COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS PERFORMANCE IN BIOLOGY AT WASSCE AND NECO SSCE FROM 2010-2011 (A CASE STUDY OF BASSA LGA)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Performance in school is evaluated in a number of ways. For regular grading, students demonstrate their knowledge by taking written and oral tests, performing presentations, turning in homework and participating in class activities and discussions. Teachers evaluate in the form of letter or number grades and side notes, to describe how well a student has done. At the state level, students are evaluated by their performance on standardized tests geared towards specific ages and based on a set of achievements students in each age group are expected to meet. According to Asikhai (2010), education at secondary school level is supposed to be the bedrock and the foundation towards higher knowledge in tertiary institutions. It is an investment as well as an instrument that can be used to achieve a more rapid economic, social, political, technological, scientific and cultural development in a country. It is rather unfortunate that the secondary schools today are not measuring up to standard expected of them. There has been public outcry over the persistently poor performance of secondary school students in public examinations. The problem of downward trend in academic performance of students has often been attributed to a number of factors among which are: the principal‘s leadership style, teacher quality, home factors, government factors and non-provision of educational resources 15 (human, material, financial physical resources). However, this study was limited to the provision of human and material resources as potent factors for students‘performance. The availability of educational resources (human and material) is very important because of its role in the attainment of educational objectives. Human resources are a unique educational input necessary for the overall development of skill acquisition and literacy of the students. Human resources within the educational system can be classified into teaching and non-teaching staff. Availability of these classes of resources is needed to achieve excellence in the system. However, it has been observed that secondary schools in Kogi Statedo not have the required number of teachers (both in terms of quantity and quality). This is evident in high studentteacher ratio in the schools. Personal observation has also shown that material resources are in short supply in the schools. The poor status of material facilities in the schools is not unconnected with the dearth of fund in the system. A close look at the schools and what goes on there shows that nothing good can come out of most public schools as they do not have facilities and adequate and appropriate human resources to prepare candidates for West African Examination Council (WAEC) examinations (Owoeye & Yara, 2011). The precarious situation of lack of human and material resources is more evident in public schools than in the private schools and this shows why the private schools tend to perform better than the public schools in public examinations. Ekundayo (2009) in a study conducted in Ekiti State submitted that private secondary schools had educational materials better than the public schools. Studies on the difference between availability of human resources and academic performance have shown that human resources enhance academic performance of students. George (1976), Oni (1992), Adedeji (1998), Ayodele (2000), Adewuyi (2002) and Okandeji (2007) had in their various researches submitted that teachers constitute a very significant factor to students‘success. In a similar dimension, Adedeji (1998), Owoeye (2000), Ajayi (2002), Akomolafe (2003, 2005) and Owoeye (2011) also submitted a positive difference between material resources in schools and students‘academic performance. According to Hallack (1990), the material resources that contribute to students‘performance include: classrooms, accommodation, libraries, furniture, apparatus and other instructional materials. The author emphasised that the availability, relevance and adequacy of these facilities contribute to students‘achievement. In a contrary view, Gamoran in Owoeye (2011) found that facilities, teacher‘ salaries, books in the library and the presence of science laboratory had little impact on variation in students‘ achievement. The shortage of qualified teachers, inadequate facilities for a large school, lack of good school environments, amongst others are factors for poor results. 'Overcoming Candidates‘ Poor Performance at the West African Senior School Certificate Examination' will give good consideration to candidate-related factors such as students' inadequate preparation and poor coverage of the syllabuses, failure to adhere to instructions, lack of understanding of the demands of the questions, which is due to the poor reading culture, illegible handwriting and poor spellings, examination malpractice, among others, are responsible for the poor performance of students in examinations. Some schools of thought hold that day students, which travel from their various homes to school, perform academically better than their counterparts in the boarding houses. This, they claim, is due to the fact that, day students are mostly under the care of their parents and guardians who, in addition to maintaining adequate home discipline, may also help the students with their school work. The number of candidates in a graduating set, no doubt, is a factor that could mar or make performance level in final examinations in senior secondary schools. On teacher quantity, Fabunmi, Brai-Abu and Adeniji (2007) noted that schools with larger size and high teacher-students ratio recorded poor performance in science subjects whereas schools with small size and lower teacher - student ratio had better academic achievement. According to Hallack (1990), the material resources that contribute to students‘performance include: classrooms, accommodation, libraries, furniture, apparatus and other instructional materials. The author emphasised that the availability, relevance and adequacy of these facilities contribute to students‘ achievement. A close look at the schools and what goes on there shows that nothing good can come out of most public schools as they do not have enough facilities adequate and appropriate human resources to prepare the large size of registered candidates for West African Examination Council (WAEC) examinations. The shortage of qualified teachers, inadequate facilities for a large school, lack of good school environments, amongst others are factors for poor results. 'Overcoming Candidates‘ Poor Performance at the West African Senior School Certificate Examination' will give good consideration to candidate-related factors such as students' inadequate preparation and poor coverage of the syllabuses, failure to adhere to instructions, lack of understanding of the demands of the questions, which is due to the poor reading culture, illegible handwriting and poor spellings, examination malpractice, among others, are responsible for the poor performance of students in examinations.

Grading of West African Secondary School Certificate Examination

Examinations in Nigerian schools dated back to the advent of formal education. The 1887 Education Ordinance made provision for public examinations in schools that have attained the requisite percentage of proficiency (Adesina, 1977). Thus, the National Policy of Education 1998) stipulated that all secondary schools should gear their programmes to meet the requirements of examinations being conducted for the Senior School Certificate. The pattern of grading candidates’ scores in the examinations was such that the distinction grade was represented by A1 to B3. The credit grade was represented by C4 to C6. The ordinary pass grade was represented by D7 and E8 while the failure grade was represented by F9 (WAEC, 2002). It needs to be mentioned however, that the distinction and credit grades are the only requisite qualifications for admissions into universities in Nigeria and candidates must have at least credit in five subjects including English Language in order to qualify for admission (JAMB, 2002). Thus, examinations occupy a unique position as a measure of quality within the educational system of Bassa State, Nigeria. They are either internal or public. Internal examinations are the examinations that are set by teachers within a school system. These could be in the form of tests and end of term examinations. Public examinations, on the other hand, are examinations that are conducted by recognized examining bodies. As such, the examinations: Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (SSCE) and the Junior Secondary School Certificate Examination (JSCE) are regarded as external examinations. This is in the sense that the examining boards conducting these examinations did not themselves organize instructional courses nor prepare students for the examinations. They are designed to evaluate performance at the end of a course of study or programme.

Students’ Performance in WASSCE in Biology

The term ‘performance‘ has been described as the scholastic standing of a student at a given moment. It refers to how an individual is able to demonstrate his or her intellectual abilities. Mathematics, Physics, English Language and Biology are the core of the educational curriculum especially for the science inclined students, at least for now. At all levels of educational system, they occupy a prestigious position as disciplines. Performance and competence in these subjects are complementary issues. The two however differ. Williams (1990) stated that performance is elicited and observed while competence can only be referred to as underlying ability. He further illustrates that competence has to do with the strength or the ability to perform. In this work, good performance is inferred as being competent. Examiners, Educationists and other stakeholders have continuously rated students in Nigeria as incompetent in these subjects mentioned above. Hamza (1999) lamented on the low level of competence of Nigerian students and in Bassa Metropolis particularly. Others feel that it is the inadequacy of competent teachers, poor preparation of students for the examinations and the automatic promotion of students’ policy that hamper the high performance of the students. Some researchers have agreed with these causes and 23 suggested among others, recruitment of competent teachers in these fields, good welfare package for teachers and purchase of relevant textbooks.

Students’ Performance in Biology in West African Senior School Certificate Examination, Bassa

The recurrent poor performance of secondary school students in Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) conducted by West African Examination Council (WAEC) in Nigeria is disturbing and embarrassing. For instance, the results released by WAEC in 2010 revealed that about 80% of the candidates that sat for the examination failed because they did not have credit passes in five subjects including Biology,English Language or Mathematics. Similarly, about 98% of candidates that sat for Nov/Dec 2009 failed Senior Secondary School Examination (SSCE) of the National Examination Council as they did not have credits in five subjects including English, Biology, Physics and Mathematics (Falola, 2010). Furthermore, in the year 2008 only 1.8% of the candidates that sat for senior secondary school examination passed (Uwadiae, 2008). These reports are worrisome because secondary school students of today are expected to become leaders tomorrow. In Kogi Statewhich is the focus of this study, results for Kogi State reveals that in 2009-2014 West African Examinations Council (WAEC) 2014 Kogi State had 4.03%, in year 2006 Kogi 6.88% ,in 2007 Kogi had 4.61%, in 2008 Kogi had 2.11%, in 2009 Kogi had 5.03%, in 2010 Kogi had 5.56%. (Source: Kogi Educational Resource Department - (KERD)

In the SSCE, Biology is one of the compulsory subjects for all candidates; hence much time and attention are devoted to the teaching of this subject in both the primary and secondary schools. Nevertheless, the students have not been performing well, and the situation is not improving. For example, in the SSCE of May/June 1992, English Language recorded only 13.8% passes with Distinction and Credit grades while 59.6% of the total 381,506 candidates failed. For Biology, only 9.7% passed in Distinction and Credit grades while 59.4% failed (WAEC, 2010). In the examinations taken in June 1994 by 618,119 students, 14.2% and 13.7% passed with Distinction and Credit levels in English and Mathematics respectively. The failure rates for the two subjects were 56.3% for Biology and 67.4% for Mathematics (WAEC, 2012). Results in other subjects were equally poor with students doing much worse in subjects with practical work. In SSCE of December 1996, for example, failure rates were 64.6% for English, Biology 58%, Music 75%, and Book-Keeping 67%. Dr. Abdulraham blamed "the mass failure on the falling standards in secondary education". The situation has indeed reached a crisis that cannot be ignored. The rate of poor performance of students in Nigeria had resulted to economic and social wastage and this has become a great concern to all stakeholders in education. For instance, in 2011, 65.94% of the students had credits pass in Biology. Also in year 2009, it was another year of poor result across all states of the federation. According to Okpala (2010) at the national level, the percentage of candidates that had credit in English language between years 2009-2012 in West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is as follows: 27.53% in year 2005, 15.56% in 2006, 22.54% in 2007, 13.78% in 2008 and 24.94% in 2009. He also stated that candidates who obtained credit passes in five subjects and above including Biology,English language and Mathematics between 2010 and 2014 are as follows: 8.53% in year 2010, 13.32% in 2011, 27.74% in 2012, 10.53% in 2013 and 1.80% in 2014. The failure was not just intense; it was truly hopeless in the sense of the situation in the post-primary training environment. In this case and as earlier declared on December 23, 2010 by the examinations body, only 20.04 per cent or 62,295 candidates obtained credit pass in English, Mathematics and other three subjects in the Nov. /Dec. 2010 examinations. This is a pointer to the fact that all is not well with the students‘ attainment in the cognitive domain. 26 Apart from the general poor performance referred to above, there appeared to be difference in performance from one school to the other. It may be argued that such variation in performance is unavoidable. Although, the incidence of poor performance appears to be more common in public day schools as in Bassa Metropolis secondary schools, private schools are not free from the declining trend. The consequence of mass failure in secondary school examinations is the inability of learners to proceed to higher educational institutions. As a result of this poor performance, stakeholders in education are curious to know the causal factors associated with the problem. Causes of the poor performance could include; ownership of the school and inadequate facilities. Facilities are of everything used directly or indirectly for the benefit of education. Facilities could also be explained as the entire school plant such as; blocks of classrooms, staffrooms, laboratories, workshops, libraries, laboratory equipment, consumables, audio-visual aids, electricity, water, chairs, tables, stationeries, playground, storage spaces and others which each school has. It has always been realized that facilities are very important in the development and improvement of education in Nigeria, especially in Bassa Metropolis. A school without facilities, either private or public, day or boarding, may not be able to achieve the stated goals and objectives of the system. When facilities are available and skilfully utilized, they influence learning and make it more meaningful. Facilities in education are very vital because they aid teaching and learning. Bandele (2003) noted that the importance of physical facilities cannot be relegated. Facilities like modern laboratories, libraries and classrooms are to be put in place in all our schools. Adesola (2005) found out that the level of available resources is indeed a plus to the teachers and goes to show the level of ingenuity and commitment of the teachers toward effective delivery of lesson. There is the need for renovation of old buildings, chairs, desks, cabinets and acquisition of modern classrooms as earlier recommended by Alimi (2007). Akinfolarin (2008) identified facilities as a major factor contributing to performance in the schools system. These include: classroom furniture, recreational equipment among others. Different studies conducted by Ayodele (2000) and Vandiver (2011), showed that a positive difference exists between availability of facilities and students‘academic performances. Research findings on the influences of facilities in private boarding and day and public boarding and day secondary schools on students‘performance are controversial. Keeves (1978) found out that the type of school, classified as public or private, day or boarding did not make any difference on students‘academic performance. However, Ajayi (2006) found out that school types make a difference in students‘performance. In addition, Philias & Wanjobi (2011) reiterated that the type of schools, (single sex or mixed, private or public, day or boarding) has effect on the performance of students in Mathematics and other subjects.