1 THE IMPACT OF SCHOOL FACILITIES ON THE

2 PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

3 IN BIOLOGY IN IBADAN SOUTH-WEST LOCAL

4 GOVERNMENT AREA OF OYO STATE

6 Otote Tobi Obehi

8 Post Graduate Diploma in Education, National Open University, Kaduna, Nigeria.

9 Corresponding aurthors e-mail: otote.tobi@gmail.com

10 P.O. Box 16489, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

11 ABSTRACT

12 The objective of this research was to establish a possible correlation between school facilities,

13 their availability, utilization and maintenance alongside students’ academic performance in

14 biology.

15 The total sample of one hundred and five (116) student chosen from the nine secondary schools

16 in Ibadan South West local government area of Ibadan, Oyo state were randomly chosen for this

17 study. Information gotten from the respondents was subjected to statistical analysis such as

18 correlation, one-way ANOVA and regression.

19 The random sampling featured more female (57.8%) than males (42.2%) students with female

20 performance in tests (51.7%) been generally higher than male performance (38.3%). There was a

21 positive correlation (0.07) between the availability of school facilities and student performance.

22 There was also a slight positive and significant correlation between the classes (0.11), gender of

23 students (0.25) but a negative correlation with students’ age and performance in biology.

24 Students in private schools performed better (51.7%) than their contemporaries in public schools

25 (41.4%).

26

27

28

29

30

31 Keywords: biology, performance, school facilities, secondary schools.

32 INTRODUCTION

33 Education, in every human community is an indispensable instrument for human progress,

34 empowerment and effecting national development. This suggests that a nation that lacks sound

35 educational culture and philosophy stands the risk of decay whereas a nation that sees to the

36 development of its education sector is bond to achieve great success. Schools are established for

37 the purpose of teaching and learning. . Therefore school facilities are the space, interpretation

38 and physical expression of the school curriculum. Student performance is also referred to as

39 academic achievement. Academic achievement or academic performance is the outcome of

40 education; the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their educational

41 goals. Achievement is commonly measured by examinations or continuous assessment but there

42 is no general agreement on how it is best tested or which aspects are most important.

43 Biology is a natural or life science subject comprising contents from microscopic organisms,

44 macroscopic organisms of both plant and animal relation to the biosphere in general which can

45 be surmised into the study of the earth’s surface and all living things (Okwo et al 2004).

46 Considering its nature and importance, Biology is a standard subject of instruction at all levels of

47 a nation’s educational system, from primary even to tertiary levels. It is one of the core subjects

48 at Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) whose study is very relevant to man’s

49 successful living (Akindele 2009) and so, its inclusion in the educational curriculum is justified. .

50 The vital role of the study of this discipline in the economic, industrial and public life of the

51 learners and the general humanity cannot be overstressed (Ibe and Ukpai 2013).

52 The analysis revealed that not very many of the candidates had credit pass in Biology over the

53 period of observation. In addition, over 40% of the candidates that were examined over the

54 period of observation scored below passes level (i.e. A1 to C6) grade required for admission
55 purpose to read Biology based courses in the tertiary institutions. This situation is disturbing and

56 not in the best interest of the science and technological growth and development of the country.

57 According to Oni (2002) facilities constitutes a strategic factor in any organizational functioning.

58 This is so because they determine to very large extent the smooth functioning of the different

59 faculties in such an organization. Balogun (2002) submitted that no effective science education

60 programme can exist without facilities for teaching. This is because facilities enable learners or

61 students to develop scientific attitude and problem solving skills.

62 MATERIALS AND METHODS

63 Population and sampling

64 The target population for this study consisted of secondary school two (SS2) students offering

65 biology in the selected schools in Ibadan South-West Local Government, Oyo State. A simple

66 random sampling was used to select schools and students in Ibadan South-West Local

67 Government, Oyo State. The total sample of one hundred and sixteen (116) student chosen from

68 the following nine (9) secondary schools participated in this study:

69 1. Rhema Chapel International College, Olubadan Avenue, Ibadan.

70 2. Marella International School 27/52, Olubadan Avenue, Ibadan.

71 3. Celestial Church of Christ High School, Joyce B, Ibadan.

72 4. Community Grammar School, Oluyole, Ibadan.

73 5. Oluyole High School, Oluyole, Ibadan.

74 6. Atanda School, Oluyole, Ibadan

75 7. Oluyole Extension Grammar School, Oluyole, Ibadan

76 8. Oluyole Private Int’l Comp. College, Oluyole, Ibadan

77 9. Concord School, Mobile, Ibadan

78 Instrumentation

79 Instrument used for this study was developed by the researcher. The instrument used in this study

80 was questionnaire .The questionnaire was divided into three sections A, B and C. Section A dealt

81 with the personal data of the students which included name, class, age and name of

82 school .Section B dealt with the questions to which answers were provided on a Likert scale.

83 Section C used thirty (30) multiple choice biology questions from senior secondary year one

84 scheme of work to test for performance.

85 Data Analysis

86 The data collection was tested and analyzed using different statistical tools which include

87 correlation, ANOVA and Regression.

88

89 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

90 Table 1: The performance of students in biology based on the level of facilities owned by the

91 schools

Name of School Freq. Type Percent Cum. Percent Performance (%) Grade

Celestial Church of Christ High School 9 Public 7.8 7.8 36.7 F9

Community Grammar School 11 Public 9.5 17.2 45.9 C6

Oluyole Estate Grammar School 15 Public 12.9 30.2 28.1 F9

Oluyole Extension High School 15 Public 12.9 43.1 28.1 F9
 Atanda International High School 15 Private 12.9 56 45.6 C6

Rhema Chapel International College 17 Private 14.7 70.7 50.4 C5

Oluyole Private Int’l Comp. College 14 Private 12.1 82.8 34.5 F9

Marella International College 5 Private 4.3 87.1 33.4 F9

Concord School 15 Private 12.9 100 68.9 B2

Total 116 100

92 The table above shows the number of questionnaires administered the percentage and the graded

93 performance of the students in biology in the individual schools where the survey was

94 conducted.

95

96

97 Table 2: Gender record of the sampled students

Sex Frequency Percent. Cum. Percent. Performance (%) Grade

Male 49 42.2 42.2 38.3 F9

Female 67 57.8 100 51.7 C5

Total 116 100

98 This table shows the ratio of males to females in the survey and the average performance of each

99 sex in biology. From this table, it shows that more females participated in the survey than males

100 and that females performed better in biology than male. Socioeconomic factors such as sex of

101 student, affect the performance of students (Raychaudari et al., 2010).

102 Table 3: Performance of the students based on the type of school attended and the facilities

103 present

School Type Freq. Percent Cum. Percent Performance (%) Grade

Private 66 56.9 56.9 51.7 C5

Public 50 43.1 100 41.4 E8

Total 116 100

104 This table shows the performance of students in biology based on their school type; private or

105 public. It can be seen that the students in the private schools performed better in biology than he

106 students in public secondary school. Oladipo (2001) observed that Nigerians have not yet

107 developed the culture of maintaining facilities, especially public utilities. In one of the public

108 schools visited, students were taught in classrooms without any window pane and some of them

109 had to sit on rags spread on the dusty floor. Physical infrastructure in schools is crucial for any

110 educational institution and is directly associated with performance of students (Mc Guffey,

111 1982).

112 Table 4: The performance of students based on level of education

Class Freq. Percent Cum. Percent Performance (%) Grade

SS 1 12 10.3 10.3 30.0 F9

SS 2 76 65.5 75.9 55.8 C4

SS 3 28 24.1 100 59.7 C4

Total 116 100

113 This table shows the overall performance in biology of all the students randomly sampled in all

114 the schools based on their individual classes. Pupils in SS1 scored the lowest while those in SS2

115 and SS3 scored much better

116 Table 5: Performance of the students based on their age

Age Frequency Percent Cum. Percent Performance (%) Grade

12yrs 2 1.7 1.7 21.7 F9

13yrs 13 11.2 12.9 28.4 F9

14yrs 34 29.3 42.2 50.0 C5

15yrs 41 35.3 77.6 60.0 B3

16yrs 14 12.1 89.7 68.3 B2

17yrs 11 9.5 99.1 32.7 F9

18yrs 1 0.9 100 46.7 C6

Total 116 100

117 This table shows the average performance of students based on their ages. Older high school

118 children are more able to cope and perform excellently than much younger once with less

119 experience or than over-aged ones. Students at a higher class of learning who must have been

120 exposed to greater curriculum content than their junior colleagues will ideally perform better

121 than the former. It is therefore the duty of the teacher to sequentially expose students to a

122 learning experience ideal for their class and level of maturity. Cohen (1976) put it that “directly

123 or indirectly classroom interactions are controlled by the teacher for it is he who promotes

124 particular learning situation through his choice of objective, organization of experience, selection

125 of materials and methods in order to facilitates the students’ academic performance.
126 Table 6: Correlation between Performance and demographic variables

Personal data Correlation

Name of School 0.344**

Type of school -0.407**

Class 0.107

Sex 0.248**

Age -0.052

127 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05

128 level (2-tailed).

129 This table shows that there is a slight positive correlation between the different schools chosen

130 for the survey, the classes in which the surveys were conducted and the sexes of pupils to which

131 questionnaires were administered with relation to performance in biology. Furthermore, this

132 table also reveals a slight negative correlation between type of school; private or public and the

133 ages of students in the schools that were sampled with relations to performance in biology. More

134 and more females are increasingly been enrolled into secondary schools as improved attention is

135 being given to girl child education.

136 Table 7: Correlation between Performance and facilities

Test Tools Correlation

School Facilities -0.03

Availability 0.07

Utilization -0.054

Management -0.025
137 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. Correlation is

138 significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

139 This table shows that there is a slightly positive correlation between the availability of school

140 facilities and performance in biology. However, a slightly negative correlation is shown to exist

141 between the utilization and management of school facilities as it relates to academic performance

142 of students in biology. According to Oni (2002) facilities constitutes a strategic factor in any

143 organizational functioning. This is so because they determine to very large extent the smooth

144 functioning of the different faculties in such an organization. He further stated that their

145 availability, adequacy and relevance influence efficiency and high productivity. Moreso,

146 research studies have shown that students in well facilitated infrastructure in schools have high

147 academic achievements (Phillips, 1997; Jago and Tamer, 1999). In addition, Lewis (2000) has

148 examined the effects of infrastructure over students learning and skill development and found

149 positive results.

150 SUMMARY

151 Although, there are several factors which affect the performance of students generally, this study

152 has shed more light on the significance of students’ age, gender and most importantly, the effects

153 of availability and utilization of educational facilities on performance in biology.

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