ABSTRACT
This study examined
students’ academic performance in English language in public and private
secondary schools in Mainland Local Government Area of Lagos State. In this
study, relevant and related literatures were reviewed by the researcher. The
descriptive research survey design was used in the assessment of the opinions
of the respondents collected through the questionnaire and the sampling methods
of data collection. Also 200 (two hundred) respondents were randomly selected
and used in this study as the sample representing the entire population of the
study. A total of three (3) null hypotheses were formulated and tested with the
use of the independent t-test for hypotheses one and three and Pearson product
moment correlation statistical tool for hypothesis two respectively at 0.05
level of significance. At the end of the exercise, the following results were
obtained: There is a significant difference in the performance in English among
students in both private and public schools, there is a significant relationship
between the spoken English of students in public and private schools, and there
is a significant gender difference in the performance of students in English
language due to school type. Based
on the conclusions of this study, the following recommendations were made:
Teachers should not discriminate against their students in the school. They
should ensure that all their students are loved and preferred. Rather,
teachers, irrespective of their gender, should ensure that they do not give
preferential treatment to their students so as to avoid being biased against
those students they dislike and giving undue advantage to their favourites in
the school.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Title Page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Approval Page iv
Acknowledgements v
Abstract vi
Table of Contents vii
CHAPTER
ONE: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1
Background
to the Study 1
1.2
Statement
of the Problem 7
1.3
Purpose
of the Study 9
1.4
Research
Questions 10
1.5
Research
Hypotheses 10
1.6
Significance
of the Study 11
1.7
Scope
of the Study 12
1.8
Limitation
of the Study 12
1.9
Definition
of Terms 12
CHAPTER
TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 13
2.1 The
History of English Language 13
2.2 English
as a Global Language 15
2.3 Studies
on English Language Acquisition 16
2.4 Comparison between Public and Private Secondary Schools
Performance in
English Language 19
2.5 Effect of Teacher Gender on Students’
Performance in
English Language 24
2.5
Teachers’
Opinions About Students’ Attitudes and Performance
in English According to Gender 29
2.7 Educational Qualification for English
Teachers and Students’
Performance 35
2.8 Summary of Review 40
CHAPTER
THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 42
3.1 Design
of the Study 42
3.2 Population
of the Study 42
3.3 Sampling
Technique 43
3.4 Sample
Size 43
3.5 Research
Instrument 43
3.6 Validity
and Reliability of Instrument 44
3.7 Administration
of the Instrument 44
3.8 Technique
for Data Analysis 46
CHAPTER
FOUR: DATA ANALYSES AND RESULTS 47
4.1 Descriptive Analysis of Bio-data of
Respondents according to
Sex, Age, Class and Religion 47
4.2 Descriptive Analysis of Data Collected from
the Respondents
with Research Questions 50
4.3 Testing of Hypotheses 59
4.4 Summary of Findings 62
4.5 Discussion of Findings 63
CHAPTER
FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 67
5.1 Summary
67
5.2 Recommendations
68
5.3 Suggestion
for Further Study 69
References
70
Appendices
75
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background
to the Study
English Language plays
an important role in the social, political and educational sectors of Nigeria as a
country. It is Nigeria’s
official language, it is also referred to as a second language (L2). It is the
means of social, political and even cultural interaction among the various
ethnic groups in the country.
This is why some
people tend to use and refer to it as a “lingua franca”, English Language is
not just a subject in the school curriculum, but the medium of instruction in
all other subjects except indigenous language. It is a very important language
(Jibowu, 2002). According to Jibowu (2002), the low performance in English
language by students at the West African Examination Council (WAEC), for
example usually brings great concern to parents, educationists and teachers and
the nation at large. A credit pass at least in the subject is required for
admission into higher institutions and for employment.
The ability to speak
intelligibly and write Standard English (SE) is often seen as a yardstick for determining
the educational standard of a person, his/her ability and competence in the
language of instruction have some influence on the quality of performance in
the other subjects.
According to Ubahakwe
and Ebo (1989), Nigeria
in her 1979 constitution advocated equal opportunity in education for her
citizens. Education in Nigeria
is expected to play a harmonizational role which is as an instrument of
national unity. Nigeria
is an egalitarian society where equal opportunity in education should be given
to the citizens but suffice it to say that this situation does not occur. A
situation where only the particular set of children get into the unity schools
does not allow the same equality of education for the citizens.
Durojaiye (1994)
observed that the current issue in Nigeria is efficiency in education.
According to him, in recent times, parents claim that there have been more
sophisticated measures of efficiency in private fee paying schools than in
public non-fee paying schools in the state schools. This efficiency in the
private schools ranges from the employment of enough and qualify English
language teachers, motivation of teachers, adequate remuneration and provision
of the same teaching-learning materials. Parents according to Durojaiye (1994)
draw this conclusion from the fact that many children from these private
schools gain admission to federal schools and most likely, into the
universities while others end up as bus conductors, drivers, carpenters, street
traders, mechanics, apprentices and in other menial jobs.
Only a few who went to
the public schools gain admission into the universities (Chief Examiner’s
Report, 2000). Adeleke (1990) and Effiong (1994) state that the rate at which
the private fee-paying schools are being established in Lagos State
is alarming as well as the rate at which parents rush to them for admission of
their children. Durotoye (1996) is of the opinion that it is the opinion of the
parents about private schools and the public schools that one is inclined to
make a research into the performance level of the children from the public
schools and the children from private schools in their senior Secondary School
Certificate Examination (SSCE) particularly in English language and other
subjects.
In the past, efforts
have been made to ensure correct measurement for the various variables on
children’s academic performance, students’ academic achievement in both the
private and public secondary schools could be measured in terms of their public
examination results organized by West African Examination Council (WAEC) and
other related examination bodies such as JAMB, NECO and GCE.
From the result
published by WAEC in 1996 and 1999, out of the 360,000 students that sat for
English language examination, the percentage pass is higher for the private
schools than the public schools (WAEC, 2001).
According to Adeleke
(1990) many factors contribute to mass failure of students in English Language
and other subjects especially from public non-fee paying schools. He identified
such factors as lack of motivation for teachers, students, low interest in
studying, unconducive school environment, lack of current textbooks,
non-provision of equipment, lack of up-top-date art learning equipment and
inadequate supply or provision of other important teaching and learning
materials in the public schools, other factors also include government neglect
of teachers, non-staff training programmes or inadequate staff training and
retraining programmes, poor remuneration and so on.
Ajayi (2000) is of the
opinion that the factors that militate against learning achievement in the
public schools are exactly those factors that promote or enhance high academic
performance in the private schools. For example, Ajayi states that there are
good teaching – learning environment in the private schools, teachers and
students are motivated to teach and learn respectively. There is adequate
provision of facilities to facilitate the students learning environment in the
private schools.
Amaonye (2000) and
Anozie (2001) state that, students usually perform dismally in the public
fee-paying schools, because, most of the students who are in the public schools
do not speak English language fluently, and this has affected their academic
performance in the subject-matter. They believe that without deep knowledge of
the English Language, it will be impossible for students to do well in any
subject offered in the school. According to them, English Language is the basic
language used in virtually all the subjects offered in the school by students.
So, for students to perform some measure of success in their academic career,
they need to have some measure of proficiency in English language both written
and spoken.
In a study carried out
by Adeosun and Anyanwu (2005), it was reported that, students perform better in
English language in most of the private schools located in Lagos State,
than the public secondary schools. According to their report, this cannot be
unconnected with the fact that despite the fact that teachers who teach English
language in the public schools are well qualified and well experienced, they do
not put in efforts commensurate with their knowledge and experience in the
subject to teaching it in the classroom. Most teachers in the public secondary
schools who teach English language in the school system, have both the mastery
and methodology of the subject-matter, but lack the requisite attitude towards
the impartation of the subject to the learner. For instance, teachers in
Nigerian secondary schools, especially, the fee-paying schools, do not teach
with all their minds, simply because, the government do not accord them good
treatment, in terms of the positive working conditions (Uzomah, 2006), and
adequate compensation or rewards for job they perform in the teaching
profession. This has lowered their morale and general ability to carry out
their teaching profession effectively. By extension, this has resulted in the
dismal or poor performance of their students who could not compete effectively
with their contemporaries.
Many teachers who
teach in the public schools, combine teaching with other business ventures in
order to make ends meet. This has affected their work performance and
productivity as English language teachers employed to teach in the secondary
schools in Lagos State (Mundi, 1990). Whereas teachers
who teach in the private schools teach with greater amount of commitment
because they are squarely supervised by the school managers who are always on
ground to monitor what is going on in the schools, especially, the activities
of teachers in the school. This causes private secondary school teachers to be
committed in their work and the resultant effect is the high productivity rate,
in terms of students’ high academic achievement regarded by the private school
students in English Language, year in year out in Nigerian organized public
examinations results.
1.2
Statement
of the Problem
The problem inherent
in carrying out a comparative study on the academic performance of students in
public and private secondary schools in English Language cannot be
overemphasized. This is because there may exist a wide gap between the
performance of students in the public schools and that of students in the
private schools, especially in English language. Generally speaking, many
students may be found to have low performance in English language, and the
problem of poor performance is relatively prominent among students in the
public schools. This is because many teachers who teach in the public secondary
schools, may lack the positive attitudes to impart the knowledge to the
students.
Workers perform well
if they are rewarded and motivated. In the case of the public school teachers
who may be poorly motivated and rewarded for the work they do, the resultant
effect is the non-challant attitudes teachers exhibit in teaching the English
language in the public schools across the country and in Lagos State
in particular. Some teachers who teach English language in the public secondary
schools do not pay undivided attention to the classroom teaching because they
combine teaching with other jobs like trading, past-time teaching and so on,
due to the possible poor condition of service that exists in the public service
when compared with their colleagues in both State and Federal ministries. For
instance, in the public secondary schools, there exists delayed payment of
salaries, poor fringe benefits and low regard for the teaching profession by
both the government and the society.
The poor teaching
conditions of teachers, coupled with non-regarded of the teaching profession,
have resulted in the dismal performance of students in English language, due to
poor teachers’ performance. Not only that, this has taken a dangerous tool on
the standard of education in the school system and by extension, on the
Nigerian economy, which has in any case affected public relations and the
diplomatic relations with the outside world in general. This is because,
English being the general tool of communication and commerce with the outside
world, poor teaching of it, will automatically result to poor learning and poor
usage with other people of the world.
The above problems
gave rise to the investigation into the comparison between the academic
performance of students in public and private secondary schools in Lagos State.
1.3
Purpose
of the Study
The main purpose of
the study is to carry out a comparative study on the academic performance of
students in the public and private secondary schools in English Language in
Mainland Local Government Area of Lagos State. The objectives of this study
include to:
(1)
find out whether there exists a difference
between the academic performance of students in public and private secondary
schools in English language.
(2)
compare the performance of students in private
schools with those in the public schools in English language.
(3)
identify the factors militating against the
high performance of students in English language in secondary schools in private
and public school.
(4)
investigate whether gender difference exists
in the performance of students in English language in private and public
schools.
(5)
examine whether there is a difference in the
job performance of teachers in English language in public and private schools.
1.4
Research
Questions
The following research
questions are raised in this study:
1.
Is there any difference in the performance in
English language among students who are in private and those in public schools?
2.
Is there any relationship between the
performance of students who come from public schools and those who come from
private schools?
3.
Are there factors militating against high
performance of students in English language in secondary schools?
4.
Is there gender difference in the performance
of students in English language in public and private schools?
5.
Is there any difference in the job performance
of teachers in English language in public and private schools?
1.5
Research
Hypotheses
The following
hypotheses are to guide the conduct of this study:
(1)
There will be no significant difference in the
performance in English language among students in private and public schools.
(2)
There will be no significant relationship
between the performance of students in public and private schools in English
language.
(3)
There will be no significant gender difference
in students’ performance due to school type.
1.6
Significance
of the Study
This study will be
beneficial to the following individuals:
1.
Teachers: They
would have an insight into the essence of motivating students to learn English
language in schools be it private or public schools. The study will help
English language teachers both in public and private schools to brace up to
teach the subject better.
2.
Parents:
Parents will benefit from the study because, it will enable them to appraise
the performance of their children/wards in both public and private schools.
3.
Students: No
doubt, students would benefit from this study because it will help them to be
abreast with the fact that if English language is well taught, it will result
to high performance of students. Also, students would learn that English
language plays a very important role in Nigeria and outside of it.
4.
Society: The
society also benefit from the study in the sense that it will enable them to
have an insight in the performance of students in English language in both
private and public schools.
1.7
Scope of the Study
The study covered the academic performance of students in
public and private secondary schools in English Language in Mainland Local
Government Area of Lagos State. The essence of carrying out this study is to
investigate the perceived poor performance of students in English Language in
both public and private schools.
1.8
Delimitation of the Study
The study was limited by finance, time and sourcing of
materials. It was also constrained by certain inhibitions in terms of data
collection which some respondents were not in good disposition to give out
easily.
1.9
Operational Definitions of Terms
Operational definitions of some terms used in the study
are hereby given as follows:
(1)
Private Schools: This refers to secondary schools owned
and financed by private individuals in Nigeria.
(2)
Public Schools: This means schools owned, controlled
and managed by the government, which could be federal government or the state
government.
(3)
Academic performance: This refers to the overall performance
of students in both their continuous assessments, and examinations over a
period of school time.
(4)
Comparative Study: This means finding out the
relationship between two or more things or variables.
(5)
Mainland Local Government Area of Lagos State: This local government is one of the 27
local government areas in Lagos
State. It is one of the
oldest local government areas in Lagos
State. It is situated in
the western part of Lagos
State. This local
government is densely populated with all ethnic groups, religious and other
socio-cultural groups in Nigeria.
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