ABSTRACT
The
study was carried out to investigate the influence of school environment on
academic achievement of students in Esan West LGA of Edo 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 coefficient method was employed to ensure the
reliability of the instrument. Four research questions and two null hypotheses
guided the study; while student t-test statistics was used to test the
hypotheses at 0.05 level of significant. A review of empirical studies was
carried out to guide the researcher into previous studies in the area and also
to provide the researcher with the theoretical base. A 29-item questionnaire
was used to get information from the respondents. Based on the data collected
and analyzed, the following results were obtained. That staff office, classroom
spaces for teaching students and staff common room represented the major areas
that to a great extent affect the academic achievement of students in public
schools, with regard to buildings. It was also revealed that desks, current
books and presence of library assistants constituted the areas of influence to
the academic achievement of the students with regard to library services in the
public secondary schools. Both the principals and teachers agreed that access
to reading materials in the school, lack of facilities, and nearness to school
and in sufficient qualified teachers very greatly affect the academic
achievement of the students. Inadequate teaching materials were also noted as a
major factor affecting the students’ academic achievement. The two groups also
shared common views in terms of the great influence of school health services,
fencing of school for security and provision of power supply as important
variable affecting the academic achievement of the students of public secondary
schools. Based on the above, the researcher recommends that schools should be
provided with functional libraries, equipped with current reading materials to
help enhance both the students’ academic achievement and the teachers’
effectiveness in academic activities in the school.
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 Significance of the study
1.5 Scope of the study
1.6 Research questions
1.7 Hypotheses
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 Introduction
2.2
Conceptual framework
2.2.1 Concept of environment
2.2.2 Concept of school environment
2.2.3 Concept of public secondary schools
2.2.4 Historical development of public secondary
schools
2.2.5 Changes in the structure of ownership of
public secondary schools
2.2.6 School building
2.2.7 Library services
2.2.8 School location
2.2.9 School facilities
2.3
Theoretical framework
2.3.1 Skinnerian environmental theory
2.3.2 Review of empirical studies
2.4 Summary of literature review
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHOD
3.1 Research design
3.2 Area of the study
3.3 Population for the study
3.4 Sample and sampling technique
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 FOUR
RESULTS
4.1
Research question one:
4.2
Research questions two:
4.3 Research question three
4.4
Research questions four:
4.5 Summary of Findings
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Discussion of Results
5.2 Conclusion
5.3 Implications of the Study
5.4
Recommendations
5.5 Suggestions for further studies
5.6 Summary of the study
REFERENCES
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
Generally in the whole world, particularly in
Nigeria, education has been considered to be the corner - stone for
development. It forms the basis for literacy, skill acquisition, technological
advancement and ability to harness human and material resources towards the
achievement of societal goal, (FRN, 2004).
Education is very important in any given
society. It is a process by which abilities and capabilities of individual are
developed. These abilities might be physical abilities, emotional abilities,
social abilities and intellectual abilities. It is the actualizing of human
potential so that the individual can become something more than what he was
before. According to Ugwuanyi (2003) education is the process by which society
establishes to assist the young to learn and understand the heritage of the
past, participate productively in the society and contribute meaningfully for
the development of the society. Emeka (2008) citing Kneller (2000) sees
education as a process by which any society through schools, colleges,
universities and other institutions deliberately transmit knowledge, values and
skills from one person to another. As a result of deregulation in Nigerian
education, the system of education has two main interest groups – public
education and private education.
Public education is the pillar or backbone of
society which opens the door of equal educational opportunity to all citizens.
It is a public owned property which attracts public attention constantly.
According to
Ukeje in Akpa, Udoh and
Faghamiye (2005):
Public
school is concerned with the acquisition of appropriate skills, abilities and
competencies of both mental and physical nature as equipment for the individual
to live in this society, and acquisition of a relevant and balanced knowledge
of facts about local and world phenomena. (P. 12-13)
Public schools can also be seen as those
schools controlled neither by individuals nor by private interest or agencies
but by those who represent the society as a whole. In other words public
schools are those schools which are supported and controlled by the government
of the state or nation.
Private schools are those schools that are not
administered by local, state or national government, which retain the right to
select their student body and are founded in whole or part by charging their
students tuition rather than with public funds. This means that the school
established by the missionaries, individuals and voluntary organizations belong
to this group. According to Hernes (2001) United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the world Bank, private
educational institutions are those that are not operated by a public authority,
but are controlled and managed by a private body or board of governors not
selected by a public agency on selected by public vote. The institution may be
run by or operated by non governmental organizations (NGOS) or business
enterprise.
Secondary school is the stage of education
following primary school. It is generally the final stage of compulsory
education. Webster (2009) sees secondary school as a school intermediate
between elementary school and collage usually offering general technical,
vocational or college- preparatory course, while Collins (2003) refers to it as
a school for young people, usually between the ages of eleven and eighteen. As
for the National policy on education (FRN, 2004) it is the form of education
children receive after primary education and before the tertiary stage.
Environment can be defined as a system within
which living organisms interacts with the physical element while education
environment is a learning place where the learner learn and interact with
learning facilities in order to be socialized and face the challenges in the
society. Agusiegbe (2004) sees environments as consisting of all elements
existing around man and which exert some influence on him. These include
physical, biological and social attributes. Environment can also be seen as
aggregate of all the external condition and influence affecting the life and
development of an organism.
In this study, environment includes all the
external condition and influences in the school that affect the academic
achievement of the student such as laboratory equipment, library facilities,
qualified teachers, furniture, school building, good administrative management,
teacher pupil relationship and school location among others. Environment for
the purpose of this work can be divided into two parts- home environment and
school environment.
School environment is the thread that connects
the multitude of activities on the school. In many respects, this thread is
almost invisible, yet everyone experiences its influence. Dudek (2000) opined
that it could be said to be the external influences in the school that can
influence academic achievement of students irrespective of their intelligent
quotient. School environment can also be considered as the second teacher since
space has the power to organize and promote pleasant relationships between
people of different ages, to provide changes, to promote choices and activities
and for its potential for sparking different types of social and affective
learning (Okeke 2001). It has been generally accepted that environment and
heredity can hardly be separated from education in influencing achievement,
hence a child’s life and ability is influenced by nature and nurture. Heredity
provides the natural disposition while a healthy environment makes available a
window of opportunities to the learner (Ohuche 2001). The environmental
variable of the setting helps to a large extent in ensuring attainability of
the goals of such setting. The environmental differences and the differences in
the quality of instruction from one school to another can create differences in
the level of knowledge acquisition of the students. This shows that the
learning facilities children are exposed to and the socio-economic influence on
them can affect their academic achievement.
School
environment includes the school building and the surrounding grounds such as
noise, temperature and lighting as well as physical, biological or chemical
agent, (Chiu 1991). School environment can then be seen to include material and
human resources, a learning place which consist of the entire interaction. The
learning environment is both the natural and provided setting where teaching
and learning takes place. Maduewesi (1990) referred to teaching and learning environment
as the setting physical and conceptual in which teaching and learning are
carried out as deliberately planned. And to Okobia in Maduewesi (1990) learning
environment means classroom surroundings, physical facilities in the classroom
and teacher – pupil relationship.
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 Esan West LGA of Edo 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).
Furthermore, educational facilities are needed
to develop cognitive areas of knowledge, abilities and skills that are
necessary for academic achievement. Moreover, the development of the affective
and psychomotor domain is also facilitated by the presence of necessary and
relevant school facilities.
From the fore going one can see that school
environment plays a crucial role in academic achievement of a child. This
problem of poor performance is more pronounced in ill-equipped schools hence it
becomes necessary to find out the influence of school environment on the
academic achievement of students of public secondary schools in Esan West LGA
of Edo State.
1.2 Statement of the problem
The problem under study has to do with an
unsatisfactory condition of the educational system being operated in Nigeria.
The establishment of government schools/community schools has resulted in a
situation where by some school were favoured in terms of the
provision
of rich environment than others. It has been very difficult if not impossible
for government to standardize the school environment. Thus the environment
varies from school to school.
Some schools have adequate school buildings,
good library and suitable textbooks, good administrative management,
professionally qualified teachers, good laboratory equipments as well as good
location. While in some schools little or none of these exist. It is because of
this that Chike-Okoli (1997) in line with Ikediashi (2002) have pointed out
that poor teaching experience, inadequate or poor physical infrastructure,
unsatisfactory building design are likely to cause some physical discomfort for
the students and are therefore bound to influence their academic achievement.
The problem of this study put in a question form is: What is the influence of
school facilities and equipment on the academic achievement of students of
public secondary schools in Esan West LGA of Edo State?
1.3 Purpose
of the study
The
main purpose of the study is to determine the influence of school environment
on the academic achievement of students of public secondary school in Esan West
LGA of Edo State. Specifically the
study intends to:
i.
Investigate the extent the quality of the
physical school environment with regard to school buildings affect the academic
achievements of students of public secondary school in Esan West LGA of Edo
State.
ii.
Determine the extent the library services
affects academic achievement of students of public secondary schools in Esan
West LGA of Edo State.
iii.
Find out the extent school location affect
student’s academic achievement of public secondary schools.
iv.
Ascertain the extents the school
facilities affect students academic achievement of public secondary
schools.
1.4 Significance
of the study
The
findings from this study will be of immense benefits to the government,
principals, teachers, parents as well as student
researchers.
The
findings will help the government or the policy makers in formulating effective
planning and implementation policies and programmes for improved school
academic activities. It will also provide policy makers with intelligent
forecast and analysis of future needs of the schools in the areas of building
and facilities.
It
will provide the school principals the opportunity to improve in school
supervision so as to ensure both quality teaching and learning in the schools.
It will enable them appreciate the contribution of school facilities and
equipment on students academic achievement. The findings will enable the
teachers to appreciate the need for proper instructional delivery. It will help
the teacher to improve both in teaching effectiveness and increased
productivity in the schools.
It
will help the parents in determining the choice of the type of school for their
children. This is because, their wards will enjoy good school learning
environment that will lead to quality school products. Finally, it will be of
benefit to the student researchers as it will provide a valid working document
or literature in investigating other areas not covered by this study. Thus, it
will serve as a point of reference to future researchers in the field.
1.5 Scope
of the study
The study is delimited to the influence of
school environment on the students’ achievement of public secondary schools in Esan
West LGA of Edo State. The content area covers school building, library
services, school location and school facilities.
1.6 Research
questions
The
following research questions will guide the study:
i.
To what extent do the qualities of the
physical school environment with regard to school building affect the academic
achievements of students of public secondary schools?
ii.
To what extent do the library services
affect the academic achievements of students of public secondary schools?
iii.
How does school location affect academic
achievements of students of public secondary schools?
iv.
To what extent do the school facilities affect
students’ academic achievements of public secondary schools?
1.7 Hypotheses
Two null hypotheses were formulated to guide
the study and will be tested at 0.05 level of significant.
HO1:
There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of teachers in
urban and those in rural school on the extent school building affect the achievements of students of
public secondary schools.
HO2:
Male and female teachers do not differ significantly in their mean ratings with
regard to the extent school facilities affect students’ academic achievement.
Click “DOWNLOAD NOW” below to get the complete Projects
FOR QUICK HELP CHAT WITH US NOW!
+(234) 0814 780 1594
Login To Comment