CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Education constitutes a formidable instrument for social mobilization in the society. It places very high premium in the education of the young ones as the gateway to cultural, social, political, economic and technological emancipation.According to Nigeria philosophy of education, education is viewed as a means of building a free, just and egalitarian society, a land full of opportunities for all citizens who are able to generate a great and dynamic economy and growing into strong and self reliant nation. As a way of achieving these objectives, the federal government and various state governments have allocated substantial portion of their budgets every year to education. Also many state governments had at one time or the other embarked on free education programme.
The Federal Government in 1976 launched the Universal Primary Education (UPE). Although some of these programmes have suffered several set-backs due to political changes, it is still an indication of government interest in the education of her citizens.Some State Government like Akwa Ibom State goes beyond, give direct financial assistance to students in form of scholarships and bursaries, pay WASSE or NECO Examination fees.Despite these concerted efforts by some of the governments at different levels, there is therefore a public out-cry over the falling standard of education particularly as observed in student’s poor academic performance in external examinations which continue to be poor. A pertinent question to ask is whether the standard of our education is really falling. There is therefore, the need to answer these vital question by subjecting our education system to some sort of evaluation. One way of doing this, is to look into the condition under which our children learn including their various homes. The need to bring up children in an environment which is rich, stimulating and motivating has attracted the attention of many contemporary researchers. It has been an established fact that there are three factors that affect the child’s learning.
These factors are the child himself, the teacher and the environment.Environment as defined by Bello (2004) is the aggregate of all the external condition and influences that affect the life and development of an individual. An environment is not just a void space or a vacuum without other elements. Cooper (1977) postulated that environment means the total set of circumstances, that surround an individual. In cooper’s presentation he classified environment as physical and social. The physical environment consists of such elements as air, water, land forms, climate etc while social aspects of the environment are ethics, economics, aesthetics and others which crows together to affect the behaviour of individuals.In another special classification, cooper further classified environment into the home environment which is the environment into which the child is born and bred, and the external environment which is the environment which the child must go into or have contact within order for him to be an all round individual.An environment has a vital role to play in the life of the individuals. When children are brought up in a particular environment, they are to be molded or shaped according to the factors operating in the particular environment. Environmental psychologists such as John Hatson believed that given appropriate environment a child could be make into anything.Quality of the school as well as that of the teacher is an important variables in students’ academic performance. It is observed that some schools stand out distinctive in terms of the quality teaching learning facilities, such school have qualified teachers, well equipped standard laboratories, libraries, furnished classrooms, instructional aids among others. Students who passed through schools without the necessary learning resources may be negatively affected in terms of their academics performance. Parental rearing style is another major variable, because home environmental factors like parental discipline, education, occupation among others determine the quality of learning a child acquires. Eecles (1992) argues that since the primary environment of the student is the home, it stands to reason that the impact exerted by the parents or the home far out weigh and exceed that from other factors.
This supports the revelation by several researchers about the tremendous impact of home environmental variables on school success. (Dempsey 2005; Reddings 2006). Maccoby (1980) stated that parents’ child rearing style certainly have influence on their children’s behaviours and values. This affect students’ academic performance in English.School location is another variable that may influence students’ academic performance in English language. Just like any business enterprise which is affected by its location, academic performance is found to be influenced by school location. According in Nwoye(1984), Location that are disastrous to learning include industrial towns with high population pressure; areas of the town with traffic congestion, while isolated areas are relatively conducive to serious academic pursuits. Situations are observed where students battle with noise pollution due to the school nearness to busy daily markets.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Many people are becoming worried by the poor performances of our children in their certificate examinations like WASSCE, NECO, NABTEB as well as in Joint Matriculation Examinations for entry into tertiary institutions. For example, WAEC announced and described that 2015, May/June result as being generally poor. This situation gives a cause for concern. It is known that environmental variables can affect learners’ learning either positively or negatively. It is also true that one’s academic achievement can be influenced by variables such as: teachers’ quality, parenting style, school location, among others.
Some students are sometime observed roaming the streets when they are supposed to be in classes receiving lectures. In some remotely located schools some teachers to school and go out at will because they feel the location of the school may not easily attracts any school inspector to the school. Some schools without qualified teachers are observed not being able to exposed their students to the expected curriculum. These lapses may affect quality of learning by students. It is against this background that the problem of this study is to determine environmental variables and students’ academic performance in English Language in Urue Offong/Oruko Local Government Area.