Assessment Of Over-Schooling And Social Skills As Determinants Of Academic Achievement Among Selected Private Owned Secondary Schools In Anambra State-Nigeria
Okeke Nkechi Uzochukwu Ph.D
Department of Educational Foundations, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria
Anene Ndubueze Anthony
Department of Educational Foundations, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria
Agu Ngozi Anthonia Ph.D
Department of Educational Management and Policy, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria
Keywords: Over-schooling, social skills, academic achievement, secondary school
Abstract
This study adopted correlation research design to assess over-schooling and social skills as determinants of academic achievement of students in selected private owned secondary schools in Anambra state-Nigeria. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. Purposive random sampling technique was employed to select 10 out of 166 private/mission owned secondary schools in Anambra state who are offering between minimum of 18 to maximum of 21 subjects at JS2. Simple random sampling was used to select 10 JS2 students and 10 teachers respectively from each of the selected schools given a total of 100 students and 100 teachers. Therefore the sample for the study stood at 200 subjects. Four different instruments were used for data collection namely: Social Skills Rating System (SSRS), a researchers-constructed instrument titled “Over-schooling and Academic Achievement” (OSAA), unstructured interview schedule with the principals and teachers and finally the students 2020/2021 cummulative/annual result grade book. The instruments were validated by specialists in education. Using Cronbach Alpha to determine the reliability of the instruments, an alpha coefficient of 0.79 was obtained for SSRS, and 0.80 for OSAA. The research questions were answered using Pearson (r) statistics while the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using t-test. Result revealed that both psychological construct wheel tremendous influence on the academic achievement of JS2 students in private owned secondary schools in Anambra state. Recommendations by the researchers is that there should be complete re-visitation of the curriculum content to tally with the developmental stage of the students and also the school administrators and classroom teachers should lay emphasis on cooperative, collaborative learning and peer-tutoring to inculcate good social skills in the students among others.