COMPARISON OF JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EXAMINATION IN SOCIAL STUDIES

 

COMPARISON OF JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EXAMINATION IN SOCIAL STUDIES

 




CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1  Background of the Study

The parameter or yardstick in the measurement or determine into of one’s achievement, success or failure on an assigned duty, specific task, education and or, in a business Endeavour is by the evaluation of his/her performance in their various subjects of study in Nigeria is a thing of long time origin.  And the appraisal of student’s performance in social studies is not an exemption.  The importance of social studies as a subject taught in secondary school in Nigeria cannot be over-emphasized.  It is in this vain that many researchers have studied our school system to identify the various means, channel and or, procedure of impeaching knowledge to our students especially through social studies.

This performance of students is a far cry based on the expected success of institutions of these kinds or nature.  A lot of reasons has been adduced for this inspite of the preparedness of teachers of those schools to deliver.  Some of the students absent themselves from schools for a long time.  This affects their performance because they have lost touch of the essence of regular practice and continuity in social studies.

            Secondly, the students do not avail themselves with the use of books which supposed to enhance their performance this is further caused by poor reading habit of some of them and loads of domestic work which their parents engaged them in.

Learning has been so much associated with the school that some people almost think that learning goes on only in schools. This view of learning has been greatly reinforced by such reference to schools as institutions of learning and to Universities, Polytechnics and College of Education as institutions of higher learning (Okoye, 1987). There is no doubting the fact that much learning goes on in school. The school is particularly and specifically arranged so as to facilitate effective learning. Unfortunately the poor condition of our schools, particularly the secondary schools today in the nation raises a lot of anxiety. A cursory look at these schools in spite of government efforts reveals schools dominated by dilapidated buildings, school void of good furniture and equipment, schools where instructional materials are either not provided or are inadequate; school that are under-staffed; schools, where teachers’ salaries and allowances are not promptly paid, schools that have not been inspected for the last 15 years; schools where there are no discipline among other things.

The government, and especially the parents are very much concerned with the quality and volume of learning acquired by their children, wards and citizens as this is related to the quality and quantity of the contribution which the individual can make to his immediate family, community and the nation as a whole. (Thorndike, 1931).

Several studies by Sociologist, Psychologists and Educationists showed that the type of schools a learner attends has profound influence on his academic achievement. For instance, Bibby and Peil (1974) noted that children who attended private secondary schools performed better both internal and external examination than pupils in public secondary schools. This view is also supported by Lioyd (1966) as he contended further that the public schools which saw education as good thing, tended to leave the question of educational success or failure in the hands of the public and their parents. This implies that the business of education is not taken with all the seriousness it demands in the public schools. This of course is what may be regarded as the general apathy of the citizenry to government’s owned business or property. A situation that has resulted in lackadaisical attitude of government’s workers, including teachers in the public schools tend to believe that an intelligent child would succeed automatically at school without any active assistance coming from them.

In a study jointly carried out by the Federal Government of Nigeria, UNICEF and UNESCO in 1977 to monitor the learning achievement of secondary school students throughout the Federation, it was shown that most of the private schools had means in the three areas tested higher than the national means and that of their public counterpart.

Similarly, Yoloye (1998) while assessing the situation of education in Niger State compared the quality of education in five states of the federation namely, River, Imo, Enugu, Anambra and Bayelsa. He compared performance between urban and rural schools; private and public schools, as well as between male and female secondary school students. He concluded that while Niger State comes last in almost all the sub-sector analyzed, the only cheering exception is in the private schools where it performed better both in internal and external examinaton than other states and indeed exceeded the grand mean. He did not give reasons for low or high achievement.

The study therefore sought to find out if there is any difference in students’ academic attainment in internal and external social studies examination in  juniorsecondary schools in the said local government council areas in the study. It also highlighted the causes of such differences in academic achievement and suggested measures to rectify the differences so discovered.

1.2Statement of the Problem

Academic performance of students in the Social Studiesinternal and external Examination has received much attention of late in the Nigerian educational system. At the beginning of every academic year when results are released, educational stakeholders raise a lot of concerns about the falling performance of students. In Nigeria, junior secondary Schools are three times better in internal examination than external examination. Schools provide quality education, have good supervision, high parental commitment, motivation and good methodology leading to the commitment of students in their education but the students do not have confidence enough while writing external examination and this could be as a result of strange face of the supervisor whom they are not familiar with, then this research work consider it more important to compare the relative academic performance of the junior secondary school student in both internal and external Social Studies Examination in Warri South Local Government Area.

 

 

 

1.3Objectives of the Study

i.                   To examine the academic performance of student`s by comparing the Social Studiesinternal and external Examination result of some selected secondary Schools in the said area.

ii.                 To investigate the factors accounting for the student’s performance in the Social Studies Examination in secondary Schools.

iii.              To find ways to improve the academic performance in our secondary Schools.

1.4Research Questions

Answers were provided to the following questions in this research work:

i) Will there be any difference in academic performance between internal and external social studies examination in Warri South?

ii) What variables are responsible for this difference(s) in this said Town?

ii) What measures can be put in place to improve the situation?

1.5Statement of Hypothesis

A hypothesis is a tentative statement linking two or more variable in a correlation to establish a relationship that, further subjection to test will confirm such relationship as either positive or negative. The following are the two hypotheses that are to be tested.

Ho: Social Studies student does not perform significantly better in internal examination than external examination.           

Hi: Social Studies student perform significantly better in internal examination than external examination.  

1.6Scope of the Study

 This research work is aimed at the comparison of junior secondary school academic performance in internal and external examination in social studies in Warri south local government area. Due to current emphasis on education in the country by the government and in order to reduce the country’s academic degradation, in solving this problem, this study focused attention on this comparison and to suggest possible solution to the problem.

1.7Limitation of the Study

The study is on the comparison of junior secondary school academic performance in internal and external examination in social studies in warri south local government area. This study is limited to government secondary schools in Delta State.

Despite the limited scope of this study certain constraints were encountered during the research of this project.  Some of the constraints experienced by the researcher were given below:

i.                   Time: This was a major constraint on the researcher during the period of the work. Considering the limited time given for this study, there was not much time to give this research the needed attention.

ii.                 Finance: Owing to the financial difficulty prevalent in the country and it’s resultant prices of commodities, transportation fares, research materials etc. The researcher did not find it easy meeting all his financial obligations.

iii.              Information Constraints: Nigerian researchers have never had it easy when it comes to obtaining necessary information relevant to their area of study from private and even government schools. The staffs in all these schools are finding it difficult to reveal their internal operations. The primary information was collected through face-to-face interview getting the published materials on this topic meant going from one library to other which was not easy.

Although these problems placed limitations on the study, but it did not prevent the researcher from carrying out a detailed and comprehensive research work on the subject matter.

1.8Definition of Key Terms

To make a research work such as this comprehensive to even an average reader, it became every important to define some salient features involved in the theme. These salient terms are defined as follows:

Curricular: It is the aggregate of courses of study given in a school, college, university, etc

Performance: Accomplishing or achievement of specific goals, objectives or set mark in any academic Endeavour. It is one of the most common criteria of evaluating effectiveness of schools.

Learning:the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being taught.

Education:Education in its general sense is a form of learning in which the knowledge, skills, values, beliefs and habits of a group of people are transferred from one person to another

Students Attitude: this refers to the opinions or feelingsthat students usually have about their studies.

Teaching: Teaching is simply referred to as the activities of educating or instructing.

Qualified Teacher: For this study a teacher who holds the following certificate is assumed to be qualified: NCE, B.Ed., B.Sc. (Ed), B.Sc. and PGDE

Innovation: is a way of changing and adapting for the purpose of attaining certain goals and aspirations

Challenges:  Challenges is seen as a call to someone to participate in a competitive situation or fight to decide who is superior in terms of ability or strength

 

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