The Influence Of School Facilities On Academic Performance Of Pupils In Basic Sciences

The Influence Of School Facilities On Academic Performance Of Pupils In Basic Sciences

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background of the Study

Over the years and more especially in different facets of life, laymen, parents, clergies educationists, etc. have been very much concerned about the relationship between school facilities and pupils’ academic performance in public primary schools. Some are of the opinion that school facilities have a direct relationship with pupils’ academic performance, while others hold that inadequate school facilities can have an adverse effect on pupils’ performance. Schools are established for the purpose of teaching and learning. It is also more important that the teachers and learners are properly accommodated to facilitate the teaching and learning that go on there. This is the essence of the school facilities (Alimi 2014).

School facilities refer to human resource facilities, physical facilities, and instructional materials equipment. Human resources include teachers, store attendants, librarians and library attendants, and laboratory assistants to mention but a few. Physical facilities and instructional materials equipment, on the other hand, comprise classrooms, staff rooms, administrative blocks, dormitories, libraries, laboratories, examination halls, teachers’ quarters, textbooks, audio-visual materials and items of furniture, laboratory chemicals and equipment  (Adeyemi, 2010).

Ani in Ndu, Ocho, and Okeke  (2017)  defined physical facilities and equipment as the location, the school buildings, and other material resources provided in the school for the purpose of enhancing teaching and learning processes. According to him, physical facilities and equipment include the fixed and mobile structures and materials in the school such as the classroom buildings, laboratories, laboratory equipment, the audio and visual aids. The importance of school facilities can never be over-emphasized. It is the talk of the day in our national dailies.

The availability of human resources and physical facilities ensures effective teaching and learning and is closely correlated with the pupils’ performance. Ike (2017) attributes pupils’ low performance in Basic sciences to the lack of qualified staff. According to him, there has been an unprecedented expansion at all levels of education, which has not been matched with a corresponding increase in the number of qualified teachers.

Nworgu (2015) on the other hand, asserted that no matter the strength of manpower resources in the system, the educational process must require conducive physical accommodation, libraries, furniture, and playground. Adesina and Ogunsaju (2014) in support noted that for effective teaching and learning situations, facilities and educational goals should be viewed as being closely interwoven and interdependent. In other words, the poor performance of pupils in schools has a direct correlation with the non-availability of school facilities. The problem generated by the non-availability of school facilities in public primary schools can no longer be dismissed with a wave of the hand.

Ezeocha (2019) maintained that a good teacher may not operate effectively and efficiently under bad conditions of work. Njoku in Ezeocha (2019) stated some of these conditions in his article and they include manageable class size, adequate classrooms, books, writing materials, and well-equipped libraries. He asserted that the best curriculum could be marred by inefficient, unqualified, and poorly rewarded, and undisciplined teachers.

Osobonye (2012) stated that the laboratory has been identified as the most suitable place to acquire the right scientific skills and attitudes. In the laboratory, the pupil is afforded the opportunity to develop and practice the processes of science such as observations, communication, formulation of hypotheses, experimentation, and classification. Osobonye then concluded by saying that if one was to achieve any or all of the aims of teaching science in public primary schools one has to take proper stock of laboratories and identify those factors which constitute a drawback to the use of the laboratory for the purpose it was set up and take appropriate step to correct them.

Ukeje (2018) summarized these problems when he stated that in Nigerian Schools everything is in short supply: “schools are in short supply, teachers or perhaps the right caliber of teachers are in short supply, classrooms are in short supply and above all, throughout the system people with the right attitude, orientation and dedication are in extremely short supply:”

It has also been observed that even the few school facilities available are not properly utilized for the better performance of pupils. Storekeepers, laboratory attendants, librarians, and library attendants are conspicuously absent in most schools. What they have are what they call substitutes. The so-called substitutes may not be efficient because it is difficult for one to give what he/she has not. To buttress, this, many schools have teacher librarians without library assistants. The teacher librarian locks up the library when he goes to class to teach. The consequence is that the pupils are not allowed to make effective use of the library Popoola, (2019).

Instructional materials have been defined by various authors. According to Obanya (2016) he viewed them as the didactic material thing which is supposed to make learning and teaching possible. According to Abdullahi (2010), instructional materials are materials or tools locally made or imported that could be made tremendous enhancement of lesson impact if intelligently used. They are objects or devices, which help the teacher to make a lesson much clearer to the learner.

The Influence Of School Facilities On Academic Performance Of Pupils In Basic Sciences

Instructional materials are also described as concrete or physical objects which provide sound, visual, or both to the sense organs during teaching (Agina-obu, 2015).        Instructional materials have been observed as a powerful strategy to bring about effective teaching and learning. The importance of quality and adequate instructional materials in teaching and learning can occur through their effective utilization during classroom teaching. Instructional materials here include all the tools that teachers can use to make teaching and learning more interesting and memorable.

According to Farombi, (2018), instructional materials include books, audio-visual, software and hardware of educational technology. The priority of all countries, especially developing ones, is to improve the quality of schools and the achievement of pupils since learning outcomes depend largely on the quality of education being offered. It is against this background that the study sought to investigate school facilities and academic performance in Basic sciences in public primary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area.

1.2     Statement of Problem

The national policy on Education stipulated certain goals for public primary education. Some of those goals are;  (1)  to provide all primary school leavers with the opportunity for education of a  higher level, irrespective of sex, social status, religious or ethnic background. (2) To offer a diversified curriculum to cater for the differences in talents, opportunities, and future roles.

In Nigeria for example, the majority of the pupils in public schools perform poorly in external examinations. This situation makes it impossible the attainment of the above goals of national policy. For instance, there are many school dropouts today who can never write their names and can never enter into any public primary or fit anywhere in society. In addition, public primary schools set up preliminary programs to enable poorly performed pupils to gain admission.

All the above problems are a result of the poor performance of pupils, which appears deeply rooted in inadequacy and or lack of facilities inherent in schools today. It is noted that an “acute shortage of teachers in the nation’s schools has been adduced as one of the reasons for the poor performance of pupils in an examination”.

It also stated that poor facilities, inadequate staffing, and underfunding in public primary schools have remained insurmountable threats to education in the country. Sequel to the above assertion, it, therefore, presupposes that inadequacy and/or lack of school facilities as well as poor utilization of available facilities must never be overlooked. The problem of this study, therefore, was to determine the relationship between school facilities on pupils’ academic performance in Basic sciences in public primary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area.

1.3     Purpose of Study

The main purpose of this study was to find out the influence of school facilities on the academic performance of pupils in Basic sciences in public primary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area, specifically, the study sought to:

1. examine the influence of the availability of  schools library on the academic performance of pupils in Basic sciences in public primary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area
2. determine the influence of the application of laboratory and equipment on the academic performance of pupils in Basic sciences in public primary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area
3. examine the influence of instructional materials used on the academic performance of pupils in Basic sciences in public primary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area.

1.4     Research Questions

The following research questions were formulated to guide the study;

1. What is the influence of using the school library on the academic performance of pupils in Basic sciences in public primary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area?
2. What is the influence of the application of laboratory and equipment on the academic performance of pupils in Basic sciences in public primary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area?
3. What is the influence of instructional materials usage on the academic performance of pupils in Basic sciences in public primary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area?

1.5     Statement of Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were postulated to guide the study;

1. There is no significant influence of using schools library on the academic performance of pupils in Basic sciences in public primary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area
2. There is no significant influence of the application of laboratory and equipment on the academic performance of pupils in Basic sciences in public primary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area
3. There is no significant influence of instructional materials used on the academic performance of pupils in Basic sciences in public primary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area.

1.6     Significance of the Study

This study is important for a number of considerations. It will establish the relationship between the availability and utilization of school facilities on pupils’ academic performance thereby equipping the government and the ministry of education with the necessary information that will enable them to provide some lacking facilities to enhance the better academic performance of pupils.

The findings will expose the effect of a lack of school facilities so that all stakeholders in education will seek means of increasing school facilities for the betterment of the pupils. On the basis of the findings, teachers will tailor their teaching towards using appropriate school facilities to enhance better learning and better academic performance.

The finding will also expose the harm poor utilization of available facilities can have, enabling the head teachers and other school administrators to seek means of effective utilization of existing school facilities so as to improve teaching and learning as well as pupils’ academic performance.