SCHOOL VARIABLES AND STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE. A RESEARCH PROJECT MATERIAL ON EDUCATION
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Nigeria has been grappling with poor performance of students in secondary school final examinations such as senior secondary school leaving certificate examinations (SSCE) National Examination Council (NECO), NABTEB since the 1980s. This has led the Federal and State governments adopting different strategies and policies to deal with this situation. A survey by the Federal Ministry of Education on the performance of the educational sector in the different geo-political zones and states of the country revealed that there were gaps in the performances with the North West Zone recording the least performance (FMOE, 2001). Another Educational survey which was conducted by the National Population Commission in 2004 indicated a widening gap between Northern and Southern states. Akwa Ibom State being one of the South-South zone recorded the lowest performance in Biology especially in Etinan; worse than it neighboring South-South States.
The Nigerian educational system has continuously experienced an upward trend in school enrolment at all levels since the introduction of the Universal Primary Education (UPE) in the 1970s and the Universal Basic Education (UBE) in 1994. This may have in turn impacted on the class size in terms of the population of the individual classrooms with more enrolment in the urban than in the rural areas. The national policy on education stipulates that the teacher- student‘s ratio in the secondary schools should be 1:40. Wosayanju, (2005) maintained that large class may pose some teaching challenges such as delayed feedback, resulting in inefficiency, poor quality of students, and reduction in teaching with less assignment so as to reduce the burden of marking, all of which may encourage shallow learning.
The quality of education depends on the teacher as reflected in the performance of their students. Teachers play crucial role in the educational attainment of students because they are ultimately responsible for translating into actions the principles based on practice during interaction with the students. Teacher variables such as qualification, motivation and experience may be contributing factors to their output.