Background of the Study
Poor academic performance of
secondary school students has been on the increase in both internal and
external examination Okoye (1982) defines
poor academic performance of the
individual or candidate in a learning situation as one in which a candidate fail to attain a set
standard of performance in a give
evaluation exercise such as test, examination or series of continuous
assessment. Usually this standard is
based on a number of stipulated
objective and other school activities. A
candidate who scores less or below the standard is regarded as showing a poor
academic performance in school.
Some
people blame students themselves and
others blame government while, others blame teachers. That is why
Nwana (1986) stated that one may hear elderly parents, retired civil servants and persons
say that school leavers of
nowadays are not able to speak correct and fluent English,
they cannot solve simple arithmetic problem and they do don’t know their basic tables.
In the
researcher experiences in
consideration of the situation of
academic (performance among
secondary school students in Izzi L.G.A of
Ebonyi State and also in personal
and social life, it has been observed
that secondary school students
marked scripts and exercises show
that there is poor academic performance over the years. The factors that influence academic performance
of students have attracted the interest and concern of teaches, counsellor, psychologists,
researchers and school administrators in Nigeria. This is because
of the public outcries concerning
the low standard of education in the country (Imoge 2002).
Poor academic performance
has been a general problem all over the country, and a lot of investigation has been carried out
to know where the problem lies, but the
problem still persists. This has been a bone of contention and that is why
the researchers intend to investigate
the causes of academic performance of students in izzi
local Government Area of Ebonyi
State of Nigeria as seen by
school counselors.
Statement of the Problems
The poor performance of secondary school students in Izzi Local
Government Area has been a great concern to a good number of educationists,
teachers, counselors, psychologists, researchers as wall as the school
administrators in Nigeria. That is the reason these researchers have taken it
upon themselves to find out the counselors views on factors responsible for
poor academic performance of secondary
school students in Izzi Local Government Area.
The poor performance of secondary school students has given the researcher a lot of concern and so has led
to their embarking on this research, the
problem therefore is identification
of what school counselors think are the
causes of poor academic performance of secondary school
students.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to find out :
1. The opinion of school
counselors on the general performance
of secondary school students.
2. The counselors views on factors responsible for
pooor academic performance secondary school
students.
3. to offer suggestion on
how the problem can be solved.
Scope of the
Study
The study was carried out in secondary schools in Izzi
Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, which
are eleven (11) in number.
Significance of the Study
As
far as government in anxious to employ all necessary measures within its
reach to improve the falling standard in
education, it is expected that this work will contribute in no small measure to uncover the secretes and the causes of poor
academic performance among secondary school students in Izzi Local Government Area.
In
addition, the work will make some
invaluable suggestion which if applied will drastically reduced the cases of
poor performance of students in Izzi Local Government Area by serving as a guide to teachers and
help the students to perform very well
in their examination
Research Question
The following researcher questions have been
formulated to guide the study
-
What is the opinion of school counselllors about the general
performance of secondary school students?
-
What factors do counselors think
are responsible for poor academic performance of secondary school students?
-
What are the possible effects of poor
academic performance of secondary school students?
-
How can this situation
be remedied”