School Population And Academic Performance Of Basic School Students
[A CASE STUDY OF ILORIN SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, KWARA STATE]

In educational institutions, success is measured by academic performance or how well a student meets standard set out by the institution itself. Performance is very important in human life and every society has its own goals and aspiration. Students’ success or failure in the school presents a relatively defined criterion of performance. Educational institutions are the areas in which all students are compared to compete. Performance refers to the attainment of the students in the classroom activities, as well as the extra developed in the school, which is often depicted by test scores, that is, the mark awarded by the teacher to each students.
    On the other hand, academic performance is the student’s accomplishments in terms of grades obtained in a given test. Academic performance is often determined by the individual scores in relation to a given standards or sometimes in relations to the performance of other students in class test or examinations. Poor academic performance of students has become the trends in most examinations especially those conducted by state ministry of Education.
    Observers are of the opinion that the poor performance of students is not always attributed to lack of knowledge and qualified teachers but some of the students were too playful when they got to their various home. Rather, they prefer watching films and engaging in other activities that will not be of benefit to them. Academic performance really means three things. The ability to study and remember facts, being able to study effectively and see how facts fit together and form larger patterns of knowledge and being able to think for yourself in relation to facts and thirdly being able to communicate your knowledge verbally or down on paper. According to Gbadura (2010) students’ academic performance varies according to individual students’ scores such as high, average or low academic performance. Students who place higher premium on education are activated to enhance the development to their intellect and this foster academic performance.
    However, is success oriented society; academic performance is a significant measure of success in life. The reason for this cannot farfetched. It provides the singular index of intellectual ability and aptitude for and individual. Gbadura (2010) opined that, academic performance serves as the only clear cut measure of student’s success and adequacy for a life career. Similarly, Hess (1998) emphasized that high and low performance is when a learner does well or poorly in a presented task. It may be said that obtaining scores in an examination best describes what performance is all about. Omosewo (2000) stated that examinations are the most useful yardstick in assessing student’s knowledge. She further stated that when the result is good or bad, serves a guide of deciding who get promoted to the next class, demoted to lower class. This is a pointer to the fact that the issue of performance to learners cannot be under estimated.
Appraisal of Literature Reviewed
    Having pointed out from the review of work that have been carried out in a study, the conclusion that can be drawing is that class population determines the level to which student’s are involved in learning that could be instrumented to their exploits in class work
    The phenomenon termed school population has significant impact on students’ academic performances and several studies indicated that the calls population not only influences teacher’s effectiveness but also students achievement at drive. There is a strong correlation between effectiveness of infrastructure and teachers and school enrolment.
    Also, the teachers require additional or exceptionally knowledge and skills to achieve meaningful classroom interactions through appropriate choice of instructional strategies and students in a sparsely populate class are reported to have access to teacher and learning resources. Therefore, students that have access to teachers and learning materials easily perform better in class work. It is on these premises that the researcher decide to examine school population and students’ academic performance of Universal Basic Schools in Ilorin South Local Government Area of Kwara State.