Influence of School Facilities on Students’ Academic Performance in Basic Science and Technology in Junior Secondary Schools in Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of school facilities on students' academic performance in Basic Science and Technology in junior secondary schools in Osun state. It assessed school facilities available in junior secondary schools for the teaching and learning of Basic Science and Technology, determined the influence of school facilities on junior secondary school students' academic performance in Basic Science and Technology and finally examined the interaction effect of school facilities and gender on junior secondary schools students' academic performance in Basic Science and Technology with a view to providing information on the academic performance of students in the subject in the study area. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The population for the study comprised all junior secondary school two (JSS II) students of Basic Science and Technology in the state. Ten schools were selected from each of the three senatorial districts in the state using simple random sampling technique. From each of the selected schools, forty students were also selected using simple random sampling technique. In all, thirty schools and one thousand two hundred students constitute the sample size for the study. Two research Instruments were used to collect data for the study. They are: School Facilities Checklist (SFC) and Students' Previous School Term Results in Basic Science and Technology. Data collected were analyzed using frequency counts, simple percentages and regression analysis. The results of the study revealed a low level availability of school facilities for the teaching and learning of Basic Science and Technology such as science laboratories which are grossly inadequate 10(33.33%), world globe 3 (10.00%), computers 0 (0.00%), electricity supply 7 (23.33%), health care services0 (0.00%), first aid box 9 (30.00%)and so on. The results further showed a significant influence of school facilities on students’ academic performance (F=7.745<0.05) and the results finally revealed no significant interaction effect of school facilities and gender on students’ academic performance in Basic Science and Technology (F=5.361>0.05). The study concluded that school physical facilities are crucial to students’ academic performance in Basic Science and Technology.