PROBLEMS OF SCHOOL MANAGEMENT AND STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
The ability of the principal to positively influence teachers, students, and other members of society in the achievement of educational goals is a fundamental requirement for effective school administration. The role of the school manager (also known as the principal in Nigeria’s secondary school system) also includes the ability to translate educational policies into school programs and actions. The school’s success or failure is largely determined by its ability and capacity to influence desired educational goals. As a result, his role as the school’s executive head is enormous, and he faces numerous challenges in managing not only instructional programs but also teachers and students. to bring about positive change. In terms of the specific duty of the principal, (Ocho, 2010) stressed that the principal’s scope of work is “vast and intricate, and demands a lot of time, energy, dedication and sacrifice”. He went on to list some of the principal’s responsibilities, which included managing instructional programs, staff personnel administration, student personnel administration, financial and physical resource management, and school-community relationship management. In summary, the principal is regarded as a tone-setter for the school; an exemplar; and, above all, a leader whose actions, to a large extent, determine the school’s success (Aja-Okorie, 2010). It should be noted that one of the ways to evaluate a good secondary school administrator is through academic performance.
of students.
Academic performance is the rate at which educational objectives are met by those in the school system (Owan, 2012). As a result, academic performance can be viewed as the extent to which students achieve educational goals and objectives. According to Erum and Zahoor (2011), the area of interest has been students’ academic performance and graduation rates, and the investigation of factors related to the academic performance of secondary students has been a topic of great interest to scholars. This could be because the school was established for the students, and their performance can be used to assess the effectiveness of the entire school system.
Secondary school students’ academic performance appears to be poor, dwindling, or unstable within the Calabar Education zone. A large number of students are Academically, they are struggling, as evidenced by their poor performance in some classroom or external examinations. This has alarmed parents, teachers, and policymakers, who have questioned the effectiveness of the secondary school system not only in the zone, but also in Cross River State and Nigeria as a whole. Secondary school students’ poor academic performance was previously linked to a lack of infrastructure, poor parental involvement, and students’ study habits, among other factors. However, with recent improvements in the government’s, non-governmental organizations’, and other interested parties’ raising and supply of buildings and other infrastructures, as well as improved parental involvement in their children’s education, one can expect to see a corresponding improvement in academic performance
of secondary school students.
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Increased academic performance of secondary school students is required to achieve the goals of secondary education in Nigeria. In an ideal world, all parties involved would work together to improve students’ academic performance. The government is expected to provide all necessary materials and infrastructure, as well as incentives and other services to encourage students’ good academic performance. The school principals were expected to use their expertise and professionalism to create a welcoming environment for teachers and students in order to improve their effectiveness and students’ academic performance. Unfortunately, the quality of students’ academic performance has declined, particularly in Cross River State’s Calabar Education Zone. been the subject of heated debate. Many students in the area appear to be underperforming academically, as evidenced by their results in internal and external examinations. Aside from poor exam performance, many secondary school students in the Calabar Education Zone cannot read or write. As a result, they commit serious examination malpractice in order to pass their exams. This trend has had a significant impact not only on the secondary school system, but also on the quality of graduates produced for tertiary education. The government has made efforts to send quality supervisors to schools for routine inspections and checks. They have improved their consistency in paying teachers’ salaries, building more infrastructure, and now supplying schools. so on. Many parents are now actively involved in their children’s education by paying regular fees, providing supervision at home, and ensuring that students are not at home during school hours. All of these new measures were lacking in the past, but despite the government’s, teachers’, and parents’ efforts to improve students’ academic performance, there has been no discernible improvement in the performance of secondary school students within the education zone commensurate with the efforts made. Based on these lingering issues, the researcher wondered whether issues with school management, such as disciplinary control, classroom management, and teacher motivation, could be influencing secondary school students’ academic performance in Calabar education. The main issue
The study raises the question of how much school management issues, such as disciplinary control, classroom management, and teacher motivation, affect secondary school students’ academic performance. The study was required in order to investigate and provide an answer to this question.
1.3 THE STUDY’S OBJECTIVE
The overall goal of this study was to look into school management issues and secondary school students’ academic performance. Among the specific goals are:
1. Determine the school factors that influence students’ academic performance in the study area.
2. Look into how those factors affect secondary students’ academic performance in Calabar.
3. Investigate the effects of disciplinary control, classroom management, and teacher motivation on secondary students’ academic performance.
1.4 QUESTIONS FOR RESEARCH
The following questions were created to help guide this process.
study.
1. What school factors influence students’ academic performance in Calabar?
2. How much influence do these factors have on secondary students’ academic performance in Calabar?
3. Does disciplinary control, classroom management, and teacher motivation affect the academic performance of secondary students?
1.5 THE STUDY’S IMPORTANCE
The following are the study’s implications:
1. The findings of this study will educate the general public and the government about the quality of secondary school management in Nigeria, with the goal of identifying gaps and recommending solutions.
the subject.
1.6 STUDY OBJECTIVES
The scope of this study is limited to identifying school factors that influence students’ academic performance in the study area, investigating the extent to which those factors influence secondary students’ academic performance in Calabar, and assessing the influence of disciplinary control, classroom management, and teachers’ motivation on secondary students’ academic performance. Given this context, the scope of this research is limited to Calabar, Rivers State.
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