On the Multivariate Analysis of Students' Academic Performance in Wassce in Public Senior Secondary Schools in Rivers State (2018-2020)

Abstract

The paper examined students' performance in six subjects from WAEC examination from 2018 to 2020 using multivariate analysis through Hotelling T2 distribution and paired t-test statistics. Four objectives where formulated and used for this study. Based on the factors in the objectives, relevant related literatures were reviewed. A secondary data extracted from the WAEC results from the public senior secondary schools under study were used for this study and the analyses of the data were done using Hotelling T2 distribution, Quadratic form, and paired t-test statistics. All computations were done via Microsoft Excel 2010, SPSS (version 23.0) and MINITAB (version 16.0). The Hotelling T2 statistics results between the students' academic performance for (2018 & 2019), (2019 & 2020) and (2018 & 2020) were all significant. Paired t-test statistics results showed a decrease in the Students' average performance for four subjects (Mathematics, English Language, Marketing and Biology), while an increase in the Students' average performance for Economics and Civic Education subjects. It was discovered that students' average performances in Economics and Civic Education subjects were better than other subjects. This research recommend the effective implementation of the Nigeria education policies that emphasizes on teachers qualification, years of teaching experience and the UNESCO policy on Teacher-Students ratio (this policy stipulates that the maximum number of students that should be in a secondary class is 25), since there is significant difference between students' average performance for four subjects.