LABORATORY FACILITIES AND THEIR IMPACT ON BIOLOGY LEARNING OUTCOMES IN ABEOKUTA

The fluctuating academic achievement of students in Biology over the years has been a source of concern to stakeholder such as parents, educators and government. Previous studies have examined factors like Teachers’ characteristics, Students’ attitudes, Parents’ factors, teaching methods, laboratory facilities in teaching and a host of others as part of the reasons for the fluctuation, but none of these studies was carried out in the present location of this research work. This study examined Laboratory Facilities and Public Senior Secondary School Students’ Academic Achievement in Biology in Abeokuta Metropolis, Ogun State. Descriptive survey research design was used for the study where the population for the study was 6677 Senior Secondary School II Biology Students and 53 Biology Teachers in the 49 Public Senior Schools in Abeokuta. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to obtain 43 schools, 602 students and 53 Biology teachers. Two self-constructed instruments, tested for reliability - Biology Teachers Questionnaire (BTQ) (0.85) and Biology Students Achievement Test (BSAT) (0.92) were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using frequency count, mean, standard deviation and multiple regression analysis. The results revealed that laboratory facilities were not adequately available, with low level of usability. Laboratory facilities were found to enhance teaching of Biology to high extent. There was a significant positive correlation between availability and usability of laboratory facilities among secondary schools in Abeokuta metropolis... The study concluded that: Equipment (β=0.191; t=2.547, p<0.05); Specimen (β=0.173; t=2.971, p<0.05) revealed relative influence and can be used to predict academic achievement in Biology. It was recommended among others that teachers should use the available laboratory facilities during Biology teaching and government should provide more laboratory facilities to schools.