Impact of Application Software on Economic Status and Academic Performance of Secondary Physics Students in Makurdi Local Government Area in Benue State, Nigeria

This study investigated the impact of application software on economic status and academic performance of secondary physics students in Makurdi Local Government Area, Benue State, Nigeria. Five research questions and hypotheses guided the study. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. Self-structured questionnaire titled Impact of Application Software on Economic Status and Academic Performance Questionnaire (IASESAPQ) was used to collect data for the study. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while the t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that application software has impact on both economic status and academic performance of secondary school physics students. The results also showed that the extent to which secondary physics students are able to identify application software used to improve their economic status in schools was low and that for performance was high. There was also a significant difference in the extent to which secondary physics students who are able to identify application software between those used to improve their economic status and those used to improve their academic performance. There was also an impact of identified application software between those used to improve students’ economic status and those used to improve students’ academic performance in school. It was concluded that students were able identify software that would improve their academic performance more than those used in improving their economic status and that application software has more impact on software used to improve performance than in those used for economic gain. It was recommended that schools should work out measures that enable students to better identify software that would improve their academic performance and economic status.