A STUDY OF STUDENTS’ EDUCATIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENT IN SOCIAL STUDIES IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

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A STUDY OF STUDENTS’ EDUCATIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENT IN SOCIAL STUDIES IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The study examined the academic achievement of students in social studies in public and private junior secondary schools in Kano state. The study was carried out with objectives to; compare the academic achievement of students in social studies in public and private junior secondary schools in Kano state; compare the academic achievement of male and female students in social studies in public junior secondary schools in Kano state and compare the academic achievement of male and female students in social studies in private junior secondary schools in Kano state. The relevant literature was reviewed in chapter two of the research. The study adopted expo facto research design and the total of seven hundred and ninety eight (798) students, which comprises five hundred and one from public JSS and two hundred and ninety seven from private JSS were sampled for the study from the total population of 79897. Data which was the BECE results was collected from the sampled schools through the assistance of principals and examination officers. The data collected for the study were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistical analyses, frequency count and simple percentages were used to answer research questions while research hypotheses were tested using chi-square at 0.05 level of significance, after testing hypotheses two were rejected and retained one. Findings among other showed that there was a significant difference in the academic achievement of students in social studies in public and private junior secondary schools in Kano state. Findings also revealed that there was significant difference in the academic achievement of male and female students in social studies in public junior secondary schools in Kano state. Based on the findings, recommendations were made that, The public schools must be adequately staffed, enough furniture provided and schools regularly inspected; Guidance and counseling should be established in male public junior secondary schools, so that the academic problems of male students could be found and solve,  also equal treatment should be provide in order to boost their academic achievement; There is need for all stakeholders including the Federal, State and Local Governments and the Private sectors to intensify efforts on how to maintain good academic standard in schools through comparison of results, in order to boost their academic achievement.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1.      Background to the Study

The Federal Government of Nigeria in recognition of the importance of education in the overall development of the nation, adopted education as an instrument for national development and fostering the worthwhile development of the individual. Education therefore, aims at the inculcation of national consciousness and national unity; inculcation of the right types of values and attitudes for the survival of the individual and the Nigerian society; the training of mind in understanding the world around and the acquisition of appropriate skill. (National Policy on Education 2014).

However, basic education (primary education and junior secondary education) has been acknowledged as the foundation on which the whole bulk of what is learnt through formal education stands. As posited by Onoh and Obodo (2001), a child who acquires a very sound basic education is likely to remain literate, numerate and morally upright, even if the opportunity for him or her to go beyond that level is elusive. Conversely, it is uphill task building a strong educational structure on a weak basic education otherwise the entire education will collapse. Therefore for the goals of education at all levels to be effectively achieved, the goals of basic education must be achieved optimally.

The federal government of Nigeria has for a long period of time been devoting its energies and resources to the training of such individuals that would take up the teaching profession by establishing quite number of training institutions. Since the time when formal education had become established in this country, it is true to assert that education has been expanding. Expansion in the field of education embraces only quantity while the quality keeps on dropping that has increase the number of enrolments into schools and increase in the quality of education being impacted by teachers and received by the students. It is true to also assert that government’s efforts of education have always been stunted by other sectors of the economy. Government resources therefore, cannot effectively guarantee the desired quality of education being imparted and received to ensure that this quality of education continues in the country or at least does not fall below a certain unacceptable level; government therefore issued an invitation, thus:

“Government welcomes the contribution of voluntary agencies, communities

And individuals in the establishment and management of primary and

Secondary schools, alongside those provided by the Federal and State

Government“  [ N. P. E  1973 ].

The quotation above is a clear invitation from the government to the communities to come out and complement the efforts of the government in imparting good education to the young ones of the society by establishing schools in complementing the efforts of the government; with the fees being charged by them, many parents would expect their children in such private schools to be receiving better education than their counter peers at the government-owned school. private schools are those schools that were established, managed, controlled and financed by either, private individuals, private groups or private organizations in order to educate children and make profit. The owners and proprietors of those private schools are profit earners due to the fact that they invested their money in building the schools, provide all the necessary facilities and equipment, employment of teachers for the purpose of giving good education to the children and also making profits.  It is in view of this, the people of Kano state, started establishing private school. The first private schools established in Kano state were Ijeoma Comprehensive School in karaji new layout behind capital insurance in Fage L.G.A which was established in the year 1977, then followed by Tony Cheta College in No-man’s-land Sabon Garin Kano, established in the 1978 both are in Fage L.G.A. While in the study area that was Kano south senatorial zone the first private school is Kano Foundation Secondary School Bebeji in Bebeji L.G.A. On the other hand   Public schools were established, supported and controlled by the governments of the state. Adeyinka (2010) stated that public schools are those schools that were established, managed, financed, as well as supervised by the government. He further opined that those schools were established with the tax payer’s money in order to educate the generality of the people irrespective of their economic, social or political status in the society. Therefore the first public school established in Kano state is Rumfa College in Kano municipal L.G.A. which was established since colonial era that was in the year 1927 while in the study area the first public school is GSS Rano in the year 1943. All the schools for both private and public schools were established as primary schools then promoted to secondary schools.

Therefore currently there are 14 private schools and 381 public schools in the study area. Therefore, the differences between the public and private schools in the study areas were public schools are owned, managed, financed and controlled by the government which led to higher population of the students while private schools are owned, managed, financed and controlled by the private individuals which have low population compare public school. However, in terms of compensation public schools’ staffs are more

compensated in the study area.

The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has in the last decade, made concerted efforts at revamping the ailing primary and Junior Secondary School education in the country. This was informed by the introduction of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) in 1999. One of the specific objectives of UBE is to prepare the pupils/students for the appropriate level of literacy and numeracy, citizenship education, moral training and development of sound attitudes, manipulative and life skills needed for laying sound foundation for the lifelong education among others. It is believed that a literate society is better able to result in productive, democratically minded active and healthy society (Aluede 2006).

In an effort to achieve the stated objectives of the UBE, the federal government made the programme tuition free and compulsory for all school age children (Obanya 2000). In addition to that, teachers are regularly trained and retrained to meet the challenges of the modern techniques of teaching and learning (National Teachers

Institute NTI 2006; Oyedele 2009). However, studies by Adekola (2004), Oladosu (2006), Ajayi and faremi (2006) and Ebonnugwe (2008) respectively reported that most of parents and guardians in Nigeria currently prefer sending their children or wards to private junior secondary schools where fees are paid as against the public Junior secondary schools that are tuition free. Ironically, some of poor parents who are supposed to take the advantage of the free education provided in public schools and also some teachers and principals who were employed to handle the public schools but both join the vogue of sending their children to private junior secondary schools. This development is intriguing and has generated much debate in educational circles as to whether sending children to private junior secondary schools is an asset in terms of academic achievement which has been defined by Nzeribe (2004) as observable and measurable behavior of a student in a particular situation. More formally stated, are the students in private junior secondary schools better equipped intellectually than their counterparts in the public schools?

It has long been reported by Williams, (1980); Ogunlade (1985); Ajayi (1999) in Oluwatayo (2012) that, the type of school attended by an individual is likely to have some educational implication on him or her either positively or negatively. Indeed ,Ogunlade(1985) in Oluwatayo (2012), stated that a genius who attends an institution devoid of basic facilities for teaching and learning may find it difficult to display his or her ingenuity maximally whereas an average intelligent child who attends an institution where facilities for teaching and learning are available in quantity and quality may perform brilliantly.

Meanwhile, Adekola (2004) gave two speculative reasons why private schools flourish in Nigeria. First, the general impression that students in private schools have better oral grammatical expressions than those in the public schools, and second, most private  schools have vehicles to convey their students to and from schools. In another dimension, Oladosu (2006) noted that many parent regard it as a prestige sending their children to fees paying institutions since no parent would like to be tagged poor. This is interesting but the major issue in the foregoing is the question of quality assurance of the students in terms of academic achievement because recent report about students abysmal performance in the Senior School Certificate Examination conducted by West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) has been traced to poor foundation at the basic educational levels (Adegbuyi 2010; Nurudeen 2010).

However, National policy on education (2008) revised edition classified social studies as a core subject in the nine (9) years basic, emphasizing the teaching of the subject to all who are at the lower six years basic (primary school) and upper three years basic (junior secondary school). Social studies as a subject aims at producing good and effective citizen who acquires norms values and attitudes which are very important machineries for nation building. With that policy in mind, teaching of social studies requires expertise, dedication, hardworking and punctuality in handling both lower and upper basic school learners. Unfortunately, it is observed that many teachers handling the subject at primary and post primary schools are not qualified to handle the subject and even the unqualified teachers of social studies are inadequate in most junior secondary schools in Kano State, Nigeria.

For some years now, reports on the pages of newspapers and research findings have shown the abysmal performance of students of secondary schools in public examinations. Ajayi (2002), Nwokocha and Amadike (2005), Adeyemi (2008) and Asikhia (2010) have all shown the extent of poor performance of students in public examinations. The persistent decline in students’ performance in public examinations is not only frustrating to the students and parents, its effects are equally grievous on the society.

Besides, there have been contradictory findings on whether there is a significant difference in the academic chievement of private and public schools. Alimi, Ehinola and Alabi (2012) reported no significant difference in the academic performance of students in public and private senior secondary schools in Ondo State, while Ajayi (2006) submitted that the public schools had better academic performance than private secondary schools in Ekiti State. Nwokocha &Amadike (2005), Ekundayo and Arogundade (2007) submitted that private schools performed better than their public schools counterparts in public examinations. Oyedepo (2007) and Oladele (2010) in Olagoke and Adedoyin (2015) reported that private school students outperformed their counterparts in public junior secondary school in most external examinations. It was these controversial issues between academic achievement of public schools and private school that called for the study. What type of education was offered in these two types of schools that lead to the disparity, which had called for a lot of arguments?

It is in the view of this; a decision was taken to carry out this research titled comparative study of students’ academic achievement in social studies in public and private junior secondary schools in Kano state, Nigeria.

 

 

1.2.      Statement of the problem

 The importance of Social Studies as a basic for other social science disciplines cannot be over stated. It lays the foundation to other social science subjects such as history, government, geography, sociology, anthropology among others. Also social studies is considered as a tool for producing effective citizen which is important machinery for national development. Unfortunately the poor condition of our schools, particularly the junior secondary schools today in the nation raises a lot of anxiety. A cursory look at these schools in spite of government efforts reveals schools dominated by dilapidated buildings, school void of good furniture and equipment, schools where instructional materials are either not provided or are inadequate; school that are understaffed; schools, where teachers’ salaries and allowances are not promptly paid, schools that have not been inspected for the last 15 years; schools where there are no discipline among other things. The government, and especially the parents are very much concerned with the quality and volume of learning acquired by their children, wards and citizens as this is related to the quality and quantity of the contribution which the individual can make to his immediate family, community and the nation as a whole. This implies that the business of education is not taken with all the seriousness it demands in the public schools. This of course is what may be regarded as the general apathy of the citizenry to government’s owned business or property. A situation that has resulted in lackadaisical attitude of government’s workers, including teachers in the public schools tend to believe that an intelligent child would succeed automatically at school without any active assistance coming from them.

However, the social studies subject is facing some problems and challenges in executing its programs such as: unqualified social studies teachers, lack of instructional facilitiesequipment, poor monitoring, supervision, and management of Junior Secondary Schools programs due to negligence of government at federal, state and local government level which consequently led to poor academic achievement in Junior Secondary Schools. On the other hand private Junior secondary schools are facing problems of unqualified teachers, infrastructures and poor teachers welfare due the fact that, private schools are profit gain program therefore, they always tried to minimize the input and maximize the output. Therefore, the declining rate of the academic achievement of JSS students in social studies is a problem of serious concern to various social studies educators, educationist and other researchers not only in Kano State but Nigeria in general. There are statistical numbers that can attest to this fact. Several studies have been carried out on the improvement of teaching and learning of social studies but low academic achievement still persists.

 

These efforts notwithstanding, a great disparity in students’ academic achievement between public and private junior secondary schools is a matter of concern to all stakeholders in education in Nigeria. Conducive learning environment, the physical setting of a school, quality of teachers and learning materials could boost a child’s academic achievement in social studies. This is why it has been found pertinent to investigate on how school type determines students’ academic achievement in social studies in junior secondary school in Kano state, Nigeria.

 

1.3.      Objectives of the study

This study tends to achieve the following objectives:

  1. To compare the academic achievement of students in social studies

between public and private junior secondary schools in Kano state. ii. To compare the academic achievement of male and female students in

social studies in public junior secondary schools in social studies in Kano

state.

iii.               To compare the academic achievement of male and female students in

social studies in private junior secondary schools in Kano state.

1.4.      Research questions

The following research question guided the study:

  1. What is the difference between the academic achievement of students in social studies in public and private junior secondary schools in Kano State?
  2. What is the difference between the academic achievement of male and

female students in social studies in public junior secondary schools in Kano State?

  • What is the difference between the academic achievement of male and

female students in social studies in private junior secondary schools in Kano state?

1.5.       Null Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses have been formulated to guide the study:

  1. There is no significant difference in the academic achievement of students in social studies between public and private junior secondary schools in Kano state.
  2. There is no significant difference between the academic achievement of

male and female students in social studies in public junior secondary schools in Kano state.

  • There is no significant difference between the academic achievement of

male and female students in social studies in private junior secondary schools in Kano state.

1.6.      Significance of the study

The main aim of carrying out research in education is to bring positive improvement in the practice of education, through finding new knowledge or

information. Therefore, this research is important in many areas to the stakeholders in the business of education for obtaining good output in junior secondary education.

This study is significantly beneficial to the students in the learning process, by increasing their knowledge in relation to private and public schools. The study is also paramount important to students of higher education while carrying their research for literature review especially at review of related empirical study and suggested area of study.

The study is also important to the teachers in many areas; the research will make the teachers to be conscious of current status of junior secondary school students’ academic achievement between public and private junior secondary school within the study area. The study will also expose them to see the differences in academic achievement of the students in social studies in public and private junior secondary schools and suggested possible ways to be followed to remedy the situation. Thus will make teachers to wake up and compete between public and private schools so as to improve the academic performance of their students.

The study is very crucial to the parents because it will enable the parents to know the academic achievement of their children, their strength and weakness in social studies subject and there is provision of possible solution to the problems confronting the academic achievement of their children. Also by knowing the academic achievement of their children as compared to private or public junior secondary schools, this will enable them to think the ways of helping the schools so as to boost the academic performance of their children.

The study is very important to scholars; these are the specialist in a particular branch of the study, a distinguished academic. This will be helpful to them while carrying their research in educational sector by revealing relevant information in respect to academic achievement between public and private junior secondary schools.

The research would be helpful to the curriculum planners and professional individuals who are well trained in curriculum management, they are active participant in the field of curriculum and they are responsible for curriculum as regard to contents and implementation procedure. Thus curriculum planners through this study will able to know whether the curriculum system is well implemented in both private junior secondary schools in the area studied and public junior secondary school system or not, so that a good action should be taken to ensure effective curriculum implementation.

The study is also useful and beneficial to the federal, state and local government, education policy makers, the policy makers in education include; the minister of education, commissioner of education, educational directors and so on. Therefore the outcome of this research will give them a clear picture of the level of academic achievement of public and private junior secondary schools students. Having known the academic achievement of junior secondary schools students especially in social studies education, the concern officers will ensure the actual implementation of curriculum and provide all necessary equipment and facilities in their area of concerned.

Therefore, the research will help the general public in knowing ways to improve academic performance of learners in Kano state. It has been observed that qualitative education is the most desired by the general public.

 

1.7.      Scope of the study

The study is limited to only the public and private junior secondary schools in Kano South Senatorial zone which consists of 5 educational zones, and 16 local government areas of Kano state. (Gaya zone, Karaye zone, Rano zone, Tudun wada zone and Wudil zone) and 16 Local Government Areas of Kano state, these include Gaya local government area Albasu local government area Ajingi local government area Takai local government area, Karaye local government area, Kiru local government area, Rogo local government area, Rano local government area Bunkure local government area, Kibiya local government area, Tudun wada local government area, Bebeji local government area, Doguwa local government area, Wudil local government area, Garko local government area, and Sumaila local government area Also the Basic Education Certificate examination results in social studies subject for the year 2013, 2014 and 2015 were used for study. It was meant to compare the academic achievement of students in social studies subject between public and private JSS. The research was delimited to male and female students within above mentioned educational zoness only.

A STUDY OF STUDENTS’ EDUCATIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENT IN SOCIAL STUDIES IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

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