A Comparative study of secondary school students’ performance in English and Social Studies in Junior Secondary Schools in Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study sought to ascertain the relationship between the performance of students in English language and Social Studies.  This was with a view of ensuring better performance in the two subjects.  The study employed the survey research design.  The population for the study consisted of all the Junior Senior Secondary School Students in Osun State, Nigeria. Stratified sampling technique was employed in selecting 800 students that were purposively selected in five local governments in Osun State using school types i.e. public and private schools, school locations i.e. rural and urban and gender i.e. male and female as stratum.  Two instruments were used to collect data for the study. They are: English Achievement Test (EAT) and Social Studies Achievement Test (SSAT).  The reliability of the instruments yielded 0.74 and 0.86 respectively using Cronbach alpha.  The instruments were analyzed using descriptive and t-test statistics.   The results showed that there is a significant difference in students’ performance in English and Social Studies (t=13.809, P<0.05).  Also, there is a significant difference in the performance in English and Social Studies across the 10 schools. (English X = 25.36, SD= 10.699; Social Studies X = 32.21, SD= 9.969).  However, other variables in the study were found not to be significant.  It is therefore recommended among others that there should be consistent training and retraining of teachers for functional educational system in Nigeria.  Opportunities should be given to teachers for professional training on their subject disciplines, teaching techniques and organizational techniques which could be achieved through workshops, seminars, internet browsing and extensive reading for personal development.

Keywords: students’ performance, English Language, Social Studies.