Abstract: The study investigated The Influence of School Environment on Students Performance in Government. Three research questions and three null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The population of the study consisted of all Senior Secondary One to Three (SS1-SS3) students which were about 1600. The sample sizes of one hundred and sixty (160) were randomly selected for the study. A twenty (20) items Government Achievement Test (GAT) was the main instrument used for data collection.
A survey research design was employed in the study. The result of the analysis indicates the school facilities, class size and library resource significantly differ with academic performance of students. Base on the findings of the study, recommendations and suggestions for further studies were made that government should provide ceiling and ceiling fan avoid heat for students during heat period.
The Influence of School Environment on Students Performance in Government
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
The school environment which includes the classrooms, libraries resources, technical workshops, laboratories, teacher’s quality, school management, teaching methods, peers as well as playground etc. Is variable which has an important role to play when it comes to students academic performances (Ajayi, 2001 and Oluchukwes, 2000). Hence, the school environment remains an important area that should be studied and well managed to enhance student’s academic performance. School physical environment on the other hand include the building and the surrounding ground, such as noise, temperature and lighting as well as physical, biological or chemical agents.
The alarming increase in the number of students with asthma is one problem posed by poor physical conditions in school. The extent to which students learning could be enhanced depends on their location within the school compound, the structure of their classroom availability of instructional facilities and accessories. It is believe that a well planed school will gene up expected outcomes of education that will facilitate good social, political and economic emancipation, effective teaching and learning process and academic performance of the students (Lyon, 2001).
The physical characteristics of school have a variety of effects on teachers’ students and the learning process. Beyond the direct effects that poor facilities have on student’s ability to learn, the combination or poor place for teachers, poor facilities trigger the exhibition of frustrating behaviour by students including poor concentration and apathy. It is also a stressful set of working condition for teachers because of stress an job dissatisfaction are common pre-cursors to lowered teacher enthusiasm.
It is possible that the aforementioned characteristics of school facilities have an effect upon the academic performance of students. The importance of teachers cannot be over emphasized. This is because teachers play a number of roles. Specifically, teachers have been referred to by Oyedyi (2002) as agents of innovation for meaningful innovation teachers academic qualification is very important.
This is because teacher education is very complex enterprise. The complexity arises as a result of several factors which include determination of who an effective teacher is as well as what teachers are expected to do. Some of the roles are common to all teachers while other are uniquely related to certain kinds of environment of students or subject matter. Added to this is the fact that teacher education involves the training of professionals who will educate students in future. Despite the complexity in the field of teachers education, one cannot over emphasize the importance of academic training of teachers of all categories. This is because the efficiency of any institution depends on the academic competence of the teaching staff and no educational system cannot rise above the quality of its teacher.
A situation whereby a student had the capacity and the motivation to excel, without a good physical and atmospheric condition, the performance of such a student need to be re-appraised. A well equipped school with adequate classroom buildings, hostel accommodation, library and laboratory are pre-requisites for effective performance of government students. A situation whereby students write their examination on bare floor, where they learn under the shed of tress, call for proper understanding of the variable involved in the educational sector. For example, the above situation was faced by students in some secondary school in Akwa Ibom State especially in Oron Local Government Area.
It is therefore pertinent to investigate the relationships of variable such as class size, school facilities and teachers qualification to academic performance of students in Government in Oron Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
The Influence of School Environment on Students Performance in Government
1.2 Statement of the problem
Some schools in Nigeria carry out the educational activities in dilapidated buildings equipped without dated facilities and teachers at times work under unsafe conditions. It is not unusual to find teachers and students interacting academically under collapsed school buildings. Likewise students are sometimes left with no option but to receive lesson under poor ventilated classroom poor lighting and sound system, large class size because of lack of structures (building) and teachers are poorly motivated resulting to decline number of teachers in the school environment.
The high of students’ academic performance may not be guaranteed where instructional space such as classroom, technical workshops and laboratories are structurally defective. However, little is known on the impact of school environment on students’ academic performance. The prevalent problems have motivated the research on the influence of school environment on students’ academic performance in the study area.
