Impact of School Variables on Students' Academic Performance in Secondary Schools in Federal Capital Territory Abuja, Nigeria

Background to the Study 

Establishment of the school system in Nigeria society has been in existence as far back as several decades ago. The school system primarily has to do with the transformation of knowledge to individuals. It is in recognition of this fact that governments have made commitment for her citizens to have access to education. Oredein (2016) the school system has a lot of impact on the student,with particular references to ensuring that students are well developed to increase in their academic performance. The nation’s overall development is largely  dependent on its educational system,  since  education is  a light that shows mankind the right direction to surge as well as being an engine for the growth and progress of any society. Education does not only impacts knowledge, skills and inculcate values, but it is also responsible for building human capital which breeds, drives and sets technological innovation and economic growth (Adedeji, 1998). Education inits broadest meaning is any process by which an individual gains knowledge,develops attitude or skills. it is an experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character, or physical ability of an individual, and in its technical sense education is the process by which society deliberately transmit its accumulated knowledge, values and skills from one generation to another generation(Bowers, 2002).  Nigeria like any other developing country of the world has for long expressed strong conviction in the  potency of education as the key factor to  national development and integration. It is a fact that the prosperity of a country depends on the abundance of its revenue or on the beauty of its public buildings or on the strength of its buildings, but it is also seen in number of its’cultivated citizens, in its men of educational enlightenment and character(Oredein, 2016).

The school is a social and learning agent that provides the environment upon which a child may be formally educated in order to attain educational goals. Human beings, have unlimited capacity to learn, but may however be limited by the behavior patterns and facilities that the immediate environment offers.National policy on Education (2008) also stated that Nigeria has adopted education as an instrument “par excellence” for effecting national development. The study of Arian (2012), revealed that no nation can rise to a high level of development without considering the school variables.According to Burtein, (2002), school variables therefore could be defined as all the relevant aspect of the school system that could promote and sustain good academic activities of the students. The school variables include the location of the school, school size, school type, structure and ownership. The provision of these school variables are primarily the responsibility of the government, it should therefore be noted that one of the major reasons why all these variables should be made available is to ensure that students’ high academic performance is maintained. The school variable remains an important area that should be studied and well managed to enhance student’s academic performance. School variables is also defined as the factors that can impact positively or negatively on student academic performance. For over four decades, several studies such as the impact of school variables on student academic achievement postulated by Bowers (2006), emphasized the importance of school as social environment of learning. Some of these studies examined school location and their attendant consequences on achievement of students in various states of the Federation (Wabuke, 2013). 

The world Bank recommended that the following data were needed for rationalizing and drawing up of both the urban and rural, 

(a) location, such as physical aspect,like type of building and human capacity, 

(b) teachers which include: number,qualification and age, 

(c) students which includes enrolment in school by age, sex, previous schools, home, location of school and mode of transport, time taken from home to school journey, parental background. 

(d) Rural and urban area data which include planning reports, settlement patterns among others are required. 

These  school location  techniques have been reportedly  used by  a number of countries to solve their educational problems (Owiti, 2001).It has been observed that a school with a highly populated students’ may result in the teachers not being able to monitor the performance of the students and thus reducing the students’ academic performance. Therefore, a form of severe relationship exists between the ownership of school and the students’ academic performance, among public school and private schools together with the location and availability of educational resources at the disposal of the students in terms of school variable, all these may affect students level of academic performance (Arian, 2012). Joseph and Emmanuel (2017), an issue in school location is that students walk longer than the recommended 2.5 kilometer to and from school. It may be a problem because while students in some areas enjoy minimum traveling distances to acquire education, some students in other places may suffer by having to cover long distances to acquire education. The resultant effect is that the student  may  be  tired even before  reaching the school. This may  have intended consequences on the academic performance of students in school. It was observed that sometimes, students are subjected to crossing rivers,climbing mountains or even walking through a valley before getting to school.The physical exhaustion may inhibit active participation of the students in the teaching and learning activities. This can result in to lateness and truancy on the part of the students and teachers. The outcome of students’ lateness and truancy  to school  may eventually affect the academic performance  of such students. A critical look at some schools in the rural area of the Federal Capital Territory, such as GSS Byazhin in Bwari area Council, Abuja portrays that some of the students do not have time to use the library because of the time they close from school and have to trek back home. Thus, the benefit of using the library to enhance academic performance of students eludes them, (Arian,2012).It has equally been observed that, there are issues with rural-urban difference in education in Nigeria, though the FCTA is trying its best to make most of the schools in the rural area up to standard and giving incentive/ motivations such as allowance and free accommodation for teachers in the rural area (Ado Usman, B, 2016). 

It seems that qualified and experienced teachers prefer to serve in urban areas rather than rural areas. Teachers do not happily accept postings to rural areas because the conditions of schools in rural areas are not up to the expected standard and the teachers’ as their social live in the areas might be virtually restricted as a result of inadequate facilities, playgrounds are without equipment, libraries are without books while laboratories are without the necessary apparatus, chemicals and equipment. The issue is that where a teacher is not comfortable, he cannot put in his best and this may likely affect quality education adversely (Oredein, 2016). 

Also, level of social structures of the community where the schools are located affect level of access to education in the villages (Griffin, 2003). Oredein (2016) lamented that the problem here is that some educational planners might have been appointed based on their level of involvement in the government of the day and not as a result of the skills they possessed. As a result of this, school plants might be wrongly located and this will result in wastages of resources which if invested in the right location would have enhanced quality of delivery of education and improve students’ performance (Alokan, 2010). More often than not, small and large schools in a particular environment may likely determine the standard of education at a  particular time. Students’ academic performance is the utmost desire of any nation, the development of any nation however is based on the level of students` educational attainment and the role of schools’ variables in attainment of students’ academic performance seems to be crucial. It is on this note that the study is  investigating  the  impact  of school  variable  on students` academic performance in secondary schools of the Federal Capital territory, Abuja, Nigeria.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages

TITTLE PAGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………. ii

LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………….  iv

CHAPTER ONE

1.0   INTRODUCTION

1.1  Background to the Study………………………………………………………………………… 1

1.2 Statement of the Problem………………………………………………… 6

1.3 Purpose of the Study……………………………………………………... 7

1.4 Research Questions………………………………………………………. 8

1.5 Hypotheses………………………………………………………………. 9

1.6 Significance of the Study…………………………………………………10

1.7 Delimitation of the Study……………………………………………… ...11

1.8 Operational Definition of Terms………………………………………….12

CHAPTER TWO

2.0      REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………….14

2.2 Theoretical Framework…………………………………………………...14

2.3 The Concept of School Variables ………………………………………. 19

2.4 The Concept of Students’ Academic Performance………………………29

2.5 School Variables and Students’ Academic Performance…………………30

2.6 Review of Previous Studies……………………………………………… 45

2.7 Summary………………………………………………………………… 57

CHAPTER THREE

3.0   METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………60

3.2 Research Design………………………………………………………….60

3.3 Population of the Study…………………………………………………..60

3.4 Sample Size and Sampling Procedure……………………………………61

3.5 Instrumentation………………………………………………………….62

3.6 Validity and Reliability of the Instrument……………………………….67

3.7 Data Collection Procedure………………………………………………67

3.8 Method of Data Analyses……………………………………………….68

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0  DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

4.1  Introduction        58

4.2  Presentation of Data    58

4.3  Answers to Research Questions         58

4.4  Summary of the Findings        73

4.5  Discussion of Findings  74

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0    SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1  Introduction      77

5.2  Summary         77

5.3  Conclusion         79

5.4  Recommendations     79

5.5  Implication of Findings of the Study      80

5.6  Contribution to Knowledge         81

5.7  Limitation of the Study  81

5.8  Suggestion for Further Studies       82

REFERENCES 83

APPENDICES  88

LIST OF TABLES

1: Population of Public Senior Secondary Schools and Teachers in the FCT …………………..61

2: Sample Size of Schools and Teachers………………………………….62

3: Amac SSCE summary Result (2012 -2016) ………………….

4: Abaji SSCE summary Result (2012 -2016) .......................................

5: Gwagwaglada SSCE summary Result (2012 -2016) ……………

6: Bwari SSCE summary Result (2012 -2016) ………………………..

7: Kwali SSCE summary Result (2012 -2016) ……………………..

8: Kuje SSCE summary Result (2012 -2016) ………………………..

APPENDICES

Students/Teachers Population, Ratio 2010………………………

Students/Teachers Population, Ratio 2011………………………

Students/Teachers Population, Ratio 2012………………………

Students/Teachers Population, Ratio 2013………………………

Students/Teachers Population, Ratio 2014………………………

Students/Teachers Population, Ratio 2015………………………

Students/Teachers Population, Ratio 2016………………………