Relationship Between Secondary School Students Academic Interest And Performance In Government In Orumba North Local Government Area Of Anambra State

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between secondary school student’s academic interest and performance in government in Orumba North Local Government area in Anambra state. The study was guided by four research questions whereby ten (10) item questionnaire were developed and administered to one hundred (100) students from the five (5) selected secondary schools in the area. A review of literature was done to expose the researchers to what has already been done and to provide us with a sound theoretical framework for the study. The questionnaire was the only tool used for data collection and data obtained from the respondents were analyzed using mean and percentage. The major findings of the study among others are lack of teaching materials, limited time allocated to the teaching of government, lack of adequate textbooks in the library and lack of available government teachers. Based on the result of the study some recommendations were made.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

This chapter talks about the following: background of study, statement of the problem, scope of the study, purpose of the study, significance of the study, research questions.

Background of the Study

Government at the secondary school stage is often seen mainly as one of the subject which must be studied as requirement for carriers in education. Thus as a subject government focuses on power and power relationship in a political system. It seeks to understand how laws are used in making, implementing and interpreting them, learning government in secondary school is prompted by the student interest or zeal toward the student which goes further to determine their performances in government.

In this case, the students lack interest in government due to various reason or factors of which they can be from their family, background or environment. It can also be from the school itself where the teacher lack motivation, no cordial relationship exists between them and the student in the learning environment, such mutual understanding and relationship help to ensure that the student understand their lesson which may be seen in their academic performance during their examination, maintenance of high discipline with the class and modification of moral life of the students.

Observed that students performance in government in Orumba North Local Government Area has been affected by lack of teaching aids, poor teaching method, poor motivation, wrong choice of course, financial problem, family problem, inadequate equipment, psychological problem, lack of provision of guidance counselor and poor health. Despite all the effects devoted to the problem of poor performance there has been little success. Thus students show no interest to learn and this facilitates or results to mass failure and poor performance in government as a subject.

Here interest simply meaning the feeling of a person whose attention concern or curiosity is particularly engaged by something. While performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their short or long term educational goals. Governments all over the world consider education as a veritable instrument for achieving most of its nation al needs and objectives, it was to this end that necessitated the interest and performance in government.

This study is therefore aimed at looking into these problems and others with a view to provide solution to them. It is the hope of the research that recommendation that would be made based on the finding what will help to ameliorate the situation. Similarly, it is believed that the recommendation would be of immense benefit to educational planner’s policy markers, teachers and students.

Statement of the Problem

Government as a teaching subject falls into the group of social science discipline which is concerned with human behavior, interaction and relations. But unlike other social science like economics, history etc elites argue that it should be made compulsory in secondary schools. This process of teaching and teaching bring the individual in contact with educational process, the performance of student in government have left much to be desired efforts so far made at improving this seemingly bad situation will riot seen to be providing the desired result. It would appear from past efforts that the problem have not been either correctly diagnosed for solution provided have been adequate enough to ameliorate the situation.

In the light of the above, it is obvious that the teachers and teachers themselves who in the past studied separately, would provide the needed solution. The relationship among students in schools or individual differences among classes can either make the student to succeed or not succeed. This could be seen from the fact that the student may continue to fail their examinations, hence when the problem is narrowed down to the school system it provide a more negative result on the academic performance of the students when the teachers themselves become disconcerted in their classroom task performance.

The problem that arises from this situation is a decline in the numbers of student enrolling in government at the secondary school level. Unqualified and inexperienced of available teachers, lack of adequate test books, lack of interest on the part of the people and government of their own continued a great deal to the failure of students in government.

This definitely has a negative overall effect on the economy now the country needs to be self sufficient the youth must be encourage to study government.

 Scope of the Study

This work is delimited to the students in secondary school in Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra State. The area of interest of student in government are:

1. Teaching method
2. Resource person
3. Academic performance
4. Qualified teacher
5. Teaching aid
6. Instructional material

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between secondary school student academic interest and performance in government. The study is aimed at;

1. Finding out whether lack of teaching material affect the student in government
2. To find out if the secondary school in Orumba North Local Government Area have the available government teachers and do they have the willingness to stay long in teaching.
3. To find out whether the student social economic background affect their academic performance in government.
4. To determine the performance and interest of student in government in senior secondary school examination.

Significance of the Study

Government is likely to benefits immensely from this study, since the recommendation made in the later part of study would highlight the area that need to be given more attention in the teaching and learning of government in senior secondary school.

1. It will help the student to know what’s happening around him/her in his political environment.
2. It will also help the teacher to make necessary adjustment and improvement where needed.
3. It will help the principal find the result of this work useful, while allocating period to subjects in their times table.
4. Finally, the research work will be of great use to our universities, colleges of education etc, which produce teachers in various categories.

Research Questions

To guide the study, the following research question were formulated

1. Do they lack teaching material in secondary school in Orumba north local government area?
2. Does the time allocated to the teaching of government in school time table insufficient for effective teaching and learning?
3. Do our secondary schools in Orumba North Local government Area have the available government teachers and do they have the willingness to stay long in teaching?
4. To what extent do lack of adequate government textbook in the library and inadequate facilities affect student interest in selecting “government as a subject”?

Pages:  50

Category: Project

Format:  Word & PDF        

Chapters: 1-5                                 

Material contains Table of Content, Abstract and References.