RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCHOOL FACILITIES AND STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN SOMOLU LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF LAGOS STATE
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background
to the Study
Facility means the system which
supports the operation of an organisation or an institution to carry its daily
activities and to promote growth and development in such organisation or
institution.
Facility refers to the entire
environment of the school or an organisation, it refers to both the physical
and material resources available to the students and teachers in the school to
facilitate the learning - teaching process. The classrooms; the libraries and
the laboratories for sciences are the three main areas of facilities identified
in the school system or environment (Onyeji, 2000)
Yeloye (2002) states that in terms of
the availability of the libraries as one of the school facilities, a great many
of our secondary schools have no functional libraries, and where some libraries
are found, there are no new or current books that are relevant to the current
secondary school programmes. In effect there are no library facilities in most
of the secondary schools in Nigeria,
especially in Lagos
State.
The importance and uses of the library
cannot be under-rated. Libraries and books give great assistance to both the
teachers and the learners. In a situation whereby our secondary school students
are left with no choice to make their text books as the only source of
knowledge, the danger of exposing them to obsolete knowledge in old books
donated by the British Council several years ago as one normally finds in the
old secondary schools should not be overlooked. According to Dada (2004), any
one who is familiar with secondary school classrooms in Nigeria, especially in
Lagos State, will agree that no meaningful teaching/learning activities can
effectively take place in most of them, even if teachers are God-sent and the
learners are celetial pack of highly intelligent personalities, the problem is
that where there are classrooms, they are overcrowded to the extent that rooms
originally meant for between 30 and 40 students, take between 60 and 80
students with a good number of them sitting on windows. In this situation,
neither the teacher nor the students can move freely as expected in our
secondary school classrooms. This is why many teachers do not give assignments
to such large number of students regularly as expected. And this has affected
students academic performance drastically.
On science laboraories, Olarewaju
(2004) claims that only few schools have science laboratories which are well
equipped to carry out scientific experiments in courses such as biology,
physics, and chemistry. A good number of schools teach biology or chemistry as
if they are non-science subjects without laboratory. Some other schools teach
the three branches of science without laboratories in the hope that they would
use other schools’ laboratories during their examinations or compel students to
contribute money for purchase of science equipment through the Parent-Teachers
Association (PTA). It should be noted that the greatest failure rate is in the
sciences because our schools lack the essential science materials but rather,
resort to the theoretical science without the use of laboratory. The contention
is that the nation has been unfair not only to students in our secondary
schools but also to herself. This s because no nation can develop
technologically through theoretical teaching of science subjects, under poor
educational facilities, no meaningful teaching and learning can take place, and
the normal refrain in the educational circle is that all is well with our
secondary schools.
Statement
of the Problem
The importance of school facilities or
amenities in the development and growth of the educational sector cannot be
overemphasized. Many schools in Nigeria
today do not have certain school facilities that can make teaching and learning
to be easier and enjoyable to both the teachers and the students.
Often times, there has been a constant
outcry of the inadequate provision or non-provision of the school facilities,
especially, the laboratories, the classrooms (buildings) and the libraries
which are the main school facilities that aid teaching and learning, for
example due to lack of necessary equipment in the school, teachers in the
science fields find it difficult to experiment and carryout practical teaching
in the school, and the resultant effect is that most science students fail their
science related subjects in the external and internal examinations.
Due to lack of provision of libraries,
and sufficient classrooms in the school, year after year, the academic
performance of students both in arts and science courses continue to go down.
This is because the teachers are not able to utilise the instructional
materials to present their teaching thoroughly for the better understanding by
the students. Infact the inadequate provision or the non-availability of school
facilities in our secondary schools is what prompted the investigation of this
study.
Purpose
of the Study
The major purpose of this study was to
examine the relationship between school facilities and students’ academic
performance in selected secondary school in Shomolu Local Government Area of
Lagos State. Other objectives of the study include:
(1)
To find out whether there is relationship between school
facilities and students’ academic performance.
(2)
To find out whether there is no adequate provision of
facilities in our secondary schools.
(3)
To identify the causes of inadequate provision of school
facilities in our secondary schools.
(4)
To proffer solutions to the problems of inadequate provision
of facilities in the secondary schools.
Research
Questions
These research questions were raised
for the study.
(1)
Is there any relationship between school facilities and
students’ academic performance?
(2)
Are the facilities in our secondary schools adequate or
inadequate?
(3)
What are the causes
of inadequate provision of facilities in our schools?
(4)
How can the problem of inadequate facilities in the schools
be solved?
Research
Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were
formulated for the study:
(1)
There will be no significant relationship between facilities
and students academic performance in the schools.
(2)
There will be no significant difference between the academic
performance of students who attend schools where there are facilities and those
whose schools do not have facilities.
Significant
of the Study
This study will be beneficial to the
following people:
It is hoped that students will benefit
from this study because they would be able to have proper insight and
understanding that non provision of infrastructure in the secondary schools
will adversely affect their academic performance.
Teachers, it is hoped, would, through
the study come to terms with the fact that the provision of adequate
infrastructure will help both students and teachers to facilitate the teaching
and learning processes.
The school authorities would utilize
the findings and recommendations of this study to find solution to the problem
of inadequate provision of infrastructure in our secondary schools. They would
through this study understand better the effect of inadequate provision of
infrastructures in our schools, on the teachers work performance and the
academic performance of students.
It would be of benefit to parents
because it will enable them to understand the effect of inadequate
infrastructure on academic and work performance of both students and teachers.
With the finding and recommendations of this study parents would help the
school authorities to find lasting solutions to the problem of inadequate
provision of infrastructures in our schools.
The society will benefit from the study
because when there is adequate provision of infrastructure in the schools
teachers would work better to produce better crop of students for the society.
Scope
of the Study
The study covered the relationship
between school facilities and students academic performance in Shomolu Local
Government area of Lagos
State. Sourcing of good
materials for literature review and other information collection posed a
hindrance to the study.
Definition
of Terms
School
Facilities:
It refers to both the physical and material resources available to the students
and teachers in the school to facilitate the learning and teaching processes.
School Resources: These are the total inputs into an educational
programme in term of human efforts, funds, facilities, equipment and others.
Academic Performance: This is regarded as the knowledge
attained or skill shown in the school subject such achievement are indicated by
test scores or by marks assigned by the teachers.