TABLE
OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1.3 Purpose of the Study
1.4 Research Questions
1.5 Research Hypotheses
1.6 Delimitation of the Study
1.7 Significance of the Study
1.8 Operational
Definition of Terms
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 A Review of the Nigeria National Sport Policy
2.2 Development of Sport and School Sport in Nigeria
2.3 Importance of Sports to Students
2.4 State of Sport in Nigeria Secondary Schools
2.5 Factors Influencing Students Participation
in Sport
2.5.1 Motivation
2.5.2 Reinforcement/Feedback
2.5.3 The physiological factors
2.5.4 Nutritional factors
2.5.5 Factors of equipment and facilities
2.5.6 Primary influences
2.5.7 Genetic factors
2.5.8 Training factors
2.5.9 Psychological factors
2.5.10 Secondary influences
2.6 Appraisal of Literature Reviewed
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design
3.2 Research Population
3.3 Sample
and Sampling Techniques
3.4 Research
Instrument
3.5 Validation
of Research Instrument
3.6 Reliability
of the Instrument
3.7 Procedure
for Data Collection
3.8 Procedure
for Data Analysis
CHAPTER
FOUR
DATA
ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION
4.1 Preamble
4.2 Data Collection and Presentation
4.3
Testing
of Hypotheses
4.3.1 Test of Hypothesis 1
4.3.2 Test of Hypothesis 2
4.3.3 Test of Hypothesis 3
4.3.4 Test of Hypothesis 4
4.3.5 Test of Hypothesis 5
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary
5.2 Conclusion
5.3 Recommendations
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Sport in
Nigeria has grown from a humble beginning as an entertainment and recreational
pastime to a prominent phenomenon whose influences are felt in all facets of
lives of citizenry. It has become an important aspect of the Nigeria culture
due to its popularity among the citizenry. It is as important as the basic
necessities of life, like food, clothing and shelter. This importance and power
of sports have been highly recognized by the Nigeria state and had used it to
pursue its foreign policy and diplomatic agenda as well as foster national
unity and socio-cultural integration. Examples of such moves by the Nigerian
government are the hosting of the 1973 All African Games after the Nigerian
civil war to demonstrate to the world that Nigeria is united, sate, and secure;
the introduction of the Nigerian Sports Festival in 1973 as a means of
fostering unity and cultural integration after the Nigerian civil war; etc.
(Boit, 2000).
In further recognizing the power of
sports especially for Nigerian children in promoting their physical, mental and
socio-economic development, the Nigerian state introduced sports in schools.
That is, considering the role of sports in the all-round development of the
child and youths, Nigerian Government came up with a policy aimed at ensuring
that sport is offered as a compulsory subject at the Nursery, Primary and
Secondary school levels of the formal education system.
According to the UN office on Sport
for development and Peace (2010), the Nigerian National Policy on Sports was
aimed at ensuring that:
i.
all primary and secondary schools have
playgrounds for sports as condition for approval for their establishment;
ii.
no pupil(s) or student(s) (including those in
tertiary institutions) suffers any penalty or discrimination for participating
in sports; etc.
It is
believed that the proper implementation of the policy will enable the children
have such core values as fair play, discipline, friendship, leadership, peace,
equality, self-discovery, etc. (Mgbor, 2002).
According to Fasan (2004) in Ogunbiyi
(2005), one of the most important phenomena which cut across all human
endeavours is sport. Its knowledge has contributed immensely to the art and
science of discoveries. Students like to engage in the same sports as their age
grades, they feel secured, relaxed and well understood in the midst of their
peers and overcome challenges together.
However, though students engage in all
kinds of sport available in order to develop physically, mentally and even
academically, their performance is not encouraging at all especially during
competitions and in comparison with expected standard. They do not perform to
expectation. This manifests through their poor outing in major competitions.
It is therefore, the concern of this
study to investigating the factors influencing the performance of students in
sports with regards to secondary school students in Ilorin West.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Various
attempts have been made in the past to explore the performance of
students-athlete in local and national competitions with a view to ascertaining
their performance level. Emmanuel (2006) carried out a study of the performance
of students in selected sports in Calabar Municipality. It was found out among others
that the students’ performance was not encouraging; that it fell below
expectation and standard. Earlier on, John (2004) conducted a study of the
performance level of students in sport activities in relation to their
performance in other class subjects. The researcher concluded that students’
performance in sporting activities was below 40% while their performance in
other core subjects was above 60%. He then submitted that there seems to be
more attention given to the core subjects than the sporting activities. This
thus becomes worrisome considering the fact that sports contribute to the
oneness of Nigeria and has brought about our binding spirit. It also helps to
develop the participants mentally and physically. That is why the school sports
become imperative to ensure all-round development of the students.
This
study becomes imperative to study those variables that are responsible for this
poor performance as identified in the earlier works. Hence, this work intends
to provide the missing links in those works by not just affirming the poor
performance of students in sports but tracing the causes of the poor outings in
sporting activities. This study, therefore, attempts to find out the causes of
this poor performance with particular reference to secondary school students.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The general purpose of this
study is to investigate the factors influencing the performance of secondary
school students in sports. Specifically, the work intends:
i.
to find out whether availability of sporting
facilities affect students’ performance in sport
ii.
to investigate whether the socio-economic
status of the students influence their performance in sports
iii.
to reveal whether parental attitude of the
students affects the students’ performance in sport
iv.
to know whether there is any relationship
between emphasis on the core subjects such as English and Mathematics and
students’ performance in sports
v.
to investigate whether there is a nexus between
students’ awareness of importance of sports and their performance in it
1.4 Research Questions
This work intends to provide
answers to the following questions in order to serve as guide and provide
direction.
i.
Does availability of sport facilities affect
students’ performance in sports?
ii.
Does the socio-economic status of students
influence their performance in sport?
iii.
Is there any relationship between parental
attitude and students’ performance in sport?
iv.
Does the emphasis on the core subjects affect
students’ performance in sports?
v.
Is there any relationship between awareness of
importance of sport and the students’ performance in it?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
Hypothesis
1
Ho: There is no significant relationship between
availability of sports facilities and students’ performance in sports.
H1: There is significant relationship between
availability of sports facilities and students’ performance in sports.
Hypothesis
2
Ho: There is no significant relationship between
students’ socio-economic status and their performance in sports.
H1: There is significant relationship between students’
socio-economic status and their performance in sports.
Hypothesis
3
Ho: There
is no significant relationship between parental attitude and students’
performance in sports.
H1: There
is significant relationship between parental attitude and students’ performance
in sports.
Hypothesis
4
Ho: Emphasis on the core subjects has no significance
influence on students’ performance in sports.
H1: Emphasis on the core subjects has significance
influence on students’ performance in sports.
Hypothesis
5
Ho: There is no significant relationship between
societal awareness of importance of sports and students’ performance in sports.
Ho: There is significant relationship between societal
awareness of importance of sports and students’ performance in sports.
1.6 Delimitation of the Study
This work is limited to
investigating the various factors influencing students’ performance in
sport. Again, it is limited to only the
secondary schools students in Ilorin West local government area of Kwara State.
So, in its length and breadth, the
work is limited to the performance of secondary schools students in Ilorin West
in sports. The information presented here therefore does not cover their
performance in other subjects nor does cover all other students in primary and
tertiary institutions.
1.7 Significance of the Study
This study will be of immense
benefit to the society; the school, stakeholders, students, parents, etc.
It is believed that, by the findings
of the work, students will begin to appreciate sports more and participate more
in order to develop themselves. By this, they will realize the need to create
more time for themselves in order to engage in sport. Consequently, it will
improve their performance.
Also, parents will be made to know why
their children/wards should engage in sport and why they should be allowed to.
This will then improve performance in sports.
Similarly, the schools will be made to
realize the need to create an opportunity and enabling environment for
students’ participation in sports to promote performance. The schools will come
to know that they need to provide sport facilities to enhance performance.
The support of the curriculum planners
and stakeholders is germane to performance of the students in sport. It is
believed that this work will help to improve the support by de-emphasising the
core-subjects at the expenses of sports. The stakeholders will thus be made to
understand that both deserve adequate and equal attention without one affecting
the other.
The general attitude and support of
the society towards sport participation will be improved. That is, this work
will help the society realize the need to support the school and the children
to participate in sport. The present attitude of the society does not help
matters as students who engage in sports are tagged unserious. But, it is
believed that this work will help change this perception of the society about
sports.
Finally, it is the belief of this work
that further research work will benefit from its contents and findings. Thus,
it will serve as a source of reference for other research works.
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms
Sports: These
are activities engaged by the students using physical efforts and skill,
usually for relaxation, pleasure or fun.
Motivation:
This is
used to refer to any kind of reinforcement given or received by the students.
Performance:
This is
used to mean how the students fair in sports.
Influencing:
This
term is used to mean effects on the students.
Sport
man (or woman): A person who participates or takes part in
sport. It is also known as athlete. Here, it refers to the students who engage
in school sports.
Login To Comment