Impact of School Location on Academic Performance of Science Students in Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination in Nasarawa North Senatorial District of Nasarawa State

Abstract

The study investigated the impact of school location `on academic performance 
of Science Students in Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination in 
Nasarawa North Senatorial District of Nasarawa State. The purpose was to 
determine whether location has any impact on the academic performance of 
students in Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The Ex-post facto research design 
was employed for the study. The target population for the study was 8642 science 
students of public senior secondary schools in Nasarawa North Senatorial District 
of Nasarawa State, Nigeria who sat for 2024 NECO examinations. A random 
sampling technique was employed to sample 12 schools consists of 7 urban 
schools and 5 rural schools from where a total of 500 science students were used 
as sample for the study (urban 240 and rural 260 students respectively). The 
instrument used for the study was a proforma which was used to harvest students 
results in 2024 NECO examination in Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Two 
research hypotheses were formulated and analysed using t-test statistical 
analysis at 0.05 level of significant. It was found that there is a significant 
difference in the mean achievement score of students in schools located in the 
urban and rural areas in Nasarawa North District with urban students performed 
better than their rural counterparts. Based on the findings and conclusion, it was 
recommended among others that government should provide facilities needed for 
the teaching of science subjects in rural schools in Nasarawa North Senatorial 
District of Nasarawa State.