ABSTRACT
The study was designed to assess the students performance in senior secondary school certificate examination in chemistry in Enugu urban, Enugu state science, technology, and Chemistry were defined with their benefits to human life by different Authors, identify students’ performance in science subjects, identify the factors influencing the students performance in chemistry. Data for the study was obtained through documentation in which five (5) secondary schools in Enugu urban were sampled out of twenty-seven (27) secondary school and the population of the students involved were two thousand, three hundred and seventy-seven (2377) and it was only 50% students that performed creditably well. The data obtained were analyzed using percentage and bar charts.
The findings of the study revealed that the over-all performance of Nigerian secondary school students in their senior certificate examination in chemistry over the years has not being encouraging. Consequently, the performances of students of senior secondary school certificate examination in chemistry in Enugu –urban, Enugu state were very poor as it was only in the year 2003 that their results attained the pass mark of 50% while other four (4) years: 2000; 2001; 2002; 2004 could not attain the decision rule taken by the researchers.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In accordance with Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary the 5th Edition 1995, science can be defined as the study of the structure and behaviour of natural world and society especially through observation and experiment. Also Encyclopedia Americana (1982 vol. 24,page 385) defined it as the systematized, positive knowledge, or what has been taken as positive at dierent ages and in dierent places. In view of the above, science could be seen as the ascertained knowledge by observation and experiment, critically tested, systematized and brought under general principle. According to Ugwu and Eze (2005), the term science is derived from Latin world “SCIRE” meaning to find out. It is a systematic study of nature with the aim of understanding better what the world is Baja and Okebukola (1984) Opined that science is a systematic study of nature through hypothesis, experiment, observations, careful reasoning’ making of valid conclusion and inference on the bases of analysis. This understanding of nature is vital to the technologist who uses this knowledge to solve the human problems. The relevance of science as a requirement for technological advancement of any nation into developed, developing and under developed could only be measured accurately by the numbers of scientists that nation can boast o. In fact, science has profound impart in our daily lives