ABSTRACT
This study examined school
climate as correlates of students’ academic performance in state secondary
schools in Abia State, Nigeria. Specifically, it explored how different
organizational climates—open, autonomous, controlled, familiar, paternal, and
closed—relate to students’ academic outcomes. A correlational research design
was adopted for the study. The population comprised 1,856 respondents,
including 1,606 teachers and 250 principals from 250 secondary schools across
Aba, Umuahia, and Ohafia education zones. Using a multi-stage sampling
technique, a sample of 480 respondents (450 teachers and 30 principals) was
selected from 30 secondary schools in two education zones. Data were collected
through a researcher-administered instrument with the assistance of trained
aides, ensuring high retrieval rates. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation
Coefficient (PPMCC) was employed for data analysis, with hypotheses tested at a
0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed a significant high positive
correlation between open, autonomous, and familiar climates and students’
academic performance, suggesting that environments characterized by openness,
teacher autonomy, and supportive principal-teacher relationships positively
impact student outcomes. Conversely, controlled, paternal, and closed climates
exhibited moderate positive correlations with academic performance, indicating
a less favourable influence. These findings highlight the crucial role of
positive school climate in promoting better academic achievement among
students. It was concluded that principals and educational administrators
should prioritize creating open, autonomous, and familiar climates while
minimizing controlled, paternal, and closed environments. Based on the study,
it is recommended that policymakers and school authorities implement strategies
that foster positive organizational climates to enhance teaching effectiveness
and improve students' academic success in secondary schools.
Keywords: School
Climate, Academic Performance, Organizational Climate, Secondary Education.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
1
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
HYPOTHESES
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY
1.7 SCOPE
OF THE STUDY
CHAPTER
2
REVIEW
OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK
2.1.1 Concept of organizational climate
2.1.1.1 Types of organizational climate
2.1.2 Concept of secondary education
2.1.3
Concept of academic performance
2.2 THEORETICAL
FRAMEWORK
2.2.1 The
system theory by Ludwig Von Bartalanffy (1954)
2.2.2 The
social identity theory by Tajfel and Turner (1979)
2.3
EMPIRICAL STUDIES
2.4 SUMMARY
OF RELATED LITERATURE
CHAPTER
3
METHODOLOGY
3.1 DESIGN
OF THE STUDY
3.2 AREA
OF THE STUDY
3.3 POPULATION
OF THE STUDY
3.4
SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUES
3.5 INSTRUMENT
FOR DATA COLLECTION
3.6 VALIDATION
OF THE INSTRUMENT
3.7 RELIABILITY
OF THE INSTRUMENT
3.8 METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION
3.9 METHOD
OF DATA ANALYSIS
CHAPTER
4
RESULTS
AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1
RESULTS
4.2 SUMMARY
OF FINDINGS
4.3 DISCUSSION
OF THE FINDINGS
CHAPTER
5
SUMMARY,
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 SUMMARY
5.2
CONCLUSION
5.5
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
5.6 SUGGESTIONS
FOR FURTHER STUDIES
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
I: REQUEST TO VALIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE
APPENDICE
II:
APPENDIX
III: Analysis on population of teachers
and principals in senior Public Secondary school, Abia State by zones
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
TO THE STUDY
Academic performances are the extent to which
students have achieved their long or short term educational goals. According to
Chukwu (2019), academic performance is defined as the level of accomplishment
or proficiency one has in academic area as opposed to one’s potential. Eme
(2017) also defined academic performance as an educational goal that is
achieved, by a student, leader or institution over a period of time. Students’
scores in achievement test, Cumulative Grade
Point Average and completion of
educational degrees such as High School and bachelor's degrees represent
academic performance. In relation to this study, academic performance can be
regarded as an observable and measurable behavior of students in the subjects
taken during the terms. This is academic performances obtained through the
administration of achievement test which could either be teacher made test or
standardized achievement test. However,
for the purpose of this study, the teacher made was used to know how well the
teacher teaches the subject to the students.
Whether internal or external examinations, the
academic performance of the students has not been encouraging over the years,
as the number of students who possess five “O” level credits including
Mathematics and English Language have not been encouraging which has hindered
the number of students seeking admission into tertiary institutions. Over the
years there have been a record of poor academic performance of the students at
the external examination conducted by both the West African Examination Council
(WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO). This trend of poor performance
of secondary school students has also
been confirmed by the West African Examination Council (WAEC Chief examiners
report, 2018). The WAEC result analysis for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017
revealed the following statistics of the performance of Nigerian students in
state secondary schools in external examination. The percentages of students
who passed during the years with five credits including Mathematics were
reported to be 25.99%, 29.45% and 56.01% respectively for the year 2015, 2016
and 2017 for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination
(WASSCE)(WAEC,2017).
Meanwhile for the National Examination Council Senior
School Certificate Examination the percentages of students who passed during
the years with five credits including Mathematics were reported to be 20.61%,
19.34% and 38.11% respectively for the year 2011, 2012 and 2013 (WAEC,2017). It
is also on record that the percentage of candidates in this category(five
credits including Mathematics and English Language) for 2015,2016 and 2017 were
42.56 %, 38.68% and 52.97% respectively for the West African Senior School
Certificate Examination (WASSCE). In a similar vein, the percentage of
candidates in this category (five credits including Mathematics and English
Language) for 2015,2016 and 2017 were 38.23 %, 30.22% and 42.34% respectively
for the National Examination Council Senior School Certificate Examination
(NECOSSCE)(NECO,2017).
However, in South Eastern States, 41.7% of the total
number of students who entered for Mathematics at West African Senior State
secondary school Certificate Examination made A1-C6 in 2013, while 33% of the
students made AI-C6 in NECO. In 2014, 30.70% made AI-C6 in WASSCE as 28.7% made
A1-C6 in NECO. In South Eastern States in 2015, 41.10% of the students made
A1-C6 in West African Senior State secondary school Certificate Examination
(WASSCE) as 39.7% of the students made A1-C6 in NECO. In 2016, there was an
increase in the academic performance as 42.6% made A1-C6 in West African Senior
School Certificate Examination and 40.8% of the students made AI-C6 in NECO
(Abia, Imo, Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu State Secondary Education Management
Boards, 2017). Hence on the average, the
performances of the students in external examinations conducted by WAEC and
NECO in Abia States have been generally poor which has formed the decision for
this study.
This poor academic performance of students at both the
internal and external examinations conducted by both the West African
Examinations Council (WAEC) and National Examinations Council (NECO) could be attributed to a lot of factors such
as lack of conducive environment, poor teaching methods of teaching, teachers
attitude to their job, lack of interest of students in the teaching learning
process, students time management amongst others. To this extent, Chukwu (2019)
believes that the falling level of academic performance of students is attributable to teachers’ non-use of
verbal reinforcement strategy, as Adediran (2014) also found that the
attitude of some teachers to their job, poor teaching methods, teachers
qualification and students interest
influence students’ academic performance. In a similar vein many
researchers such as Adejumobi and
Ojikutu (2010) and Eme (2017 ) have established the fact that certain factors
such as teachers method of teaching
could influence the students interest and academic performance, Ogochi (2014) stated that poor academic performance of students in our
schools queries the methodology of instruction and therefore called for an in
depth investigation with a view of establishing the relationship between organizational
climate and teachers qualification on students interest and student’s performance in secondary schools.
Considering
the poor academic performance of the students over the years, questions have
been raised on the extent to which state secondary schools have performed in
producing students for tertiary education in Nigeria. This cannot be said to be
satisfactory, as the situation is particularly disturbing when it was realized
that one of the broad aims of secondary education as stated in the National
Policy on Education (FRN, 2013), is preparation of students for higher
education. This has led to persistent decline of the products of secondary
school leavers, thereby discrediting the productivity and functionality of the
secondary school system. It is on these bases that the present study
investigated the extent to which the variable organizational climate correlates
with students’ academic performance in secondary schools in Abia State,
Nigeria.
Organizational
climate is a variable the present study explored its correlation with academic
performance. It is also the internal quality that is unique and peculiar to the
school, it is the way in which staff of school perceive and characterize their
environment in an attitudinal and value based manner (Dorathi, 2011). It is a set of attributes specific to a
particular school that may be induced from the way the school deals with its
members and its environment (West, 2002). Organizational climate can be seen as
a social and psychological environment or atmosphere that characterizes a particular school, hence it is assumed that
organizational climate comprises shared
perception about school norms, belief, values practices and procedures the can
be observed at a general or specific level (Sinha, 2015). Positive organizational
climate contributes to a great extent to the school quality. To adopt a
comprehensive approach in exploring the extent school climate correlates
academic performance of schools, the present study explored six types of school
climates which are as follows: open, autonomous, controlled, familiar, paternal
and closed climate (Ikediugwu,2008). An Open Climate is one of the school
climate the present study explored its correlation with students’ academic
performance. Open Climate is characterized by low hindrance, low disengagement,
average intimacy, high trust and consideration of the principals (Olibie,
Uzoechina & Eziuzor, 2015). When the teacher has low disengagement, average
intimacy and low production he/she is expected not to have effective
instruction delivery which influences the academic performance of the students.
Findings from Adeogun and Olisaemeka (2011) on the study of organizational
climate and academic performances of students, found out that
significant positive correlation exist between Open
Climate and academic
performance of students.
Autonomous
climate is another type of school climate the present study sought to
investigate it correlation with academic performance of students.
It portrays an atmosphere where teachers are given a good measure of freedom to
operate in the institution (Raza, 2010). In this organizational climate the
principal has model enthusiasm and diligence, teachers have great desire to
work and students are highly motivated to learn which enhances the teachers’
instructional delivery. To this extent findings from Fakunle and Ale (2018), on
the study of correlation between organizational climate and students’ academic
performance found out that significant positive correlation exist between
Autonomous Climate and academic performance of students.
Controlled
climate is the third school climate the present study explored its correlation
with academic performance of students. Controlled climate is where the head
teacher or principal is highly domineering, aloof but not considerate (Ogbu, 2015).
In this type of climate the personal problems of staff are given little
emphasis, placing highly tasked oriented environment giving room for production
or achievement of organization’s goals (Olibie, 2015). The principals dominate
all school activities, goals are highly emphasized with little attention to
consideration and satisfaction of the teachers personal and social needs. These
in turn affects the teachers’ instructional delivery which influences the
students’ academic performance, as findings from Adeogun and Olisaemeka,
(2011). In this findings from
the study of the organizational climate on the academic performance of
students revealed that there is a significant negative
correlation between controlled
Climate and academic performances of students.
The familiar organizational climate is the fourth
school climate the present study examined and establish its correlation with
academic performances of student. It is a type of school climate which is
characterized by high degree of consideration and intimacy with little emphasis
on production (Ogbu, 2015). Thus, a congenial and friendly atmosphere exists
between principals and the teachers. The social need satisfaction is high,
while little is done to control or direct the group activities towards goal
achievement. These type of school climate is related to the academic performances of students as findings from Fakunle, (2010) in his study on School Climate as Determinant of students’
academic performance in state secondary school in Ekiti State, Nigeria found out that significant positive
correlation exist between familiar Climate and
teachers students’ academic performance.
The
paternal organizational climate is another type of organizational climate the
present study seeks to investigate its correlation with students’ academic
performance. Paternal organizational climate is referred to as one in which the
principal discourage the emergence of leadership acts from the teachers and
attempts to solely initiate all leadership himself (Olibie, 2015). In this
organizational climate, teachers are in isolation and essentially try to
compete with one another, and each has confidence in himself/herself. Bickering
and frictions are the order of the day, there is no trust and the use of
grapevine communication is valued which is expected to influences the teachers
effective instructional delivery and consequently impact on the students’
academic performance. Thus, findings from Adeogun and Olisaemeka,
(2011) on influence of school
climate on the academic achievement of
students, revealed that there is a significant negative correlation
between paternal climate and academic performance of
students.
The closed climate is the last type
of organizational climate the present study investigated its correlation with academic
performance of the students. The closed climate is characterized by high
disengagement, high hindrance, low spirit and average intimacy of teachers and
high aloofness, high production emphasis and a high trust of the principal
(Olibie, 2015). There is inadequate
communication and poor recognition of skilled employees. Dagnew (2014) added that in this closed climate type, there
are no clear job objectives, staff are not aware of performance gaps and are
therefore less attitude on the need to fill the gaps. Thus, these
characteristics of organizational climate tend to distinguish one school from
another and generally affects the teachers positively or negatively which may
also influence the academic performance of the students. Hence, findings from Fakunle,
(2010) in his study on School
Climate as Determinant of students’ academic performance in state secondary
school in Ekiti State, Nigeria found out that significant positive correlation exist
between Closed Climate and students’ academic performance.
The
organizational climate variables remain an important yardstick which can be
used to assess the extent of students’ academic performance. Several studies
have shown that organizational climate such as the open, autonomous,
controlled, familiar, paternal and closed climate correlate students’ academic
performance positively or negatively.. The researcher observed from the above
background that no research has been investigated in the correlation between
organizational climate and students’ academic performance in secondary schools
in Abia State, Nigeria. Hence, it was on these bases the present study sought
to provide empirical answer on the extent to which school climate variables correlates the
students’ academic performance.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Ideally when teachers with the ethics
of teaching work in favorable school climate the teachers are bound to deliver
instruction effectively in the areas of effective teaching, lesson note preparation, effective
use of scheme of work, effective supervision, monitoring of students’ work,
teachers’ commitment to job and extra-curricular activities. The resultant
effect of this effective instructional delivery is improved academic
performance of the students.
Recently there have been decline in
the academic performance of students both at the internal and external
examination, inability of students to read and write and high rate of
examination malpractices which are the indications of fallen standard of the
educational system in Nigeria. These have put the quality of the nation’s
education sector to serious question. The poor situation of academic
performance of the secondary schools
students’ manifests may be due to the poor Organizational Climate.
To
this extent a lot factors could be responsible for student’s academic
performances which could be the poor school climate. Based on this, the problem
of the study put in question form is;
does organizational climate correlates students’ academic performance in
secondary school in Abia State?
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The
main purpose of the study was to investigate the organizational climate as
correlates of students’ academic performance in
secondary schools in Abia State, Nigeria. Specifically the study sought
to:
1.
Determine the extent open
climate correlates with students’ academic performance in secondary schools.
2.
Find out the extent
autonomous climate correlates with students’ academic performance in secondary
schools.
3.
Ascertain the extent
controlled climate correlates with students’ academic performance in secondary
schools.
4.
Access the extent
familiar climate correlates with students’ academic performance in secondary
schools.
5.
Investigate the extent
paternal climate correlates with students’ academic performance in secondary
schools.
6.
Determine the extent
closed climate correlates with students’ academic performance in secondary
schools.
1.4 RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
The
study sought to provide answers to the following research questions:
1.
To what extent does the
open climate correlates with students’ academic performance in secondary
schools in Abia State?
2.
To what extent does the
autonomous climate correlates with students’ academic performance in secondary
schools in Abia State?
3.
To what extent does the
controlled climate correlates with students’ academic performance in secondary
schools in Abia State?
4.
To what extent does the
familiar climate correlates with students’ academic performance in secondary schools in Abia State?
5.
To what extent does the
paternal climate correlates with students’ academic performance in secondary
schools in Abia State?
6.
To what extent does the
closed climate correlates with students’ academic performance in secondary schools in Abia State?
1.5 HYPOTHESES
The
following null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 levels of significance.
HO1:
There is no significant correlation between open climate and students’ academic
performance in secondary schools in Abia State, Nigeria.
HO2:
There is no significant correlation between autonomous climate and students’
academic performance in secondary schools in Abia State Nigeria.
HO3:
There is no significant correlation between controlled climate and students’
academic performance in secondary schools in
Abia State Nigeria.
HO4:
There is no significant correlation between familiar climate and students’
academic performance in secondary schools in
Abia State Nigeria.
HO5:
There is no significant correlation between paternal climate and students’
academic performance in secondary schools in Abia State Nigeria.
HO6: There is no
significant correlation between closed climate and students’ academic
performance in secondary schools in Abia State Nigeria.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The
findings of this study could be of immense benefit to the students, teachers,
school administrators, government, curriculum planners, and researchers.
To
the teachers, the findings of the study on completion may help them to know the
academic performance of the students and how it is been influenced by the
different organizational climate that are prevalent in their schools. The study
may enable them to device how they will cope with the prevalent organizational
climate type in their school in order to bring out their best in the face of
adversity and improve on their effectiveness even if they are not well
satisfied and organizational climate are not favorable. These findings they would benefit from
attending conferences and orientations on factors that influence their
students’ academic performance.
To
the students, the study would be of immense benefit to them, as they could know
how the organizational climate type influences their academic performance, this
knowledge may help the students to cope and improve on their academic performance
and the students could get at least the best from their teachers even in the
face of adversity. These findings
would be of good benefit to them by attending conferences and seminars on
factors influence their academic performance.
To
the school administrators, the study on completion could assist them to know
how well their teachers have taught, which help to influence students academic
performance. It may enable the ministry of education to know how best to
recruit teachers even in the face of adversity towards bringing out the best in
them. The finding could also assist the administrators to know the school
climate that can influence effective or ineffective instructional delivery,
thus making them to employ the best organizational climate that would improve
the teachers’ effectiveness in instructional delivery towards enhancing the
academic performance of their students. These findings would be of good benefit to
stakeholders by attending conferences and seminars which could equip them with
the best ways to impact the students. It may also determine a close
relationship between organizational climate and students’ academic performances
in secondary school.
To
the policy makers and government, the study on completion may help them to
fashion out policies that would ensure that favorable school climates are
prevalent in secondary schools and also to ensure that high quality of teachers
are recruited, this may help the teachers to work hard and improve on their
effectiveness in instructional delivery which could be reflected in the
academic performance of the students. These
findings could be of good benefit by
attending conferences and workshops on factors influence the academic
performance of the students.
To
researchers, the study on completion may provide them with very useful
empirical evidence and literature on which they can make references to when
carrying out studies that are related to the present study. The study on
completion may also afford intending researchers the opportunity of appraising
and criticizing the present study with the view of finding gaps which their
future study may fill up. If acceptable and published, it could be of good benefit to stakeholders.
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This
study is delimited to organizational climate as correlate of secondary school
students’ academic performance in Abia State, Nigeria. The geographical scope
of the study is Abia State, Nigeria.
Also the study explored how six types of organizational climates which are: open, autonomous, controlled, familiar,
paternal and closed climate correlated with the students’ academic performance.
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