FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENT PERFORMANCE IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION IN NIGERIA
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FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENT PERFORMANCE IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION IN NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
1.1Background of the Study
Students in Nigeria are required to take the Senior Secondary School final exam.
Two public or national examination bodies, the National Examination Council and the West African Examination Council (WAEC), administer the Certificate Examination (SSSCE).
NECO. Candidates in their third and final year of secondary school take this exam as part of their final educational phase. One sort of standardised test that WAEC administers for its member nations—Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia—is the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) (West African Examination Council, 2016).
The West African Senior School Certificate (WASSCE) is the academic school-leaving credential granted upon passing the exams. With its headquarters located in Accra, Ghana, and national offices in each of its member nations, the WAEC was legally formed in 1952 with the authority to administer such tests and grant credentials that are on par with those issued by other examining bodies across the globe.
Education is the entirety of the human learning process, which influences knowledge, trains faculties, and develops abilities. In addition to holding a key position in Nigeria’s educational system, secondary schools serve as a bridge connecting the primary and university levels of learning.
Secondary school education is meant to serve as the cornerstone and basis for postsecondary institutions’ higher education, according to Asikhai (2010). It is both an investment and a tool for accelerating a nation’s technological, scientific, cultural, social, political, and economic development.
The fact that today’s secondary schools fall short of the expectations placed on them is regrettable. The public has expressed disapproval of secondary school pupils’ consistently subpar performance on public tests.
Students’ academic performance serves as the benchmark for evaluating a country’s level of education, claim Nwokocha and Amadike (2005). Maintaining a strong performance in internal and primarily external exams is therefore advantageous.
The poor performance of secondary school pupils in public exams has been documented in newspaper articles and research findings for a number of years.
The breadth of pupils’ subpar performance in public exams has been demonstrated by Ajayi (2002), Nwokocha and Amadike (2005), WAEC (2007), The Punch newspaper (September 27, 2008), Adeyemi (2008), and Asikhia (2010).
Not only are parents and students frustrated by the ongoing drop in students’ performance on public exams, but society as a whole suffers greatly as well.
Public exams like the Senior School Certificate Examination (S.S.C.E.) in Nigeria are one of the most effective, if not the most powerful, ways to gauge students’ academic performance to date.
The public has great confidence in these exams, which are moderated by outside parties. Secondary education is the type of education that children receive following primary school but prior to tertiary education. It goes without saying that the foundation of any future academic research cannot be established without secondary school products.
The performance of Kano State’s day and boarding senior secondary school pupils should significantly improve based on the goals and objectives of the establishment of schools. Undoubtedly, there are issues with every educational system.
But the state of the Nigerian educational system is deteriorating to the point of embarrassment. According to Ogunsaju (1990), it was disastrous. Even in public schools, there are some exceptional students, but the high WASSCE failure rate tends to minimise the talented ones.
Therefore, if education is going to continue to hold on to its old image as an instrument par excellence for achieving national development, it has to be salvaged or resuscitated.
The popular practices of changing the curriculum or adding more subjects, changing the duration of schooling or voting more money are not yielding the expected results. A lot more has to be done. Nigerians are quick at pointing accusing fingers at poor teaching facilities, inadequate and poorly trained teachers, parental laxity, under funding and so on.
While all these are possibilities, there is an urgent need now to reappraise the schools vis-à-vis all these factors since situations are not static. For instance, the government continues to vote more money into the education sector annually without corresponding improvement in the schools.
Therefore, this study focuses on the determinants affecting student performance in West Africa senior secondary school certificate examination in Nigeria, a case study of Ikeja LGA.
1.2 Statement Of The Problem
Disappointingly, this all vital industry is beset with plethora of issues. Prominent among the problem area that brings to light the bad display of the sector is the awful outing of pupils in SSCE. The poor performance in WAEC and NECO has been a source of anxiety to Parents and other stakeholders in the
Consequently, the out-cry on the persistent poor and unpromising performances of many day and boarding senior secondary school students in Kano Metropolis, Nigeria specifically, in the past six years (2005/2006, 2006/2007, 2007/2008, 2008/2009) in Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) conducted by West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) made educationists and the government policy makers and the researcher wonder whether the schools are measuring up to the expectations.
However, certain elements among the numerous challenges plaguing Day and Boarding Senior Secondary Schools in Kano Metropolis would without doubt positively or negatively effect students’ performance in WAEC examinations.
Many of them lack management of school building, facilities and equipment, such as, books, libraries, science, vocational and languages laboratories, maintenance of instructional materials for the teaching and learning process, maintenance of discipline, management and administration of senior secondary schools, inspection and supervision of school curriculum and time table by State Ministry of Education, inter-personal relationship between school and community, time management, teachers‘ level of commitment, inter-personal relationship between students and teachers and students‘ welfare support services.
Other factors that may equally affect Day and Boarding students‘ academic performance in WAEC examinations include: students‘ indiscipline in schools, inadequate supervision of students‘ conduct in the house, lack of involvement of students ineffective communication in schools, lack of innovation, lack of students‘ participation in school decision-making
lack of students‘ participation in co- curricular activities in schools, inaccurate techniques of evaluating students‘ academic work, frequent change in state admission and promotion policies by educational administrators and planners for the school systems, students‘ poor attitude to school work, teachers‘ qualification and development
students- parents relationships, inaccurate statistical data, retention of unqualified staff, lack of funds which inhibits proper maintenance of human and material resources in schools, poor morale of parents, government and students in the core- subjects and other major indicators.
1.3 Objectives Of The Study
The basic purpose of this study is to evaluate the determinants affecting student performance in West Africa senior secondary school certificate examination in Nigeria, a case study of Ikeja LGA.
The precise aims of this study include the following:
To find out the impact of economic conditions on student performance in West Africa senior secondary school certificate test in Nigeria.
To ascertain the effect of cultural determinants on student performance in West Africa senior secondary school certificate test in Nigeria.
to look into how demographic characteristics affect students’ performance on the Nigerian senior secondary school certificate test in West Africa.
to investigate how instructors’ performance affects various aspects of students’ performance on the Nigerian senior secondary school certificate test in West Africa.
to evaluate how the school environment affects students’ performance on the senior secondary school certificate exam in Nigeria, which is part of West Africa.
1.4 Research Questions
The following are some pertinent research questions for this study:
What effect do economic circumstances have on Nigerian students’ success on the West African senior secondary school certificate exam?
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2.0 CHAPTER TWO
Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
This chapter’s primary focus is the review of pertinent literature. A literature review discusses the level of knowledge at the time of writing as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic.
It gives you details about the current state of the art regarding the topic of your essay. It looks at the corpus of research on the selected topic.
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