Page 1 of 10

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 11

December 2015

Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 380

Influence of Gender and School Location on Students’

Performance in Junior Secondary Agricultural Science in Akure,

Ondo State of Nigeria

Nwanosike, M.R.O.

Department of Agric. Education, Federal college of Education, PMB 1041, Zaria, Nigeria

martinroyal2002@yahoo.com

Abstract

Investigation into the effect of gender and

school location on students’ enrolment and

performance in Junior Secondary School

(JSS) Agricultural Science were carried out

in Akure, Ondo State of Nigeria from 2000

to 2004. Data for JSS Agricultural Science

results were randomly selected from twelve

schools under the supervision of Ondo State

Examination Board. Data were collected on

single schools comprised of male and female

and mixed schools in both Urban and rural

schools. Simple descriptive statistics and

Chi-square (X2

) were used for analysis.

Results showed that out of 9313 students

that enrolled in Agricultural Science, 30.96

% and 69.04 % were female and male,

respectively. Results also indicated that 25.2

% and 74.8 % of the students’ population

were located in rural and urban,

respectively. Students’ enrolment was

inconsistent however the highest enrollment

(22.2 %) was recorded in 2002. In terms of

performance, 25.7 % of the female and 60.5

% of the male students passed the subject.

Location had a strong influence on

performance as 19.0 % and 67.1% students

passed in rural and urban, respectively. The

overall quality of results over five was credit

‘C’ grade (51.2 %). Although Chi square

(X2

) values of 0.69 and 4.7 did not show

significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) in

performance of male and female and urban

and rural students, it is evident that gender

and school location had strong influence in

enrolment and performance of students in

Agricultural Science. it is therefore

necessary that efforts should be geared

towards encouraging enrolment and

performances of students in the subject

particularly the female students through

supervision and provision qualified teachers

and facilities in both rural and urban

schools in Akure, Ondo State of Nigeria.

Keywords: Gender, school location,

Agriculture, performance and junior

secondary school

Introduction

Studies on the achievement of pupils are

important in any society because school

achievement is regarded as a justifiable end

to huge government expenses on the

Page 2 of 10

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 11

December 2015

Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 381

education of the child (Nwabuisi, 1998).

Assessment of students’ academic

achievement is also necessary from the

standpoint of curriculum evaluation coupled

with the implementation of educational

policy. Reports have associated students’

achievement to factors like socio-economic

status and values (Dubey et al., 1979;

Onyeabe, 1997), attitude, sex, aspiration of

parents (Kamjika, 1993; Oniocha and

Okpala, 1988) as well as school’s

environmental setting/location (Nwabuisi,

1997; Nwabuisi, 1998)

Earlier (Nwabuisi, 1998) reported that,

males generally are more energetic, strong

and enterprising than females and this could

be responsible for why (Orheruala, 1991)

observed that, males students performed

better than the females in agricultural

science in Delta State. In a related report,

(Olanrewaju, 1983) stated that, boys in co- educational schools performed better than

single sex school in integrated science while

(Odubunmi, 1993) found that, students in

single sex schools (male and female)

performed better than their counterparts in

co-educational school. However, there are

gender preferential and differential

treatments all over the world based on

religious, cultural, social and nature

(Adegboya, 1998). This statement was

supported by (Fenneman, 1974) who

established that, teachers interacted with

male students than females thereby

encouraging boys to be more independent at

work and (Osafehinti, 1988) who reported

that, differential treatment of sex has given

boys more confidence than girls have

consequently enhanced their better

performance in mathematics. Equal

opportunities for males and females make

them grow up to be responsible and

disciplined adult members of the society

(Adeyanju, 1995; Akintunde, 1996). At

present, women are struggling enough to

fight out the oppression, suppression and

domination by men. Hence the slogan “what

a man can do, a woman can do even better”,

just give her a chance. Report has shown

that girls performed and scored higher in

verbal problems while boys are better in

mathematics (Osafehinti, 1988).

In Ondo State, particularly in Akure

metropolis, secondary schools are located in

the urban and rural communities. However,

land availability for practical agriculture and

other socio-economic factors associated with

setting of schools in urban or rural

environments are likely to influence

performance of pupils in Agricultural

Science. According to (Ugbede, 1991),

adequate use of instructional materials

determines the amount of learning that can

take pace in a learning setting. But children

that are neglected, rejected and isolated may

find it difficult to learn under ill motivated

and unacceptable environment. Generally,

environmental factors in schools, which

affect students’ performance, include,

attractiveness of the school, learning

materials/facilities, factor inherent in the

teacher, use of contingencies and poor

relationship.

Evaluation of students’ performance

provides an insight into what they have

learnt during the course of their study. Such

information in Agricultural Science is

inadequate in many parts of Nigeria

including Akure. Agricultural Science

involves manual labour and may have

discouraged students towards the subject

and subsequently influenced their overall

performance. Observations have shown that

most schools particularly in the urban areas

do not have land for practical agriculture

while girls prefer other science subjects to

Agriculture. Should the situation continue

Page 3 of 10

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 11

December 2015

Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 382

like that unchecked, certainly imbalance and

lopsided educational development will

continue. The question therefore is what

really are the effects of school location and

gender differences on students’ achievement

in Junior Secondary Agricultural Science

subject in Akure, Ondo Sate? This is the

concern of this study.

Purpose of the study

This study:

i. Examines the enrolment of students

in Agriculture science

ii. Determines the relationship between

performance of boys and girls in

agricultural science examination in

Junior Secondary School

Agricultural science.

iii. Establish the differences between

environmental setting (rural and

urban) and students’ achievement in

Agricultural science

Research question

The following questions guided the study:

i. What is the pattern of students’

enrolment in Agricultural Science in

Ondo State?

ii. What is the quality of students’

performance in Agricultural Science

in Ondo State?

iii. What is the performance of urban

and rural students in Ondo State?

iv. Which out of the boys and girls

perform better in Agricultural

Science?

Hypotheses

The study tested the following null

hypotheses at 0.05 level of

significance

i. There are no significant differences

between the achievement of boys

and girls in Agricultural Science.

ii. There is no significant difference

between the achievement of urban

and rural students in Agricultural

Science.

Materials and methods

This investigation was conducted in Akure,

Ondo State. A total of 12 Junior Secondary

Schools were randomly selected, comprising

6 urban and 6 rural schools. Out of the 12

schools, 4 single boys’ secondary schools, 4

single girls secondary and 4 mixed (boys

and girls) secondary schools were randomly

selected from different environmental

(Urban and rural) setting and used for the

study (Table 1).

Data were obtained from Ondo State

Examination Board on the Junior Secondary

School Agricultural Science results in West

Africa Examination Council (WAEC) based

on the procedures of (Nwabuisi, 1997;

Nwabuisi, 1998). The achievement test was

both summative and formative and the

selected schools were visited to confirm the

data obtained from the board. Information

on enrolment and performance of 9313

students’ comprising of 6430 for males and

2883 females were assessed.

The data were subjected to means, simple

descriptive statistics and chi square for

differences between sexes, location and sex- location effects on the achievement of Junior

Secondary School students’ results in the

subject. Below is the formula of chi square

(X2

)

X

2 = (O – E) 2

O

Where O = Observed difference in the mean

scores for male and female and urban and

rural, E = Expected number of grades in

both male and female and urban and rural.