be assessed (Chapman, 2002). The fabulous growth in telecommunication has brought online services, specialized electronic networks, WebPages, E-mail, software and global information resources to our homes as well as to education.

The Internet provides an environment in which millions of people participate and engage in the creation and exchange of

information (Rose & Fernlund, 1997).

Students have only recently received the opportunity to use the Internet to seek and obtain scholarly material and, consequently, knowledge on how effectively they make use of this channel is limited. Students' information seeking culminates as they work on their theses. Many studies have been conducted regarding the type of information the endusers seek and obtain on the Internet and in which circumstances they prefer electronic sources to paper sources (Tenopir et al. 2003)

According to their survey, approximately 50% of all the scholarly publications were obtained from the Internet, who studied geography student's use of sources on the Internet by analyzing citations from a test, found that 51% of the citations referred to sources on paper, 47% of the sources were from the Internet and the rest was course material. (Fescemeyer, 2000)

Iboronke (2002) has attributed the poor performance to the rise in students enrolment without corresponding increase in the material and human resources. In this study the effect of these materials and human resources on students performance will be investigated.

        The use of the available learning resources will improve the academic performance of students. In order words, one of the opportunities to stimulate this elaboration process is by offering students more and more diverse learning resources. Ogunleye’s (2003) review that under laboratory conditions increasing the richness and diversity of the learning materials has often been shown to support students in learning, remembering and applying information.

Internet use has become very popular in many areas as well as in education in recent years. Accordingly, Internet access in schools has increased greatly over the last 20 years (Berson, 2000).

Many experts see the computer, combined with multimedia capabilities, as the new tool that can transform education (Van Horn, 1991) points out that the computer can solve many of the problems facing teachers. In today's environment the teacher is expected to have a large knowledge base. The teacher also has the problem of deciding to teach at the low end or the high end of the grade level. Many compromise and teach in the middle. Computers can solve these two problems by enabling teachers to customize instruction for each student (McKeown, 1991).

1.2    Statement of problem

        The role of Internet in teaching/learning can not be overemphasized. The issue of the poor academic performance of students is traced to certain factors which, can hinder student understanding.

Academic achievement is an important parameter in measuring success in students. Observations and reports have shown that success or high academic achievement has become a Herculean task to accomplish by students in recent times. The decline in the academic performance of students in Nigerian universities had been highlighted by Soyinka (1999), when he observed that university system in Nigeria needed restructuring. He went further to say that academic standard had fallen drastically and the quality of graduates being produced by the nations universities is questionable and subject to re-examination. Poor academic achievement of students has been of great concern to educationists, government and the public in general.

Students' poor performance in Secondary school has continued to pose a serious concern to government agencies, parents and the students themselves (Essien 2004). Most previous studies had tended to attribute this problem to factors that are extraneous to the learner, such as poor physical facilities, school environment etc. Various strategies adopted by different governments and agencies tend not to address the problem substantially. There is therefore further need to research into other possible factors or variables underlying students' performance, since behaviour is a product of environmental and psychosocial variables.

1.3    The purpose of study

          The major purpose of this study is to determine whether internet usage has any remarkable influence on students academic performance. Specifically, the study seeks to determine whether:

i.             Internet usage can enhance academic performance students.

ii.            The use of search engines can improve the academic performance of students.

iii.          E-mail services improve academic performance of students.

1.5    Research questions

          These research seeks to answers the following questions in the course of this investigation.

i.             How does internet usage influence the academic performance of students?

ii.            To what extent does the use of search engine enhance the academic performance of students?

iii.          Does E-mail services contribute to students academic performance?

1.6    Research hypothesis

          The following hypotheses were formulated to guide the investigation of this study.

i.             There is no significant relationship between the use of internet and students academic performance. 

ii.            There is no significant relationship between the use of search engine and students academic performance.

iii.          There is no significant relationship between e-mail services and students academic performance.

1.7    Significant of study

          the outcome of this study aims at determining whether or not the use of internet has any significant influence on the academic performance of students.

        More over education is the bedrock of any society. Nigeria as a developing nation needs a standard secondary schools that has available learning resources, that teachers can improvise learning resources easily and more often also where teachers and students utilize learning resources on a regular basis. It could be a guide line for incoming students and be educative to them when writing and studying similar problems in school.

        This study has made me to explore into the topic influence of internet usage on the academic performance of students. It is also a requirement I must be produce for the award of a degree in curriculum and teaching, faculty of education.

1.8    Delimitation of the study

          This research is designed particularly to know or test the influence of internet usage on the academic performance of students in order to guide against negative trend about the falling standard of education in our society and to improve upon the positive side.

1.9    Limitation of the study

          A lot of problems were encountered during the period of this research like; finance, transportation from one secondary school to another, some of the issues were not discussed in detail.

        Another problem was distance. Due to the long distance from one village to another within the local government area, it was not possible for the researcher to move round all the villages for  sufficient data.

        Also, during the administration of the questionnaires, some students were not willing to respond to the items. Some refused to answer the questions out of non challanteness. It was also observed that in some cases, students were not independent of themselves in answering the questionnaire items.

1.11  Definition of terms

          The following terms are define in the context there are being use in the study.

Internet: The Internet is a global network connecting millions of computers.

Performance: An action in which excellence or superiority depend primarily on abstract mental ability. Any action requiring the manipulation of abstracts, concepts or mental manipulation of any sort.

E-mail: Email is electronic mail, a protocol for receiving and sending, and storing electronic messages.

Search engine: a program that searches for and identifies items in a database that correspond to keywords or characters specified by the user, used especially for finding particular sites on the Internet.

Social network: a network of social interactions and personal relationships.

Website: a location connected to the Internet that maintains one or more web pages.

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Gender difference on students academic achievement in government secondary school

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background to the Study

One of the most topical issues in the current debate all over the world has been that of gender differences and academic achievement among students in schools. Over the years, there has been a growing awareness of the role of women at home, in schools, and community in general. However worries have equally been expressed about the role of women in the political, social, cultural, psychological, economic, spiritual, scientific and technological development of the nations. A major area of concern has been the effects of gender differences on academic achievement and retention of students in secondary schools. However, the major focus of this research is to examine the differences between the achievement mean scores of male and female students and the difference between the retention mean scores of male and female students. Also, the paper will find out whether or not there is a significant relationship between gender and academic achievement of students in school.

Fisho-Oridedi (2001) in her book The Girl Child noted that “the Nigerian population in 1991 was 88,514,501. The population of men (male) is 44,544,053 which is 50.32% while that of women (female) is 43,969.970 which is 49.7% of the total population”. The above data indicate that women constitute almost half of Nigerian population and their potentialities in contributing to the national development cannot be over-emphasised. Ibraheem (2001) confirmed the above statement that “women constitute about 50% of Nigerian population and their potentiality in contributing to the national development cannot be ignored”. In African culture, girls are not familiar with toys that promote interest in science and technology. Their major duty is home management and child-bearing. They are expected to cook and clean while the boys engage in activities such as playing football, making bows and arrows, playing with catapults, flying kites and so on. Bozimo (1991) noted that these activities promote scientific knowledge and thus give them an edge over girls. Babalola and Adedeji (1997) also confirmed that women, throughout the ages and everywhere in the world, have always been considered inferior to men. Scottish local authorities did not introduce gender policies until the early 1990s (Ridwell 2000). Jekayinoluwa (2005) lamented that schools and the nation at large are making profound contributions to the creation of positive learning environment that could motivate learning achievement more in boys than girls. In their own study, Jegede and Inyang (1990) worked on gender differences and academic achievement in integrated science in Junior Secondary Schools. They confirmed that males performed better than females. They affirmed that males demonstrated significantly more positive attitudes towards science than females. Schibbeci (1984) also noted that females exhibit more positive attitudes towards Biology and males towards Physics. Owuamanam and Babatunde (2007) noted that the girls tend to go for courses that do not require more energy and brain tasking such as home making while boys looked for jobs in management, engineering, banking and other brain-tasking professions. In her own research carried out in London, Osler (2002) confirmed that girls excluded or self-excluded from formal education were rampant among African girls than White girls. In another research carried out in London, Claire (2005) highlighted the high number of black girls being excluded from school and also looked at the way language is used in education. Both ethnicity and social class are factors which combined with, and interacting with gender, are seen as having a direct bearing on achievement (Plummer 2000 and Arnot 2003). Archer (2003) noted that gender inequalities are interwoven with social class, ethnicity, sexuality and disability. Another factor identified as influencing attainment is ethnicity (Arnot 2003).

The gender of the student may also be a factor in determining student achievement. Childhood training and experience, gender differences in attitudes, parental and teacher expectations and behaviors, differential course taking and biological differences between the sexes may all be instrumental in giving rise to gender differences in achievement (Feingold, 2001). The rather high gender disparity in various spheres of public life and the patriarchal social structure in Nigeria may also lead to poorer academic achievement among female students.

In terms of educational attainment women lag behind men in Nigeria. The 2006 Population Census records the illiteracy rate among men at 6.1%, while that of women at 19.4% (SIS, 2003). Among the literate population, men’s average level of schooling far

exceeds that of women though there does seem to be a faster improvement among the latter (Dayıo_lu and Tunalı, 2002). Gender disparity in schooling is also observed among the younger population, where female school enrollment in basic and secondary education falls behind male children (Tansel, 2002). Despite the numerous studies that analyze the disadvantaged position of women as adults and children, there is almost no work on the educational experiences of women as young adults. The paucity of such work has been one of the motivations for this study. The other motivation has been the observation that in the undergraduate classes, female students often outperform their male counterparts. This casual observation contradicts with the general experiences of the female population as children and adults. Hence, this study grew out of our curiosity to find out how far our personal observations hold for the general student population in government secondary schools.

1.2   Statement of the problem

Academic achievement is an important parameter in measuring success in students. Observations and reports have shown that success or high academic achievement has become a Herculean task to accomplish by students in recent times. The decline in the academic performance of students in Nigerian universities had been highlighted by Soyinka (1999), when he observed that university system in Nigeria needed restructuring. He went further to say that academic standard had fallen drastically and the quality of graduates being produced by the nations universities is questionable and subject to re-examination. Poor academic achievement of students has been of great concern to educationists, government and the public in general.

Students' poor performance in Essien Udim Local Government and Akwa Ibom River State in general has continued to pose a serious concern to government agencies, parents and the students themselves (Essien 2004, Akpan 2006 and Usoro 2007). Most previous studies had tended to attribute this problem to factors that are extraneous to the learner, such as poor physical facilities, school environment etc. (Maynard, 1971 and Onyejiaku, 1991). Various strategies adopted by different governments and agencies tend not to address the problem substantially. There is therefore further need to research into other possible factors or variables underlying students' achievement, since behaviour is a product of environmental and psychosocial variables. The researcher had therefore been motivated to carry out this study that is aimed at examining if there is gender difference in academic achievement. This research became necessary because all the previous studies on this were carried out either at the primary or secondary school levels. Thus the attempt to find answers to these questions constitute the problem that this study sought to address.

1.3   Purpose of the study

The main purpose of this study was to examine gender difference on students academic achievement in government secondary school in Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.  Specifically the   study was aimed at determining whether:

i.             Gender influence academic achievement of secondary school student.

ii.           There is any difference in academic achievement between male and female students?

iii.         There is any difference in academic achievement between students from boys schools and their counterpart in girls schools.

1.4   Research questions

This study attempted to provide answers to the following   research questions:

i.             How does gender influence academic achievement of secondary school student?

ii.           Is there any difference in academic achievement between male and female students?

iii.         Is there any difference in academic achievement between students from boys schools and their counterpart in girls schools?

1.5     Statement of hypotheses

To answer the research questions posed, the following hypotheses were formulated to direct the study:

i.             There is no significant relationship between gender and academic achievement of secondary school students'.

ii.           There is no significant difference in academic achievement between male and female students

iii.         There is no significant difference in academic achievement between students from boys schools and their counterpart in girls schools

1.6   Significance of the study

The result of this study may be of great benefit to teachers, students, parents, and the government. The findings of the study may be of great importance to the teacher as this will enable them device a means of increasing students’/pupils’ interest in learning as a means of encouraging them to improve upon their academic achievement. This study may also make students to understand that their academic achievement both in school and public examinations to some extent lies in their hands. Therefore they should be committed to their studies.

Parents and the society at large would understand that the academic achievement of students embodies so many variables including them so all the blames should not be on the teachers alone if their children do not achieve academically up to their expectation. For the students to achieve very well in school both the parents and the society should provide an enabling environment for the students’.

This study would contribute to existing literature on psychosocial variables and students’ academic achievement with the aim of improving the quality of academic achievement. Finally, the recommendations based on the results if implemented would help to bring about innovations in institutions and improvement in students’ academic achievement.

1.7   Scope of the study

i.         While the researcher acknowledges the fact that there are other variables that can affect academic achievement, this study is limited to psychosocial variables which are of interest to the researcher.

ii.       Apart from the psychosocial variables mentioned in the study, other variables like age, intelligence, perception and many others may affect achievement. These variables are not within the scope of this study and are not controlled for.

iii.     The study is limited to government secondary school in Essien Udim Local Government Area of Awka Ibom State.

1.8   Limitations of the Study

One unavoidable limitation surrounding the study is that the questionnaire will depend seriously on the honest reactions of the respondents. There is the possibility that responses given by respondents may not be fully reflective of the actual state of affairs. The emotional state of the respondents can hardly be adequately ascertained.

This study has not also considered the effect of extraneous variables like the students’ intelligence which principally determines achievement.

1.9   Definition of terms

Gender: the state of being male or female

Academic achievement: this is defined in this study as the assigned grades attained by students in a test of students achievement in school.

Difference: the dissimilarity off students perform in academic.

Male: state of being a male

Female: state of being a female

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