Integrated Factors Correlating Undergraduate Academic Achievement in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Abstract

The consistent poor academic performance of students in public secondary schools can be regarded as a serious social problem because a number of scholars, stakeholders in education, school administrator, and public commentators have concluded that students‘ academic performance in public secondary schools falls short of the desired standard. Thus, it is study investigated the integrated factors determining academic performance of students in public secondary schools in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The descriptive survey research design was adopted and purposive sampling technique was used to select Sagbama educational zone with a population of over 2506 students and 800 teachers. 80 teachers and 242 students were randomly selected from eight public secondary schools to participate in the study. A peer validated questionnaire tagged ―Integrated Factors and Students‘ Academic Achievement (EFSAP)‖ r =.92 was used for data collection. Four research questions were raised and data collected were analyzed with the use of simple percentage counts. Results revealed that integrated factors had positive impact on students‘ academic performance. The following integrated factors were found to have contributed relatively to the academic achievement of students in an order of magnitudes; teachers, societal, economic, government, parental, peer group, and individual students factors. It was recommended that teachers and the civil society at large play their role in contributing positively to the academic performance of students‘ in public secondary schools in Bayelsa State, Nigeria.