ASSESSMENT OF CHALLENGES FACING BOYS AND GIRLS IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

It is inarguably that every secondary schools wants to boast that it offers ‘high quality learning and teaching’. Schools mission statements consistently claim that secondary schools seek to provide excellent teaching and a high quality learning environment. However, it is less than obvious that schools are either clear about what these goals mean or actually pursuing these goals with strategic vision. In most cases neither of these key goals is well defined: what is excellent teaching and what constitutes a high quality learning environment? The manner in which schools are attempting to achieve these goals is many and varied (D’Andrea & Gosling, 2005:1). Attempts to turn the rhetoric into reality are seen as improvements to the teaching and learning process in Nigeria secondary education to further assist students to address their learning challenges. The Nigeria education system is composed of both public and private schools of which some are single sex and others are mixed schools with dierent learning environment. Single-sex schooling has attracted interest among education professionals, researchers, media, politicians and parents (UNICEF (2003). It is therefore argued that girls and boys should learn dierently and, thus, should be educated in separate environments in order to maximize their potentials.

A study by Mosha (2000) shows that, students from single-sex schools scored higher than students from co-educational schools. Though factors like; socio-economic status, parental support, school traditions and ethos, have also been demonstrated to have an eect on student’s performance. Unless the eects of such variables are controlled, the true eects of single-sex schooling cannot be determined. The place of secondary school education in the country’s educational system is of paramount importance. However, it appears that secondary schools are not living up to expectation in discharging their obligations. Omoregie (2005) lamented that the products of today’s secondary system can either usefully live in the society or move into higher institution without their parents’ aid or forgery. They cannot in fact think for themselves or respect the views and feelings of others. In other words, they have no iota of dignity of labour except for the things that will give them quick money. It must be stressed here that education cannot be an instrument par excellence for achieving national development where secondary education is not effectively managed to accomplish its aims and objectives.

According to Ajayi (2002) and Omoregi (2005) secondary education in Nigeria is riddled with crises of various dimensions and magnitude all of which combine to suggest that the system is at the cross road. One of the major of challenges students are faced with is problem of frequent changes in school curriculum .Both primary and secondary education suered unnecessary changes in curriculum, the reason being that every incoming administration would like to eect a change whether positive or negative. The moment there is a change in primary school curriculum it will definitely aect the secondary education. To buttress this point further, it is important to examine the structural flowchart of the National Policy on Education (NPE). The structure or flow chart of NPE does not help matters much. If there is anything worthwhile, the structure did not minimize the problem the education sector is now experiencing. For instance education in Nigeria is heavily geared towards the acquisition of certificates and nothing more than that. A Close look at the flowchart of the NPE shows that the beginning of the entire major segments of education invariably terminate at the university level.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The persistent poor performance of secondary school students in public examinations such as the Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) in Nigeria in the recent times has made the development of secondary education a diicult task. Parents, guardians and other stakeholders in education industry have variously commented on the performances of secondary school students particularly in English Language and Mathematics (Adepoju, 2002). Researchers and stakeholders in education industry have in the recent past identified several factors as the challenges and causes of poor performance of students in public examinations. Among such factors identified are poor location of the school, incessant changes in government policies, closure of schools, which is contingent upon teachers’ strike action, home-school distance, high student teacher ratio, lack of supervision, monitoring and evaluation machinery, lack of good textbooks, poor content and context of instruction, poor and non-conducive environment among others, therefore the researcher decides to assess these listed challenges and the effects they have on academic performance of both boys and girls in Iganmode Grammar school, Ota, Ogun state.