LOCATION AND ACHIEVEMENTS IN ORAL ENGLISH AT SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KOGI STATE.

This study investigated school location and students’ academic achievements in Secondary Schools in Kogi State. The need for this study was due to the persistent poor achievement of students in Secondary Schools in both internal and external examinations for some years now. The study became imperative with the aim of identifying the factors correlating to poor achievement among students. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study was 11,609 senior secondary schools. Three Students were sampled from all secondary schools in Kogi State. The sample of the study included 375 senior secondary school SSS3 students. This study adopted a correlational survey research design method with the adoption of a multi-stage sampling technique. The research instruments were a researcher-structured questionnaire entitled “School Location and Students’ Academic Achievement Questionnaire’’ (SLASAAQ)and an Oral English Achievement Test (ELAT). The reliability of the instrument was established. The internal consistency of the instruments was assessed using the Cronbach’s alpha method for the questionnaire and the Kuder–Richardson formular for the Oral English Language Achievement Test. The items in the questionnaire had a reliability Coefficient of 0.92, while the English Language Achievement Test yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.98. Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient statistical tool was used to answer the research questions, while linear regression was used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed a significant relationship between urban schools and students’ academic achievement. There is also a significant relationship between rural schools and students’ academic achievement. It was also recommended among others that a state-wide survey of schools should be undertaken by the Secondary Education Board to determine which schools are deficient in what resources and which resources should be equalized and that materials that will make the teaching and learning process run smoothly should be provided at rural schools