ASSESSING THE EFFECT OF SCHOOL’S FACTORS ON STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

ABSTRACT
School factors are the school human and physical facilities that are indispensable in the educational process.

The purpose of this study was to find out the effect of school factor on students’ academic performance in English language.

This was also examined using the students. Research questions were generated for the study and hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance.

The study is a descriptive survey type. Simple random sampling technique was used to select a total of 100 respondents for the study.

Questionnaire was used to collect data for the study while the data were analysed using simple percentage.

The hypotheses were tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation.

Based on the result of the data analyzed, it was revealed that school factors have major effect on students’ academic performance.

There exist a significance relationship between school factors and students’ academic performance in English language; there was a significant relationship between school factors and academic performance of both male and females students.

Hence, it was recommended that the class size should be minimized to an average of ratio 1:35. School physical facilities and qualified teachers of English should be provided in schools for effective students learning.

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Nigeria as a nation strives to experience real growth and development.

This requires a clearly defined developmental strategy that allows intensive utilization of resources with which she is endowed.

These resources include the various school physical facilities that are indispensable in the educational process. They include the furniture, the building and physical equipment and recreation places for the achievement of educational objectives (Oluchukwu, 2000).
The issue of poor academic performance of students in Nigeria has been of much concern to the government, parents, teachers and even students themselves.

The quality of education not only depends on the teachers as reflected in the performance of their duties, but also in the effective coordination of the school environment (Ajao, 2001). It has also been observed that adequate attention is now being paid to school plant planning throughout the world’s educational systems including Nigeria.

Educational facilities such as school plant have been repeatedly found to have positive relationship with standard and quality of educational system (Ojedele, 2000).
School factors, which include the classrooms, libraries, technical workshops, laboratories, teachers’ quality, school management, teaching methods, peers, etc, are variables that affect students’ academic achievement (Ajayi, 2001 and Oluchukwu, 2000).

Hence, the school environment remains an important area that should be studied and well managed to enhance students’ academic performance.
More so, school factors such as instructional spaces, infrastructural spaces and the teachers are essential in teaching-learning process.

The extent to which student 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 believed that a well planned school will gear 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.
According to Williams, Persaud and Turner (2008), and Marsden (2005), safe and orderly classroom environment (aspect of instructional space), school facilities (accessories) are significantly related to students’ academic performance in elementary schools.

The researchers also affirmed that a comfortable and caring environment among other treatments helped to contribute to students` academic performance.
The physical characteristics of the school have a variety of effects on teachers, students and the learning process.

Poor lightening, noise, high levels of carbon dioxide in classrooms, and inconsistent temperatures make teaching and learning difficult.

Poor maintenance and ineffective ventilation systems lead to poor health among students as well as teachers, which leads to poor performance and higher absentee rates (Frazier, 2002 and Lyons, 2001).

These factors can adversely affect student behaviour and lead to higher levels of frustration among teachers, and poor learning attitude among student.
Beyond the direct effects that poor facilities have on students’ ability to learn, the combination of poor facilities, which create an uncomfortable and uninviting workplace for teachers, combined with frustrating behaviour by students including poor concentration and hyperactivity, lethargy, apathy, create a stressful set of working conditions for teachers.

Because stress and job dissatisfaction are common pre-cursors to lower teacher enthusiasm, it is possible that the aforementioned characteristics of school facilities have an effect on the academic performance of students.
Studies have investigated the relationship between school factors and students academic achievement.

To complement these studies, the present research will examine the status of English Language in general, and the aforementioned areas of school factors as they affect student’s academic performance in Nigerian schools
The place of Junior Secondary school (JSS) in the country’s educational ladder is the Upper Basic Curriculum which covers JSS 1-3.

This change came into being as a result of Universal Basic Education (UBE) Programme a nine (9) years basic educational programme, right from primary to junior secondary with the aim of eradicating illiteracy and provide education for all. UBE was launched and executed by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Ogun state is a state in South-west Nigeria, established in the year 1976.

It borders Lagos state to the south, Oyo and Osun states to the north, Ondo state to the east and the Republic of Benin to the West. Abeokuta is the capital and the largest city in the state. Ogun state has twenty (20) local Government Areas Out of these 20 Local Government Areas (LGA’s)
The study area, Ewekoro Local Government Area first came into existence on 22nd of May, 1981 and it was later merged with Ifo Local Government in the year 1989 by the Federal military Government.

On the 16th of December 1996 the Local Government was fully restored as an autonomous local government.

The Local Government is bounded by Yewa south in the west Ifo in the south. Abeokuta North and Obafemi Owode in the north and east respectively. It has a land area of 63.5Square with an estimated population of about 55,156 people based on the 2006 population census.
Statement of the Problem
Emphasizing the importance of school factors on students’ academic performance, Oluchukwu (2000) asserted that school factors are essential aspect of educational planning.

He went further to explain that unless schools are well situated, buildings adequately constructed and equipment adequately utilized and maintained, effective teaching and learning may not take place.
The study by Ajayi (2007) maintained that a high level of students’ academic performance may not be guaranteed where instructional space such as classrooms, libraries, technical workshops and laboratories are structurally defective. T

hey also emphasized that structural effectiveness, proper ventilation and well sited instructional space lead to successful teaching and learning process in Nigeria secondary schools.However, little is known specifically on the effect of school factors on students’ academic performance in English language in a cosmopolitan centre like Ogun State, which is the focus of this study.