PERCEIVED IMPACT OF ZONAL DISPARITIES IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Nwabueze, Akachukwu I. (Ph.D.) & Dr. Iremaka, Felicia U.
Department of Educational Foundations,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka
Abstract
This study investigated the perceived impact of zonal disparities in the distribution of educational resources on students’ academic performance in secondary schools in Abia State. Four research questions and four hypotheses were generated from the objectives of the study. The research design was the descriptive survey. The population of this study included all the 229 secondary schools in Abia State with 229 principals and 4,835 teachers. A sample size of 1,040 respondents (which include 125 principals and 915 teachers) was drawn using stratified random sampling technique, which represented 20.73 percent of the population. The instrument used was questionnaire tagged “Perceived Impact of Zonal Disparities on Students’ Academic Performance Questionnaire (PIZDSAPQ)”. The instrument was validated and the reliability had an index of 0.995. Mean, standard deviation and bar chart were used to answer the research questions, while z-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha significant level. The findings showed among others that, the areas of disparities between urban and rural zones in terms of distribution of educational resources in secondary schools include: number of teaching staff, number of non-teaching staff, school buildings, nature of school environment, availability/maintenance of instructional materials, classroom situations, functional school libraries, functional science laboratories, functional teaching staff offices, and functional examination halls. Based on the findings, the researchers recommended that equal number of teaching staff should be evenly distributed in secondary schools in rural and urban areas to enable competition among students in both areas in internal and external examinations.