ABSTRACT
performance of students negatively: poor school background characteristics of students, wrong perception of students about chemistry, wrong attitudes of students toward chemistry, poor learning environment & facilities, poor/inadequate assessment of students and improper achievement test, inadequate evaluation, poor method of teaching on the part of teachers, poor English language comprehension ability and mathematical competence, the type of primary school attended, performance in JSSCE Basic/Integrated Science, and old age. Meanwhile, the following factors were speculated in the literatures reviewed, but were found to have no effect on students’ performance: gender difference, curriculum content, syllabus and workload of teachers, and students’ rudimentary understanding of chemistry. Also, parental background of students was found to have a very weak effect on the performance of students in chemistry. After all, reliable recommendations were made for the concerned bodies and individuals, including ministry of education, the school management/administration, chemistry teachers, parents, and other stakeholders. Recommendations were also made for further studies, with all of these focused on making positive changes to the performance of students in Chemistry right from the foundational education level, and to effect a transformation of the education sector of the country, Nigeria, at large.
CHAPTER ONE
- INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Chemistry has been a very important science subject whose role in the development of a nation like Nigeria cannot be overemphasized. However, as important and significant as this subject is among its other likes of science subjects including Physics, Mathematics and Biology in the senior secondary school level of the nation, students have persistently, like in the aforementioned courses or subjects above, continued to perform poorly, considering the evaluations carried out by both internal and external examination bodies like WAEC and NECO.
“There has been wild cry each year when WAEC or NECO releases their annual results as a result of students poor performance, especially in Science subjects” [(Salami, Mohammed, & Ogunlade; (2012) in Ojukwu, M.O. (2016)]. “Candidates’ performance at the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) conducted by WAEC and NECO has consistently remained poor, with chemistry having one of the worst and poorest results over the years” (Ibe & Madusnum; 2001 in Ojukwu, M.O; 2016)
Meanwhile, the poor performance of students in any course of study, be it Sciences, Social Sciences, or even Commercial studies would lead to a poor development of the country since they make up the content (major) of the education sector of the country, which indeed is the bedrock of the nation’s development, both economically, technologically, politically and generally in the aspect of sciences.
Aside the fact that the nation as a whole is being negatively affected when there is poor performance of students with their output in the society, it haphazardly embitters individual student and their guardians/parents badly because education is believed and known to be the major medium through which individuals adapt to a new environment
and attain high levels in the hierarchy of any endeavor