A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF URBAN AND RURAL SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN BASIC SCIENCE

Abstract

The study was carried out to compare the academic achievement of urban and rural secondary school students in Basic Science. The area of the study was Awka Education Zone of Anambra State. The design of the study was descriptive design. The population
of the study comprised all the JSS2 students of the education zone. Using a simple random sampling technique, two hundred forty (240) respondents were selected from six schools (three urban and three rural schools) in the education zone. A self-designed questionnaire was used in data collection. Three research questions and a null hypothesis guided the study. The data analysis was done using mean, standard deviation and Z-test. The hypothesis was tested at a 0.05 level of significance. Results of the findings show that school location has an effect on the academic achievement of students in Basic Science, there is a significant difference between the academic achievement of students in Basic Science in urban and rural schools. Also, there are
factors affecting the academic achievement of students in Basic Science in urban and rural schools. Among the recommendations is that the government should make appropriate locations of schools and also set standards for the employment of teachers. This study will help the school administrators to identify most of the factors affecting students’ academic achievement in Basic Science.