ABSTRACT

This study explored school environmental factors as correlate of students’ learning outcomes in private secondary schools in abia state, Nigeria. Five research questions and five null hypothesis provided direction to this study. The study adopted a Correlational Research Design. The population of the study comprised all the 14525 (fourteen thousand five hundred and twenty five) senior secondary Two school students in all the private senior secondary schools in Abia State. A sample size of 960 senior secondary school class two (SS2) students was drawn from twelve private secondary schools. Multi-stage sampling technique was use to draw the sample. instruments for data collection were two questionnaires, School Environmental Factors (SEFQ) and Students Learning Outcome Questionnaire (SLOQ). Two experts in the area of Educational Management and one expert in Measurement and Evaluation in the department of science education validated the instruments. The reliability of the instruments was determined using the test-retest reliability method and it yielded an overall reliability indices of 0.77 and 0.71 respectively. The data collected from the respondents was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Pearson’s r, R² (coefficient of determination) was used to analyse the research questions while Linear regression analysis was used to test the null hypotheses. The study revealed that there exist a high positive correlation between school buildings and students’ learning outcome. It also revealed a moderate positive correlation between school location and students’ learning outcome. Analysis of the study also showed that there exist a positive correlation between school facilities and students’ learning outcome and a positive correlation between classroom environment and students’ learning outcomes. The result of the study, showed that there exist a moderate positive correlation between school population and students’ learning outcomes and a perfect positive correlation between teachers’ factor and students’ learning outcomes. Based on the findings of the study the researcher recommended among others that Schools should be properly supervised by the agencies before they can be allowed to start functioning. There should be proper authorization by the government before any school can be approved. Schools operating in environmentally unfriendly areas should be made to relocate to environmentally friendly areas among others.