The Role of Social Skills in Shaping the Academic Performance of First Grade Learners

The study attempted to determine the influence of social skills in terms of interpersonal, interactive, and personal skills to pupils’ school performance. Descriptive-correlational research method was utilized and the Statistical tools used in the study were the mean and standard deviation to determine the extent of pupils’ social skills in terms of interpersonal, interactive, and personal skills and frequency and percentage distribution were used to determine the level of pupils’ school performance. Pearson r was utilized to ascertain significant relationship between the level of pupils’ school performance and the extent of pupils’ social skills. Findings revealed that pupils’ social skills in terms of interpersonal, interactive, and personal skills were very highly developed and 52% of the pupils obtained a very satisfactory performance while only 4% achieved a fairly satisfactory school performance. Results imply that social skills denote negligible correlation to pupils’ school performance. Thus, the null hypothesis was accepted. Subsequently, it was recommended that in order to intensify pupils’ school performance, teachers need to develop engaging and authentic learning materials which develop school performance.