School Types and Academic Performance of Student’s in Economics in Secondary Schools

School Types and Academic Performance of Student’s in Economics in Secondary Schools

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background to the Study

 It is assumed that children leaning outcome and educational performance are strongly affected by the standard and type of educational institutions in which students get their education.

The educational environment of the school one attends sets the parameters of students’ learning outcome Considine and Zappala (2002) quoted in Sparldes (1999) shows that schools environment and teachers expectations from their student’s also have strong influence on students’ performance.

Most of the teachers working in poor schools or school having run short of basic facilities often have low performance expectation from them hence it leads to poor performance by the student.

Kwesiga (2002) approved that performance of the students is also influenced by the school in which they studies but it also said that number of facilities a school offers usually determine the quality of the school, which in turn affect the performance and accomplishment of its students.

Sentamu (2003) argue that schools influence educational process in constant organization of teacher and teaching learning and in the end education of the all. All these educationists and researchers agreed with this principle that schools put story effect on academic performance and education attainment of students.

 However, schools are established for the purpose of teaching and learning. It is also more important that the teachers and learners are properly accommodated to facilitate the teaching that goes on there. This is the essence of the school plant and facilities (Alimi 2004).

Therefore school facilities are the space interpretation and physical expression of the school curriculum. In Nigeria at large and in Akwa Ibom State in particular, secondary schools, irrespective of ownership are expected to function in compliance with the performance of the national education objectives.

To this end, students are expected to perform brilliantly in the final examination as this determines the quality of output of secondary schools. This is one of the better the parameters use to measure the effectiveness of a school system the system is assumed to be (Philias and Wanjobi, 2011).

 It is concluded that the type of schools in which performance and academic performance of the students miller and Birch (2007) summarized the views of many researcher and educationist in their study on the school types and academic performance of student’s in economics in academic in secondary schools in Eket local Government Area.

1.2   Statement of the Problems

The rate of poor academic performance of student in Akwa Ibom State had resulted to economic and social wastage and this have become a great concern to all stakeholders in education for instance, in 2010, 25.94% of the students and credit’s pass in economics and mathematics.

Also in year 2011, it was another year of poor result across all subscribed that the type of school, classified as public or private did not make any difference in the determination of student academic performance. As school in this study, it appears that weather a pupil attended a private or a public school does not matter.

What have been found to be related to student’s performance are the facilities available in the course of programme implementation. It could be that most of the private schools are now recruiting professional teachers to offset lapses so as to compete with public schools.

It could also be that most of the private secondary schools use comparable salary structure with public secondary schools. Some private schools have been found to be paying even higher salaries than public schools. This could be an additional motivating factor for comparable performance in the types of schools.

1.3   Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study was to examine how school types influence academic performance of students in economics in secondary schools in Eket local government area. The specific objectives were.

(i)     To examine students academic performance between those in public and those in private schools.

(ii)    To asses students academic performance  between those in day school and those in boarding school.

(iii)   To examine student’s academic performance in boys school and in girls schools.

1.4   Significance of the Study

This study will be beneficial to parents, government and students.

(i) To the parents, this study will enable parents to send their child to a well equipped school as this is where      sound education can be required.

(ii)  This study will help the students to developed positive attitude and behaviours as well as concentrate on their educational careers in any school type they find themselves.

(iii) To the Government, or will enlighten and reminds the governments and ministry of education the need to procure adequate teaching and learning facilities to create a conducive learning environment in the public schools in order to equate with that of private own schools in academic excellence.

(iv)   This study will also act as an index for further research work.

1.5   Research Hypotheses

(i) There is no significant difference between students’ academic performance in Government in private secondary school and those in public secondary schools.

(ii)  There is no significant difference between academic performance of students in Government in boys schools and those in girls schools.

(iii)   There is no significant difference between academic performance of students’ in Government in day schools and those in boarding schools.

1.6   Limitation of the Study

 The limitation of this study include the following:

(i) Time given for the completion of this study was inadequate to make a research like this to have a wider scope.

(ii)    The research had difficulty due to lack of enough financial resources to help expand the study to cover the entire state and local government area.

(iii)   The researcher also had difficulty with lack of adequate empirical students to give this work the require force.

1.7   Definition of Terms

The following terms are defined as they were used in the study.

(i)  Academic Performance: The level of skills attained by students in a given subject usually designed by a test score or grade obtained by students during the process of assessment.

(ii)  Boarding School: This is the type of school where by student’s the school compound during the term only for  them to go home during holiday.

(iii)   Day School: This is the types of school where by student’s  come from outside attend classes and go back at the school hour.

(iv)   Private School: These are school owned, managed and  controlled by individuals for profit maximization.