Effect of Community Factors on Secondary Schools Students Performance in Senior Secondary Examinations in Zamfara State

Abstract

Zamfara State located in the north western geo-political zone of Nigeria, has over the recent years recorded mass failure of students in senior secondary school's examination tagged as SSCE. In 2011 for instance, only 1,940 students out of 39,199 who sat for the national examination (NECO) passed the examination with five credits and above representing 5% passing rate. The situation remained almost the same even in the subsequent years. It is against this backdrop that this study investigated the effect of community variables on students' performance in SSCE in Zamfara State. Community variables in this study refer to the parents and the students as they come from the community. This study adopted ex-post facto design. The population of the study was all the students who graduated from secondary schools in 2017 in Zamfara State. The data were collected using a questionnaire administered separately on students, and their parents with the support of research assistants. The students ‘questionnaire was tagged as Questionnaire of students' performance in SSCE while the parents questionnaire was tagged as questionnaire of parent's perspective on student's performance in SSCE. The data were analyzed descriptively involving frequency counts and percentages. The study revealed a strong relationship between the students and their parents' attitudes towards learning and student's performance in SSCE. The study found that parents lacked the will to provide the necessary support to their children in all forms to encourage students' learning in schools while the students lacked the will and commitment to work hard and learn. In view the finding, the study recommends that parents should to be sensitized on the importance of their children's education and also the students should be properly guided and counseled on their education by all the relevant bodies and individuals such as the school's guidance and counseling units.