CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The school location determines to a large extent the level of students achievement, Orji (2013) opened that school location implies urban-rural setting. Urban schools are those schools in municipalities or schools found within the town and rural schools are those located in the village or semi urban areas. Hence, the location of a schools determines the academic achievement of students. Fredrick (2011) view school location as one of a majors factors that influence students academic achievement in Biology or other subject. He opened that parent look at such factors as the location of as the location of schools (urban or rural) and the distance to school before enrolling there wards or children. Distance of school from home, noisy environment and other variables are capable of hampering effective teaching and learning that lead to low achievement. The school is a social and learning agent that provides the environment upon which a child may be formally educated in order to attain educational goals. Human beings, have unlimited capacity to learning, but may however be limited by the behavioral patterns and facilities that the immediate environment offers. According to Umoh (2006) nature only provides the raw materials in form of potentials, but it is the environment that determines the extent of development. Furthermore, in the assessment of effect of traveling distance among students in community secondary schools in relation to the quality by Galabawa and Lwaitama (2008) revealed that most of the students arrived at school late, tired and lost interest in learning and hence poor academic performance. Access to quality secondary Education is essential for developing active workforce for socio-economic development to achieve the high quality workforce, involvement of Educational stakeholders deems appropriate. In this regard, the academic performance of secondary school learners in pankshin town council depends heavenly on stakeholders’ (local development activist and policy makers) involvement in improving the quality of learning environment including the location of the school. Location is defined as the environmental condition around a school, which could be urban or rural (Ezike 1997), the location of the school have been found to be crucial to students’ performance in their examination. Raychaudhuri, Debneth, Sen and Majumder (2010) report a positive relationship that exist between school location (closer distance to homesteads) and students’ academic performance as they attend school regularly. Emore (2005) share that distance to school together with school decipline; family background and school location cause truancy (attendance irregularity) among school students. Distance in association with the location of the school seems to be one of the strong influencing origins for the academic performance among students. This was evidence as well by Obemeata (2003) who confirm that school physical environment exerts dominant influence on students’ academic performance. The school variables, which include, the school size, schools ownership school, school structure and school location is deem fit to affect students academic achievement. Hence, the school variable remains an important area that should be studies and well managed to enhance students’ academic achievement. The issue of poor academic achievement of students in Nigeria has been of much concern to the government, parent as those instruments that could tailor the level of student’s academic achievement. The issue of poor academic achievement of students in Nigeria has been of much concern to the government, parents’ teachers and even students themselves. The quality of education not only depends on the teachers as reflect in the achievement of their duties. But also in the effective coordination of the school variable. It is believed that the school physical feature has a form of relationship with the students’ academic achievement in terms of school size, structure, ownership location and type. A school with a highly populated students may result in the teachers not been able to monitor the achievement and also, research has postulated a form of academic achievement say public school and private school. Also, the location and availability of educational resources at the disposal of the students in terms of school variable affect their level of academic achievement. Most excelling students tends to emerging from the private school. In the academic dispensation with the paradox of whose teachers emerging from the public school in the old academic dispensation in Nigeria. To complement these studies, the present research will examine the aforementioned areas of school variables as it affect students achievement in Nigeria schools.