THE EFFECT OF GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION OF SCHOOL TO THE STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

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 urban centers, with cultural diversity, which often is suspected to affect students’ academic achievement. This is because urban centers are better favored with respect to distribution of social amenities such as pipe borne water, electricity, healthcare facilities while the rural areas are less favored. This is also true in the distribution of educational facilities and teachers. These prevailing conditions imply that learning opportunities in Nigerian schools differ from school to school. It would appear therefore that students in Nigerian urban schools have more educational opportunities than their counterparts in rural schools have. While some studies have shown positive influence, others have shown negative influence of school location on the students’ learning outcome or achievement. Several researchers have conducted research on school location and academic performance, making a critical analysis of locational factors.

Hallak (1977) summarized that provision of education in rural areas is normally fraught with the following difficulties and problems; qualified teachers refuse appointment in isolated villages; villagers refuse to send their children to schools because they depend on them for help; parents hesitate to entrust their daughters to male teachers; some villagers have few children for an ordinary primary school; lack of roads or satisfactory means of communication makes it difficult to get books and teaching materials at school. In European countries, school location and student performance, however, are not strongly related after accounting for socioeconomic differences in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States and in the partner countries and economy 4 Croatia, Dubai (UAE), Montenegro, the Russian Federation and Serbia (OECD, 2011). The variation in performance reflects dierences in the educational opportunities available in rural and urban areas, and the characteristics of these locations, such as population density, distribution of labour markets, and the extent to which urban and Suburban areas are sought and populated by individuals from different backgrounds (OECD, 2011). In Nigeria, study indicates that location of schools relates to academic performance of students in Ekiti state. Onokerhoraye (1975) emphasized that lack of suitable school location has contributed to the imbalances of Western education from one part of the country to the other in Nigeria. Tanimowo, (1995) discovered that the distribution of school shows disorder, planlessness and ineiciency. The ineiciency here refers to pupil academic performance. The implication is that while people in some areas enjoy minimum travelling distances to acquire education, some people in other places suer by having to cover maximum distances to acquire education. Over the past decade remarkable studies have indicated a correlation between the environment and academic performance of students. Environment plays major role in the life of every individual whether a students, teachers, employer or employee (Chukwuemeka, 2013).

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The geographical location of school result into a number of problems including; poor attendance, resulting in low achievement, increases of dropout rate, and amplifies a host of social problems (Debnath, et al 2010). Educational experts argue that students who have not acquired an association between academics and life experiences do not feel that good school attendance is relevant to their future. Walter, (1998) contend that one of the factor that influence academic performance is school location/site of the school, most developed countries realized this and they environment make sure their schools is situated in the best location so as to minimize failure, to them variation in performances is due to variability in education material available between in urban and rural areas.

Even though most African knows this especially Nigerian, schools are still not situated in the best place it should, most school are along the express road, market areas etc. this altogether distract the students and affects their performance. Other research concentrates looking on the general factors effecting performances such as inadequacy of resources, inadequacy of prior preparation, lack of support from the parents, laziness of the teachers, lateness of the teacher, incompetent teacher, poor monitoring and absence of supervision, but the main aim of this research is to find out the effect of geographical location on academic performance of students in Lafenwa High School, Abeokuta Ogun state.