ANALYSIS OF FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE CHOICE OF SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL BY JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

ABSTRACT The objective of this study has been to determine the major underlying factors that influence the choice of senior high schools. To this end, a survey of 510 BECE candidates in Junior High Schools in Nungua, a community in Accra, was conducted. The students were asked to indicate their opinions on twenty seven variables on a five-point Likert scale. The data generated from the survey were multivariate in structure since 27 variables were recorded on 510 respondents. Factor analysis, which is a procedure for data reduction and summarization, is considered appropriate for analyzing this high dimensional data set. Initial exploration of the data, using correlation analysis and frequency distributions of the responses further informed the choice of this technique. A four-factor solution was obtained at the end of the analysis. It was found more appropriate to extract rotated factors since, unlike the unrotated solution, all the four factors had more than one indicators. The rotated factor solution comprises the following: controlled social atmosphere, parental guidance/individual needs, quality of education given by the school, and the location of the school. Therefore, in decreasing order of importance, controlled social atmosphere is the most influential factor that underlies the selection of senior high schools. A second most influential factor is parental guidance/individual needs. Quality of education and the location of the school are the other factors that cannot be ignored.