Influence of Educational Resources on Students’ Academic Performance In Public Secondary Schools in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State:- Eleke, Joy U

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of educational resources on students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in Umuahia Local Government of Abia State. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. A sample of size of 265 respondents which is made up of 45 teachers and 220 SSI and SS2 students was drawn from the population of subjects (teachers and students) across the 16 public secondary schools in Umuahia North L.G.A ofAbia State, Nigeria. The study adopted a multi-staged sampling technique. The instruments for data collection was “Influence of Educational Resources on Students’ Academic Performance” (IERSAPQ) which had a 20-item each with four clusters and 4- point response scales ofVery High Extent, High Extent, Low Extent, and Very Low Extent with 4, 3. 2, and 1 ratings respectively that addressed the research questions. The face validation ofthe instruments was carried out by three experts: one from the Department of Adult Education expert in curriculum and instruction, one in the Department ofEducational Management expert in Administration and planning, and one in the Department of Science Education expert in Measurement and Evaluation all from college of education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State. The internal consistency of the reliability ofthe instrument was determined using Cronbach alpha statistic which yielded a reliability index value of 0.87. The instrument was administered by the researcher with the help ofthree briefed research assistants.. All the copies ofthe instruments administered were returned and was used for data analysis. Mean and standard deviations were used to answer the four research questions raised for the study while t- test statistic was used to test the four hypotheses that guided the study at 0.05 level of significant. The results showed among others that the respondentsto a high extent agreed that human resources, material resources, financial resources and time services have influence on students’ academic performance. This implied that for improved performance ofstudents in any school subject, there is the need for school management to recruit, train and appropriately deploy their human resources to their various field ofstudy. Thus, the training ofstaffthrough variousin service training is highly important. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that School management should ensure that qualified teachers are recruited to teach and manage the school system; there should be provision of funds for the management of the school system for effective administration and proper instructional delivery.