The Influence Of School Location On Students’ Academic Performance In Business Studies
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
School is one of the social institutions that is responsible for the development and training of the mind and skills. It is also for the preparation of mind for the challenges and responsibility in the society at large. The importance of education has been well accentuated in all societies whether developed or developing, ancient or modern. It is as a result of this obvious truth that every country accords great emphasis to education both in terms of quality and access.
School location refers to the particular place, in relation to other areas in the physical environment rural or urban), where the school is sited. In Nigeria, rural life is uniform, homogenous and less complex than that of the urban centers, with cultural diversity which often is suspected to affect students’ academic achievement. This is because urban centers are better resourced with respect to distribution of social amenities such as pipe born water, electricity, health care facilities. Why the rural areas are less favoured Neoga (2010). According Pascallerlla and Terenzina (2011) a school location in a rural area have all the characteristics in the rural environment, similarly, an urban school will have an environment based activity peculiar to its environment but different a rural location. Thus, as the school environment differs, the level of academic may also differs. The consequent is that the quality of education may not be even, and the national and national policy of education for a democratic egalitarian society cannot be attained unsentimentally
According to Eze (2013), a school could be located in the urban or rural area. Rural schools are generally inferior to urban school as schools in rural areas lack human and materials need for the success at school. The location of school whether urban or rural affects a child ability to study and perform at the level expected of him. He noted that different aspect of school environment (rural and urban) influence students’ achievement. He further stated that the motivating forces of his own, scholastic ability, and academic values but also by the social pressure applied by the participant in the school setting.
the influence of school location on students’ academic performance in business studies
Also, differences in the location imply differences in the existent of the demographic and socio-economic parameters of the school. As stated by Imoagens (2008) in Akubue and Ifelunni (2016) that because of urban involvement, students in urban schools perform better than those in rural schools in language learning. Student have limited access to reading materials, inadequate reading culture and insufficient graduate teachers in rural schools. Therefore, the location of school has tremendous influence on student academic performance in schools.
The World Bank recommended that the following data were needed for rationalizing and drawing up of both the urban and rural school map. Schools which includes physical aspect site, type of building, usage, capacity, teachers (numbers, qualification, and age), students which include enrolment in school by age, individual data in age, sex, previous schools, home, location of mode, transport, time taken in home/school journey, parental background rural and urban area data which include land use administration, map on a large scale as possible, planning reports, settlement patterns and the like are required. These school locational planning techniques have been reportedly used by a number of countries to solve their educational problem (World Bank Cividelines, 2010).
1.2 Statement of the Problem
There is a great difference between the physical and demographic characteristic of rural and urban area. The rural areas are characterized by lack of infrastructures, aging population and agrarian orientation; whereas, the urban area are characterized by increasing industrialization and availability of modern infrastructures, this, however, tend to define class size in both rural schools. The citing of secondary school by the government does not take cognizance areas because of its plan to make secondary school more accessible to people large differences have been found between urban and rural school characteristics in terms of school plant inadequate resources managerial capacity and isolation. It is also observed that students schooling in public secondary schools in Nigeria do so at the risk of their lives because most of the school buildings had cracked, it is also observed that some school in Akwa Ibom State in particular lack basic instruction resources and quality teachers. How do these conditions differ in the urban and rural areas and how does these differences influence academic performance of students in two location? This study therefore sought to unravel the influence of school location and students’ academic performance in business studies in secondary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of school location on students’ academic performance in business studies in secondary schools in Nsit Ibom local Government Area. Specifically, the study intends to:
- Determine the influence of urban andrural schools locations on students’ academic performance in business studies in secondary in Nsit Ibom local Government Area.
1.4 Significance of the Studies
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 their academic goals. In so doing, they can investigate the possibility of introducing those factors to their schools which may consequently lead to enhancing students’ educational outcomes in school. In addition this study will provides a valuable reference for other researchers to reflect upon the school environment as it affect the academic performance of student in secondary schools.
1.5 Research Questions
The following research questions were formulated to guide the study:
- What is the influence of urban and rural school locations on students’ academic performance in business studies in secondary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area?
1.6 Statement of Hypothesis
In order to guide the study, this hypothesis waspostulated:
- There is no significant influence of school location on students’ academic performance in Business studies in secondary schools in Nsit Ibom local Government Area