CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

In Africa, the child is regarded as very important and highly valued. Due to this reason, the Africans do not disregard their futures and fate. There is a general belief or assumption in Africa that the children will grow up, tend and take care of their old parents.

Emphasis is thereby laid on the primary education of the child, which is seen as the basic foundation the child needs in order to equip him for the future education and adulthood.

1.1 Background of the Study

The school as a formal institution is established and set aside by the society for learning, transformation and preservation of the cultural heritage of the people. Nevertheless, teaching and learning can also take place in other places like the family, the church, the mass media and other formal and informal organizations.

Primary education is the bedrock of the entire educational structure and also the gateway to whatever endeavors the individual pursues and achieve in life. A good primary education is a sineque-non, a requirement to solid secondary and tertiary education.

In the education of the child, the primary school plays a very crucial role. To this effect, the National Policy on education (NPE) states that, primary education refers to the education given in institution for children aged 6 to 11 plus. Since the rest of the education system is built upon it, the primary level is the key to the success or failure of the whole system. According to Ugwu (2000), the goals of primary education are to:

a. Inculcate permanent literacy and numeracy and ability to communicate effectively.

b. To lay a sound basis for scientific and reflective thinking.

c. To give citizenship education as a basis for effective participation and contribution to the life of the society.

d. To mold the character and develop sound attitude and morals in the child.

e. To develop in the child the ability to adapt to the child’s changing environment.

f. Again, to give the child opportunities for developing manipulative skills that will enable the child function effectively in the society within the limits of the child’s capacity.

g. Finally, to provide the child with basic tools for further educational advancement, including preparation for trades and crafts of the locality.

In a study by Earthman, (2004), the school environment refers to all the objects, forces and conditions in the school, which influence the child physically, intellectually, and emotionally. He also concluded that the quality of the physical environment significantly affects students’ achievement. There is sufficient research to state without equivocation that the building in which students spends a good deal of their time learning does in fact influence how well they learn.

According to Fisher (2000), Desirable designs include having friendly and agreeable’ entrance areas, supervised private places for students, as well as public spaces that foster a sense of community, with particular attention to the colour used.

Obasi (1981) opines that, in the school environment, the child is exposed to set of interaction with the classmates and teachers, school buildings and facilities laid down rules and regulations, prevailing norms, values and social sanctions.

Undoubtedly, school environment vary between local government area: some are more conducive to learning situation than others. Some educators try to disagree that a fascinating school environment is one where there are adequate and qualified human and material resources. Most of the information about the learning environment in our schools are not encouraging. The prevailing situation is far from satisfactory and effective teaching and learning.

Stricherz in Higgins et al (2005) stated that, school environment is an important factor that contributes to the learning and assimilating level of the pupils. The environment can help the child to realize or hinder his goals in life. In other words, the school setting determines how well the child is able to realize his or her goals or destroys it. some environment can be loving or frightening, stimulating or boring, conducive or inhibiting to the development of the purpose and goals for which it was established. The school environment should be motivating, challenging and learning inspiring. When these qualities are achieved by the pupils, we then assume it to be a conducive environment for learning.

According to Ukeje (1970), the health of the pupils are determined by how healthy the school environment is. Adequate space in the compound, toilet facilities and other appropriate facilities assumed a healthy living in the environment. It is believed that the best physical environment can be wasted unless the teacher is alert to its utilization and opportunities for learning. A dirty compound littered with rubbish by teachers and pupils, bad toilets and bathrooms can result to health hazard to the users and can create an undesirable habits and attitudes in pupils. In Nigeria, most public schools lack toilet facilities and those that exist, exist in a dilapidated root, making the place look dirty and unkempt. Pupils excrete from the entrance and this can be hazardous to their health, and also makes the environment dirty.

Apart from this, Akpan (1992) talked about the disciplinary aspect of the pupils in school. He said that discipline of pupils in school significantly depends on the interpersonal relationship exhibited by the headmistress. When interest is shown on the pupils, they are motivated to be effective, punctual to school, partake in curricular activities and behave well. An environment that lacks discipline tends to breed irresponsible pupils, and a high level of poor performance.

According to Schlafly (2000), gender speaks more or contributes a lot in the academic achievement of primary school pupil. He believed that because of biological predetermination, girls are less intelligent than boys and that they cannot achieve academically at the same level. Due to this fact, a poor learning environment will affect the academic performance of the girls negatively, then that of the boys, simply because girls are intellectually inferior to boys.

Mahapatra (1994) states that, girls think they are clever, more successful and harder working than boys from as young as four. He further said that boys come round to this view by the age of seven or eight and assume that girls will outperform tham at school and behave better in lessons.

However, Mahapatra (1994) argues that, teachers have lower expectations of boys than girls in a poor learning environment, due to distractions and inadequacy of learning facility and this belief fulfils itself throughout primary and secondary school. Simply because, girls are clever, performed better and are focused. Thus their performance at school may be boosted by what they perceive to be their teacher’s belief that they will achieve higher results and be more conscientious than boys, and also that boys may underachieve because they pick up on their teachers’ assumptions that they will obtain lower results than girls and have less drive.

According to Marzano (2000), boys and girls and affected, academically in a poor learning environment. Based on this proposition; it is generally assumed that school environment has or should have same influence on the academic performance of the learner. Consequent upon this back ground, the aim of this research is to find out the impact or influence of school environment on the Academic performance of primary school pupils. In other words, the research is aimed at finding the relationship between the school environment and the Academic performance of primary school pupils in Udi Local Government Area.