PHYSICAL RESOURCES ALLOCATION AND STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN GUSAU LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, ZAMFARA STATE, NIGERIA

Adedeji Israel Olusegun and Bello Yunus Kehinde

Abstract

Physical resources allocation is very paramount to students’ academic performance. This study investigated physical resources allocation and students’ academic performance in secondary schools in Gusau Local Government Area, Zamfara State, Nigeria. Four research questions and one hypothesis were raised to guide the study. The research design used for this study was descriptive (survey) design. The population for this study comprised all 15,747 teachers in 92 senior secondary schools in Gusau Local Government Area, Zamfara State. The Research Advisors (2006) at 95% confidence level and 5.00% Margin of Error was used to determine the sample size of 381. Also, the stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to select 381 teachers from 15 schools in Gusau. Percentage was used to answer research questions and Pearson product-moment correlation statistics was employed to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance to find out the relationship between school physical resources and students’ academic performance in SSSCE (WAEC) between 2014 and 2018 in Zamfara State, Nigeria. The findings to this study revealed that the physical facilities allocated were inadequate and over-utilised in secondary schools in Gusau Local Government, Zamfara State. Nigeria. Findings to the hypothesis raised revealed that there was no significant relationship between physical resource allocation and Students’ Academic Performance of Secondary Schools in Gusau Local Government Area, Zamfara State, Nigeria (r-value = 0.121, p-value = 0.065 at 0.05 level of significance). Conclusion was made that allocation of physical resources had little influence on the students’ academic performance among other factors. The study recommended among others that periodic assessment of the state of physical resources should be carried out by schools and regulatory bodies to provide more physical resources to secondary schools in Zamfara State; not only by the government but by involving all the stakeholders such as PTA, Philanthropists, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) periodically.