Predictive Influence of Class Size, School Location and Environment on Academic Achievement of Secondary School Students in Oyo South Senatorial District, Oyo State, Nigeria

Olubukola Adesola Oyebanji

doi:7340230

Poor academic achievement among secondary school students in Nigeria remains worrisome to government and educational stakeholders. Despite tremendous concerns and laudable contributions of researchers in the field of education, the issues persist which is an indication that there are still some estranged factors that the previous studies have not considered or not adequately addressed. This informed the direction of the study to examine class size, school location and environment on the academic achievement of secondary school students in Oyo South Senatorial district, Oyo state Nigeria. The study utilized descriptive research design with the use of structured questionnaires to gather data from the selected respondents. The study adopted multistage sampling technique to select four hundred and eighty (480) secondary school students who participated in the study. Data collected was analyzed and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that majority, that is 393 (65.5%) of the selected students were average achievers, and there was a significant difference in academic achievement of secondary school students in rural area and in urban area of Oyo South Senatorial district, Oyo State, Nigeria (t (478)=3.9115, p<0.05). Also, the result indicated that there was no significant difference in academic achievement of secondary school students in small class size and large class size (t (478)=-0.032, p>0.05). Furthermore, it was discovered that school location and school environment had significant independent contribution to academic achievement (=-0.083; t=-1.902; p<0.05. =-0.146; t=-3.372; p<0.05) while there was no significant independent contribution of class-size to academic achievement among secondary school students (=-0.041; t=-0.995; p>0.05). Further finding revealed that class size, school location and school environment had significant joint influence on academic achievement among secondary school students in Oyo South Senatorial district, Oyo State, Nigeria (F (3,476)=7.229; p<0.05). Concluded with discussion of findings and recommends that Government, non-governmental organizations, educational stakeholders, counseling psychologists, educationists, teachers and parents should take cognizance of the influence of class size, school location and school environment in the development of any intervention channel towards improving academic performance among secondary school students.

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