THE IMPACT OF LARGE CLASS SIZE ON STUDENT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN ENGLISH
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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of large class sizes on the academic performance of students in English in a sample of junior secondary schools in Etsako East Local Government Area, Edo State. The population is comprised of five sampled schools.
One hundred (100) students in all were chosen. Students inside the sample schools were administered a questionnaire. To steer the direction of the investigation, research questions were established. The acquired data were evaluated in tables with the chapter four research questions. The fifth chapter includes findings, conclusions, and suggestions.
FIRST PART
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
There was no improvement in the medical field in the past, and the lack of medical personnel in human populations (especially in underdeveloped nations) did not result in better health care. This impeded the reproduction of human resources.
The spectacular drop in the death rate during the past three to four decades was not accompanied by a corresponding decline in the birth rate, resulting in an upward trend in population. This resulted in the population increasing from one billion in the nineteenth century to approximately five billion in the first decade of the twentieth century.
This population growth rate trend is consistent with Sadips (1988) results that the global population increases by 370,000 people every day, but the United Nations projects that the global population would reach ten billion (10,000,000,000,000) by the year 2040.
Africa is at a crossroads of demographic expansion, and unless the population trend is addressed and reversed in the new century, mankind will move toward self-distribution or population trap, as foretold by Rev. Thomas R. Mathus in 1798. According to several post-independence population censuses from 1963 to 2006, Nigeria is the most populous country on the continent of Africa and the tenth most populous in the world.
This may have influenced Sudanese general Joseph Lafus’s assertion that Nigeria is the foundation of black Africa’s solidarity and, as the continent’s most densely populated and prosperous nation, bears considerable responsibility. The administration of the day is fearful of a number of universal problems related with population explosion:
Due to overpopulation, class sizes in educational institutions are growing.
Overpopulation tends to increase resource consumption.
Overpopulation causing huge unemployment and accompanying criminal inclinations, such as robbery, terrorism, kidnapping, prostitution, and premarital sex, among others.
A nation’s economy is impacted by overpopulation.
This study of the effect of class size caused by overpopulation is motivated by the aforementioned issues. Class size is the number of pupils in a classroom, and a class may be overpopulated or congested when the number of students stipulated by national standards is twenty (20), but in modern times the number of students in class has increased to 150 or more.
When a class is overpopulated, it is difficult to maintain control or administer the class. The teacher is unable to determine which of his students require additional attention, and the classroom environment does not allow for the teacher’s easy movement around the class, making it difficult for the teacher to establish a rapport with the students.
Population is not static, but rather dynamic, just as the population of a country is not static. Consequently, it is either increasing or decreasing based on specific health circumstances. Although population is not just a matter of numbers, it is also a matter of individuals.
1.1 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS
Due to an overemphasis on educational qualification completion, class sizes are growing at the nation’s higher institutions, resulting in a decline in students’ mental development, which in turn has dire implications for their academic performance.
Depending on the quality of the products of its higher institutions, a society may rise or sink. Unfortunately, the quality of education received in our numerous institutions continues to deteriorate since, among other factors, class sizes continue to rise.
When regarded critically, teachers are not solely to blame for pupils’ poor academic performance. The lecturers have no alternative but to lecture to more than 150 students in a classroom designed for fifty (50) individuals.
Pupils are frequently observed standing inside and outside the classroom, as well as sitting on half-built walls surrounding the classroom while receiving lectures from lecturers who must shout and strain their voices in order to be heard delivering lectures/teaching lessons to students.
It is to the researcher’s satisfaction that inadequate classroom facilities exist in the sample secondary schools in Etsako East Local Government Area, Edo State, with class sizes negatively affecting the academic performance of students to a great amount and hindering good learning/results.
1.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
On the basis of the stated problem of the study, the following questions were developed to direct the study.
Exists proof of overcrowding in school classrooms?
Does class size influence kids’ academic performance?
What are the obvious effects of an overcrowded classroom?
How can excessive class size be reduced to improve academic performance?
1.3 POPULATION OF THE STUDY
The goal of this study is to investigate the impact of large class sizes on the academic performance of students in a representative sample of secondary schools in the Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo State.
Determine the causes of excessive class sizes in the sample of junior secondary schools in Etsako East Local Government Area, Edo State.
Determine the impact of class size on the academic achievement of students.
Develop measures to alleviate classroom overcrowding in order to improve student academic performance.
1.4 Importance of the Research
Students in Etsako East Local Government Area in Edo State would benefit from the outcome of this study since it would provide a means for determining the relationship between class size and academic performance. On successful completion of this study, the government, particularly the ministry of education, and even the management of secondary schools will recognize the danger that overcrowding poses to students, ultimately leading to failure, and will therefore prepare to provide the adequate basic physical infrastructure needed to fit learners into society more easily as the future leaders who will soon transform society.
This study would also aid in proposing remedies to the issues observed, hence enhancing the academic performance of students.
1.5 RADIUS OF THE STUDY
The focus of this study is the class size of some junior secondary English pupils in the Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo State during the 2012-2013 academic year. Five junior high schools were chosen for generalization of findings regarding the impact of the phenomena on the local government area.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Class Size is the number of students in a classroom where teachers offer continuously prepared lessons.
Academic Performance: how well or poorly students do in scholastic subjects.
Secondary School: An institution created by legislation for the education of secondary school pupils (those who have passed the elementary or primary school certificate test), constituting the immediate lower level of the education system.
THE IMPACT OF LARGE CLASS SIZE ON STUDENT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN ENGLISH
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