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Influence Of School Environment On Academic Achievement Of Students Of Public Secondary School
[A CASE STUDY OF ENUGU STATE]
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Studies on the relationship between availability of resources and students academic achievement have revealed that secondary schools provided with adequate education resources performed significantly better than those provided with inadequate resources (Balogun, 1995). Environment is a very important factor in achievement of goal of any educational programme. People acquire most of their knowledge through the interaction with facilities provided in the environment for learning. Also learning is influenced by the environment people are exposed to and the facilities provided in such environment lead to experience. As in the words of Piaget (1964) that active interaction with the environment is regarded as the most basic requirement for proper intellectual development.
The physical appearance and general condition of school physical facilities are the striking basis upon which many parents and friends of any educational institution make initial judgment about the quality of what goes on in the school. They are often turned off by dilapidated school blocks with sinking roofs and broken walls, bushy lawn and over grown hedges. Also are profane writings on walls, littered lawns and path ways. Finally, the school physical environment is like a mirror reflecting the image of a school and through it the public decide whether or not to associate with the particular school (Mgbodile 2004).
In Nigeria today, schools are closely associated with the communities. Most communities depend on the neighbourhood school for the provision of good and appropriate environment for accommodation, furniture and all form of equipment for certain activities like club or village meetings, wedding reception and church services. There is need for a well planned and organized educational environmental enrichment because it fosters good interpersonal relationship. Moreover, Ajayi and Ashaolu (2005) opined that environmental enrichment regarding physical facilities is a major factor in students’ academic achievement. Supporting this Ayodele (2005) and Ajayi (2007), have shown that school resources aid students academic achievement.
It is now certain that most of secondary school products cannot gain admission into federal universities or university of their choice due to poor performance in the placement examination into these schools. This poor performance may be attributed to poor learning environment especially in the following areas: schools building, library services, and school location and school facilities.
School building: These are tangible structures which serve as shelter for educational activities. They include among others classroom, laboratories, workshops, and teacher’s common rooms/offices, reading rooms, libraries, dormitories and dinning hall. Despite the evidence that the quality of a school building affect students’ academic achievement, most public schools, in Enugu state are in poor physical condition. It is in line with this that Earthman (2004) opined that the building in which students spends a good deal of learning does influence how well they learn.
(Mgbodile 2004 ) have pointed out that for effective teaching and learning situation, school building and educational goals, should be viewed as being interwoven. Apart from protecting the pupils from the sun, rain, heat and cold, school building represent learning environment which has great impact on the comfort, safety and performance of the children.
Library services: The school library is a room or building in a school where books, magazines, journals, periodicals, cassettes, computers among others are kept for student’s use. In other words, it is the central laboratory of the whole school, where all books in all subject areas, taught in the school and non-book materials are stocked. Dike (2001) sees school library as a learning laboratory par excellence where learners find the world of knowledge, interact directly with resources, acquire information and develop research skill for life long learning.
The objective of the school library is to serve the school’s need and to make possible the purpose and methods of education which the school undertakes. The school library enables the students to look to new ways of learning, and with its resources can play a programme of work that aims at new ambition’s education result which would be impossible if learning were restricted to the use of direct teaching and textbook alone.
School location: A school could be located in the urban or rural area. Rural schools are generally inferior to urban schools as schools in rural areas lacked human and material resources needed for success at school. The location of school whether urban or rural affects a child’s ability to study and perform at the level expected of him. Mkpugbe (1998) noted that different aspects of school environment (rural and urban) influences students achievement. She further stated that the individual student’s academic behaviour is influenced not only by the motivating forces of his home, scholastic ability, and academic values but also by the social pressure applied by the participants in the school setting.
Also differences in location imply differences in the existence of demographic and socio-economic parameters of the school. As stated by Imoagene (1988) in Akubue and Ifelunni (2006) that because of urban involvement, students in urban schools perform better than those in rural schools in language learning. The reason he gave include the fact that rural students have limited access to reading materials, inadequate reading culture and insufficient graduate teachers in rural schools. Therefore, the location of school has tremendous influence on children’s academic achievement.
School facilities: School facilities refer to inputs which ease the operation of academic activities. They include desks, chairs, blackboards, dustbins, teaching aids, typewriters, computers generators, and calculators and so on. School facilities according to Ehiametalor (2001) are operational inputs of every instructional programme. They are material resources that facilitate effective teaching and learning in schools. The quality and quantity of school facilities enhance the quality of teaching and learning as well as effective school management (Ojedele, 2003).
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]ABSTRACTThe study was carried out to investigate the influence of school environment on academic achievement of students in Enugu State public secondary schools. The design of the study is descriptive while the population comprised principals and teachers in the education zone. The sample size for the study was 600 respondents while a researchers’ self developed questionnaire formed the instrument for data collection. Three experts validated the instrument and a cronbach Alpha reliability ... Continue reading---
APPENDIX A - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]APPENDIX IDepartment of Educational FoundationsUniversity of Nigeria, Nsukka.20th March, 2010.Dear Sir/Madam,Influence of school environment on academic achievement of students of public secondary school in Enugu State.I am a postgraduate student of the above institution, conducting a research on the above topic: This is to seek for your permission to enable me distribute my questionnaire (copy attached) to your teachers for completion, to enable me carry out this research successfully.Thanks fo ... Continue reading---
TABLE OF CONTENTS - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]TABLE OF CONTENTSTitle Page Approval page Dedication Acknowledgement Certification Abstract Table of Contents CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTIONBackground to the Study Statement of the Problem Purpose of the Study Significance of Study Scope of the Study Research Questions Hypotheses CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATUREConceptual Framework Concept of Environment Concept of Public Secondary schools Historical Development of Public Secondary School Changes in Structure of the Ownership of Public ... Continue reading---
CLUSTER - [ Total Page(s): 2 ] ... Continue reading---
CHAPTER TWO - [ Total Page(s): 7 ]Theoretical framework Skinnerian environmental theoryThis section is based on the fact that environment is vital for the achievement of educational goal. This becomes necessary since the study is on the influence of school environment on the student achievement of public secondary schools in Enugu State.The origin of environmental theories can be traced to a known psychologist named John Locke (1917). He is the father of the learning tradition. He postulated that experience and learning are basi ... Continue reading---
CHAPTER THREE - [ Total Page(s): 2 ]Validation of the instrumentThe instrument was subjected to face validation by three experts from the field of Education Administration and Planning, in the Department of Educational Foundations and one in Measurement and Evaluation, of the faculty of Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The experts were requested to look at the adequacy of the items in line with the purpose research questions as well as the rating scale. Corrections were affected in some of the items and on the response op ... Continue reading---
CHAPTER FOUR - [ Total Page(s): 6 ]Conclusion: The conclusion is drawn that Principals and Teachers do not differ significantly in their mean ratings with regard to the extent school environment affects students academic achievement.Summary of Findings1. The result identified office for teachers, reading room for students and classroom space for teaching as the major areas that to a great extent affect the academic achievement of students with regard to buildings in the public secondary schools.2. It also identified p ... Continue reading---
CHAPTER FIVE - [ Total Page(s): 3 ]The mean responses of the principals and teachers were individually identified and subjected to t-test analysis. The findings from the analysis revealed that respondents agreed on the extent school buildings affect the academic achievements of the students of public secondary schools. The findings revealed that staff offices, classroom accommodations and library are the major areas affecting academic achievement of the students.Furthermore, the responses made by principals were separated from th ... Continue reading---
REFRENCES - [ Total Page(s): 2 ]REFERENCESAdegboyega, A.A. (2002). Trends in Public Financing of Federal Inventors in Nigeria a Case Study of University of Ibadan in Adedeji, S. O. (ed) African Journal of Educational Planning and Policy Studies 3, No. 1 pp 95-108.Agugbuem, E.O. (2002). Taking the Distance out of the Distance Education; the Complementary Roles of Information Nigeria Education Review 7 (1) 171 – 179.Akpa, G.O. Udoh, S.U, and Fagbamiye E.O. (2005). Deregulating the Provision and Management of Education in ... Continue reading---
