ABSTRACT
The hue and cry about the falling standard of Education in Nigeria has raised questions to the possible causes. One of such was this study of impact of age on academic performance. The aim was to collect data on age and academic performance in internal examination and to ascertain if there is any impact or relationship between the duo. The alternative hypothesis which stated that there is relationship between age and academic was accepted. The study population was students of senior secondary schools in Ibiono Ibom. The sample size was 2000. It was forms that age is not a prerequisite to make a student better of academically provided concrete operational stage as stated by piaget is reached. Perception is a yardstick for better academically. It was also revealed that academic performance is a natural endowment.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
There has been lots of hues and cry on the falling standard of Education in the country. Lots of factors have been pin-pointed as being of direct impact on the performance of students. Such include the language of communication the child background (socio-economic), the environment and the availability of physical learning infrastructures. In a bid to know how a child learns, piaget, Bruner, skinner, etc came up with different schools of thought and theories of learning in piagets work, he specified the level of mental activities a child can do at different age brackets. Thus:
Sensori – Motor stage (0 – 2 years) Preoperational stage – (2 – 7 years) Concrete operational stage – ( 7 – 11 years) Formal operational stage – (12 – 15 years) cited by NTI (2002, p.20)
Textbook on Educational Psychology This simply tells that activities which a child can perform relate to age. This study therefore wants to determine whether the current decadents is due to underage of the students in respect to their classes. In Ibiono Ibom, the number of students who do pass mathematics and other logical subjects are usually few. There is improvement in terms of facilities but the trend of performance has not reciprocate the improvement. We do expect to determine the impact of age on their performance assuming other factors are met.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
There are lots of problems bothering the development of Education in Nigeria. Some are latent while others are so outstanding to be noticed. Whether latent or outstanding, they have impacts on our educational system. Cognitive development theory of Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980) believes that children’s learning abilities were determined prior to their birth. That is hereditary is the sole determinant (NTI 2000) ED p.118-122, Pshy Arnold Gessel said that understanding the cognitive development (Intelligence) of a learner is by understanding the growth process of the individual. This emphasis is on age. Therefore, this study is to investigate the impacts of age on the academic performance of students in Ibiono Ibom.