Thesis Abstract

<p> The study was carried out to investigate the influence of school<br>environment on academic achievement of students in Enugu State<br>public secondary schools. The design of the study is descriptive while<br>the population comprised principals and teachers in the education zone.<br>The sample size for the study was 600 respondents while a researchers’<br>self developed questionnaire formed the instrument for data collection.<br>Three experts validated the instrument and a cronbach Alpha reliability<br>coefficient method was employed to ensure the reliability of the<br>instrument. Four research questions and two null hypotheses guided the<br>study; while student t-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses at<br>0.05 level of significant. A review of empirical studies was carried out to<br>guide the researcher into previous studies in the area and also to<br>provide the researcher with the theoretical base. A 29-item questionnaire<br>was used to get information from the respondents. Based on the data<br>collected and analyzed, the following results were obtained. That staff<br>office, classroom spaces for teaching students and staff common room<br>represented the major areas that to a great extent affect the academic<br>achievement of students in public schools, with regard to buildings. It<br>was also revealed that desks, current books and presence of library<br>assistants constituted the areas of influence to the academic<br>achievement of the students with regard to library services in the public<br>secondary schools. Both the principals and teachers agreed that access<br>to reading materials in the school, lack of facilities, and nearness to<br>school and in sufficient qualified teachers very greatly affect the<br>academic achievement of the students. Inadequate teaching materials<br>were also noted as a major factor affecting the students’ academic<br>achievement. The two groups also shared common views in terms of the<br>great influence of school health services, fencing of school for security<br>and provision of power supply as important variable affecting the<br>academic achievement of the students of public secondary schools.<br>Based on the above, the researcher recommends that schools should be<br>provided with functional libraries, equipped with current reading<br>materials to help enhance both the students’ academic achievement and<br>the teachers’ effectiveness in academic activities in the school. <br></p>

Thesis Overview

<p> </p><p><strong>INTRODUCTION</strong></p><p><strong>Background to the study</strong></p><p>Generally in the whole world, particularly in Nigeria, education has<br>been considered to be the corner – stone for development. It forms the<br>basis for literacy, skill acquisition, technological advancement and ability<br>to harness human and material resources towards the achievement of<br>societal goal, (FRN, 2004).</p><p>Education is very important in any given society. It is a process by<br>which abilities and capabilities of individual are developed. These<br>abilities might be physical abilities, emotional abilities, social abilities and<br>intellectual abilities. It is the actualizing of human potential so that the<br>individual can become something more than what he was before.<br>According to Ugwuanyi (2003) education is the process by which society<br>establishes to assist the young to learn and understand the heritage of<br>the past, participate productively in the society and contribute<br>meaningfully for the development of the society. Emeka (2008) citing<br>Kneller (2000) sees education as a process by which any society<br>through schools, colleges, universities and other institutions deliberately<br>transmit knowledge, values and skills from one person to another. As a<br>result of deregulation in Nigerian education, the system of education has<br>two main interest groups – public education and private education.</p><p>2</p><p>Public education is the pillar or backbone of society which opens<br>the door of equal educational opportunity to all citizens. It is a public<br>owned property which attracts public attention constantly. According to<br>Ukeje in Akpa, Udoh and Faghamiye (2005):<br>Public school is concerned with the acquisition of<br>appropriate skills, abilities and competencies of both<br>mental and physical nature as equipment for the<br>individual to live in this society, and acquisition of a<br>relevant and balanced knowledge of facts about local<br>and world phenomena. (P. 12-13)<br>Public schools can also be seen as those schools controlled<br>neither by individuals nor by private interest or agencies but by those<br>who represent the society as a whole. In other words public schools are<br>those schools which are supported and controlled by the government of<br>the state or nation.</p><p>Private schools are those schools that are not administered by<br>local, state or national government, which retain the right to select their<br>student body and are founded in whole or part by charging their students<br>tuition rather than with public funds. This means that the school<br>established by the missionaries, individuals and voluntary organizations<br>belong to this group. According to Hernes (2001) United Nations<br>Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the<br>world Bank, private educational institutions are those that are not<br>operated by a public authority, but are controlled and managed by a<br>3<br>private body or board of governors not selected by a public agency on<br>selected by public vote. The institution may be run by or operated by non<br>governmental organizations (NGOS) or business enterprise.<br>Secondary school is the stage of education following primary<br>school. It is generally the final stage of compulsory education. Webster<br>(2009) sees secondary school as a school intermediate between<br>elementary school and collage usually offering general technical,<br>vocational or college- preparatory course, while Collins (2003) refers to it<br>as a school for young people, usually between the ages of eleven and<br>eighteen. As for the National policy on education (FRN, 2004) it is the<br>form of education children receive after primary education and before the<br>tertiary stage.</p><p>Environment can be defined as a system within which living<br>organisms interacts with the physical element while education<br>environment is a learning place where the learner learn and interact with<br>learning facilities in order to be socialized and face the challenges in the<br>society. Agusiegbe (2004) sees environments as consisting of all<br>elements existing around man and which exert some influence on him.<br>These include physical, biological and social attributes. Environment can<br>also be seen as aggregate of all the external condition and influence<br>affecting the life and development of an organism.</p><p>4</p><p>In this study, environment includes all the external condition and<br>influences in the school that affect the academic achievement of the<br>student such as laboratory equipment, library facilities, qualified<br>teachers, furniture, school building, good administrative management,<br>teacher pupil relationship and school location among others.<br>Environment for the purpose of this work can be divided into two partshome<br>environment and school environment.<br>School environment is the thread that connects the multitude of<br>activities on the school. In many respects, this thread is almost invisible,<br>yet everyone experiences its influence. Dudek (2000) opined that it could<br>be said to be the external influences in the school that can influence<br>academic achievement of students irrespective of their intelligent<br>quotient. School environment can also be considered as the second<br>teacher since space has the power to organize and promote pleasant<br>relationships between people of different ages, to provide changes, to<br>promote choices and activities and for its potential for sparking different<br>types of social and affective learning (Okeke 2001). It has been<br>generally accepted that environment and heredity can hardly be<br>separated from education in influencing achievement, hence a child’s life<br>and ability is influenced by nature and nurture. Heredity provides the<br>natural disposition while a healthy environment makes available a<br>window of opportunities to the learner (Ohuche 2001). The</p><p>5</p><p>environmental variable of the setting helps to a large extent in ensuring<br>attainability of the goals of such setting. The environmental differences<br>and the differences in the quality of instruction from one school to<br>another can create differences in the level of knowledge acquisition of<br>the students. This shows that the learning facilities children are exposed<br>to and the socio-economic influence on them can affect their academic<br>achievement.</p><p>School environment includes the school building and the<br>surrounding grounds such as noise, temperature and lighting as well as<br>physical, biological or chemical agent, (Chiu 1991). School environment<br>can then be seen to include material and human resources, a learning<br>place which consist of the entire interaction. The learning environment<br>is both the natural and provided setting where teaching and learning<br>takes place. Maduewesi (1990) referred to teaching and learning<br>environment as the setting physical and conceptual in which teaching<br>and learning are carried out as deliberately planned. And to Okobia in<br>Maduewesi (1990) learning environment means classroom<br>surroundings, physical facilities in the classroom and teacher – pupil<br>relationship.</p><p>Studies on the relationship between availability of resources and<br>students academic achievement have revealed that secondary schools<br>provided with adequate education resources performed significantly</p><p>6</p><p>better than those provided with inadequate resources (Balogun, 1995).<br>Environment is a very important factor in achievement of goal of any<br>educational programme. People acquire most of their knowledge through<br>the interaction with facilities provided in the environment for learning.<br>Also learning is influenced by the environment people are exposed to<br>and the facilities provided in such environment lead to experience. As in<br>the words of Piaget (1964) that active interaction with the environment is<br>regarded as the most basic requirement for proper intellectual<br>development.</p><p>The physical appearance and general condition of school physical<br>facilities are the striking basis upon which many parents and friends of<br>any educational institution make initial judgment about the quality of<br>what goes on in the school. They are often turned off by dilapidated<br>school blocks with sinking roofs and broken walls, bushy lawn and over<br>grown hedges. Also are profane writings on walls, littered lawns and<br>path ways. Finally, the school physical environment is like a mirror<br>reflecting the image of a school and through it the public decide whether<br>or not to associate with the particular school (Mgbodile 2004).<br>In Nigeria today, schools are closely associated with the<br>communities. Most communities depend on the neighbourhood school<br>for the provision of good and appropriate environment for<br>accommodation, furniture and all form of equipment for certain activities</p><p>7</p><p>like club or village meetings, wedding reception and church services.<br>There is need for a well planned and organized educational<br>environmental enrichment because it fosters good interpersonal<br>relationship. Moreover, Ajayi and Ashaolu (2005) opined that<br>environmental enrichment regarding physical facilities is a major factor in<br>students’ academic achievement. Supporting this Ayodele (2005) and<br>Ajayi (2007), have shown that school resources aid students academic<br>achievement.</p><p>It is now certain that most of secondary school products cannot<br>gain admission into federal universities or university of their choice due<br>to poor performance in the placement examination into these schools.<br>This poor performance may be attributed to poor learning environment<br>especially in the following areas: schools building, library services, and<br>school location and school facilities.</p><p>School building: These are tangible structures which serve as<br>shelter for educational activities. They include among others classroom,<br>laboratories, workshops, and teacher’s common rooms/offices, reading<br>rooms, libraries, dormitories and dinning hall. Despite the evidence that<br>the quality of a school building affect students’ academic achievement,<br>most public schools, in Enugu state are in poor physical condition. It is in<br>line with this that Earthman (2004) opined that the building in which</p> <br><p></p>