A Study of the lnfluences of Some Variables of Socio-cultural Dynamics on Academic Achievements of Secondary School Students in Plateau State

Abstract

The desire by Nigerians for the Nigerian child to achieve significantly. the out- comes of the teaching and learning activities in schools can no longer be oven emphasized. What perhaps, needs emphasis is the grip of factors that are underpining the maximal achievement of academic standards in Nigerian schools. The study examined the influences of some socio-cultural factors on the academic achievements of some selected secondary school students in Plateau State. The design adopted for the study was the survey method. A questionnaire was designed to elicit from the respondents, an indication of their sociocultural backgrounds as well as their school academic achievement standings. The clarity of the items of the questionnaire was confirmed after a pilot test on forty (40) respondents outside the study sample group. A total of 840 secondary school students of five socio-cultural groups were drawn from a population of 12,375 located in 262 senior secondary schools spread across Plateau State. The answering of the two research questions was restricted to the descriptive statistics of mean (X), standard deviation and percentages (%). The results showed that the academic achievement levels of the students was moderate or average while the socio-cultural factors did not appear to strongly determine the directions of school academic achievements for both students who were exposed to favourable and unfavourable conditions.