AN ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC NASARAWA

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC NASARAWA

ABSTRACT

The aim of this project is to assess the impact of educational facilities on student academic achievement. To achieve this broad aim the study is guided by the following specific objectives; To examine the impact of school facilities on the academic performance of  students  in Business studies; To explore factors such as class size that have been perceived to promote or inhibit students learning and overall students academic achievement in business studies and; To investigate the extent to which school location affects the academic achievement of students in business studies. This particular research uses survey design in trying to establish relationship between dependent and independent variable to ascertain whether the educational facilities have any significant impact on student academic achievement.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

The educational facilities, which include the classrooms, libraries, technical workshops, laboratories, teachers’ quality, school management, teaching methods, peers, etc are variables that affect students’ academic achievement (Ajayi, 2001 and Oluchukwu, 2000). Hence, the school environment remains an important area that should be studied and well managed to enhance students’ academic performance.

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 students’ performance. Ike (1977.16) attributes students’ low performance in English language 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 (1985) on the other hand, asserted that no matter the strength of manpower resources in the system, educational process must require conducive physical accommodation, libraries, furniture, and play ground. Adesina and Ogunsaju (1984) in support noted that for effective teaching and learning situations, physical facilities and educational goals should be viewed as being closely interwoven and interdependent.

The issue of poor academic performance of students in Nigeria has been of much concern to the government, parents, teachers and even students themselves. The quality of education not only depends on the teachers as reflected in the performance of their duties, but also in the effective coordination of the school facilities (Ajao 2001). It has also been observed that adequate attention is now being paid to school plant planning throughout the world’s educational systems including Nigeria. Educational facilities such as school plant have been repeatedly found to have positive relationship with standard and quality of educational system (Ojedele, 2000).

Nigeria as a nation strives to experience real growth and development. This requires a clearly defined development strategy that allows intensive utilization of resources which is endowed. These resources are the various school physical facilities that are indispensable in the educational process. They include the sitting, the building and physical equipment, recreation places for the achievement of educational objectives (Oluchuckwu, 2000).

School facilities which include instructional spaces planning, administrative places planning, circulation spaces planning, spaces for conveniences planning, accessories planning, the teachers as well as the students themselves are essential in teaching-learning process. The extent to which student learning could be enhanced depends on their location within the school compound, the structure of their classroom, availability of instructional facilities and accessories. It is believed that a well planned school will gear up expected outcomes of education that will facilitate good social, political and economic emancipation, effective teaching and learning process and academic performance of the students.

Relating this study to international occurrences are the assertions of Williams, Persaud & Turner (2008), quoting Marsden (2005), which reported that safe and orderly classroom environment (aspect of instructional space), School facilities (accessories) were significantly related to students’ academic performance in elementary schools. The three researchers, also quoted Glassman (1994), asserting that a comfortable and caring environment among other treatments helped to contribute to students` academic performance.

The physical characteristics of the school have a variety of effects on teachers, students, and the learning process. Poor lighting, noise, high levels of carbon dioxide in classrooms, and inconsistent temperatures make teaching and learning difficult. Poor maintenance and ineffective ventilation systems lead to poor health among students as well as teachers, which leads to poor performance and higher absentee rates (Frazier, 2002 Lyons, 2001; and Ostendorf, 2001). These factors can adversely affect student behavior and lead to higher levels of frustration among teachers, and poor learning attitude among student.

Beyond the direct effects that poor facilities have on students’ ability to learn, the combination of poor facilities, which create an uncomfortable and uninviting workplace for teachers, combined with frustrating behavior by students including poor concentration and hyperactivity, lethargy, or apathy, creates a stressful set of working conditions for teachers. Because stress and job dissatisfaction are common pre-cursors to lowered teacher enthusiasm, it is possible that the aforementioned characteristics of school facilities have an effect upon the academic performance of students in economics.

Previous studies have investigated the relationship of poor school environment including problems with student-teacher ratio, school location, school population, classroom ventilation, poor lighting in classrooms, and inconsistent temperatures in the classroom with student health problems, student behaviour, and student achievement (Crandell & Smaldino, 2000; Davis, 2001; Johnson, 2001; Lyons, 2001;Moore, 2002; Stricherz, 2000; Tanner, 2000). To complement these studies, the present research will assess the impact of educational facilities on students achievement in Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa.

1.2       Statement of the Problem

The state of physical facilities in Nigerian schools today appears to be of great concern to students parents and all educators. These seems to be inadequate provision of this facilities, some of the existing ones seems to be in a dilapidated state, while some seems lack good maintenance or may not function at all. Moreover, there seems to be an increase in population of students due to high enrolment rate. A close observation of student’s performance seems to indicate lack of inadequate physical facilities and an enabling learning environment that could motivate, secondary students towards high performance. It seems that where these facilities are lacking, students develop non-challant attitudes toward learning. Oluchukwu, (2000) asserted school environment is an essential aspect of educational planning, he went further to explain that “unless schools are well suited, buildings adequately constructed and equipment adequately utilized and maintained, much teaching and learning may not take place. Corroborating these, Mark (2002) and Ajayi (2007), maintained that high levels of students’ academic performance may not be guaranteed where instructional space such as classrooms, libraries, technical workshops and laboratories are structurally defective.  These problems and concerns necessitated investigating into the assessment of the impact of educational facilities on student achievement in Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa.

1.3       Aim and Objectives

The aim of this study is to assess the impact of educational facilities on student achievement in Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa.  The following are the specific objectives:

1. To examine the impact of educational facilities on the academic performance of  students in Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa
2. To explore factors such as class size that have been perceived to promote or inhibit students learning and overall students academic achievement  in Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa.
3. To investigate the extent to which school location affects the academic achievement of students in Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa.
4. To evaluate the relationship between school environment and the student academic achievement in Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa

1.4       Research Questions

1. To what extent do school facilities affect student achievement in Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa?
2. What effect does class size has on the academic performance in Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa?
3. To what extent does school location has on the achievement of students in Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa?
4. Is there any relationship between school environment and the student academic achievement in Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa?

1.5       Significance of the Study

It is hoped that this study will provide information for parents, educators and school administrators to reflect upon various factors that help students in achieving its academics goals in economics. In so doing, they can investigate the possibility of introducing those factors to their school, which may consequently lead to enhancing students’ academic performance in economics. In addition, the fact that this study is conducted in public schools, it shares quite a lot of similarities with many other counterparts. In this connection, this study provides a valuable reference for other schools to reflect upon the school environment as it affect the academic performance of student in economics.

1.6       Scope and Limitation           

This research work focuses on the assessment of educational facilities on students academic achievement. This research work covers the impact of the learning environment on students’ academic achievement 

Limitation

The researcher faced various problems when carrying out this field study. Some of these challenges included:

1. Some respondents were unwilling to fill the questionnaires since they were suspicious about the study. Many perceived it as sharing very vital information which they were not ready to furnish the researcher with.
2. Delays were experienced from the respondents who took very long to complete filling the questionnaires and constant postponement of the picking date proved to be very frustrating to the researcher. This could be attributed to busy schedules and had both cost and time implications on the researcher since the set timelines had to be changed and many follow-up calls and visits had to be made which was quite expensive.
3. Landlords were hostile and very suspicious of the research.
4. At times some of the respondents did not fill in the questionnaires adequately and ignored certain sections that required the giving of opinions which made it difficult for the researcher to make adequate conclusions.

1.7        Operational Definition of Terms

School: A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students (or “pupils”) under the direction of teachers          

Facilities: Facilities are buildings, pieces of equipment, or services that are provided for a particular purpose.

Students: A person formally engaged in learning, especially one enrolled in a school or college; pupil: Any person who studies, investigates, or examines thoughtfully.

Performance: Performance planning is a systematic and structured approach to successfully achieve the desired goals of an individual or team throughout the assessment year.

School Environment: A school’s physical environment includes the school building and the surrounding.

Academic Achievement – Knowledge attained or skills developed in school subjects by test scores.

Secondary school (also “high school”) is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place.

1.8        Background of the Study Area

The Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa was established in 1983 by the Federal Government of Nigeria. The intention of the Federal government to establish the polytechnic was predicted by the governments desire to revolutionize the society technologically. This is spelt out in the objective Decree No. 28 of 1987. Amongst the important objectives is: To train people to acquire technical and vocational skills which are needed for the economic and social development of Nigeria especially in the field of agriculture, industry and commerce.

At the Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa academic work commenced in January 1984 at the Central Primary School dubbed temporary site with an initial intake of 220 students enrolled in two schools: School of environmental and business studies. A department of liberal studies course and administration of pre-national diploma programmes. An important land mark in the development of the polytechnic was initial accreditation of all the programmes in 1985 and commencement of HND programmes in 1986 in business administration and management, accountancy, secretarial studies, town and regional planning.

In 1986, the minister of education, Professor Jibril Aminu cut the sod to begin the physical development at the permanent site, with the completion of classroom blocks and offices or school of environmental studies, the permanent site was commissioned for use in December 1984. During this period, national diploma (ND) programmes in Architectural technology, Building and Quantity Surveying (BOS), Town and Regional Planning and Estate Management, school of business and management studies; Accountancy and secretarial studies were initiated. The rapid academic development continued in 1992 / 1993 session with commencement of ND programmes in Electrical Electronic Engineering Technology, Science Laboratory Technology and Statistics. These programmes had associated with them requisite laboratories and workshops fully equipped to meet the requirements or accreditation. Indeed with this development, the polytechnic can now be said to be a full-fledged technical institution offering programme in core engineering, Applied Science, environmental and business studies. Now, the polytechnic has a student population of 17,234 student spread over 21 academic departments in four schools.