A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF UNIVERSITY MODEL SECONDARY SCHOOL AND GOVERNMENT DAY SECONDARY SCHOOL
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The school activities which centered on teaching and learning were characterized by means of interaction and association using the English Language as the dominant acceptable channel for social interaction or communication. The means of communication has become important for the understanding of all lessons or subjects regardless of either it is language or others. This identifies the concept of teaching language across the subjects or the curriculum. In this respect examining the efficiency of teaching and the level of students' understanding remain a center of teachers' and planners' concern. This implies that there must be a way, means of assessing both teacher's and students' academic activities in schools. One of these means of assessing schools, students, teachers, and policies is the research on existing practices or structures of educational policy implementation. It is in light of this position that this study wants to examine students' English Language performance in the school of Sokoto metropolis. The schools involved are all government public secondary schools, but one of the schools i.e. is a class preference school going by its nature of preference in society (Mahuta 2007). However these schools are using the same curriculum and they are under the same National Policy on Education (NPE, 2014). Therefore, assessing their student's performance in the English language will be important to justify if there are performance differences and why in the schools. Considering the facts
The researcher embarks on this study to compare the performance of students from Usmanu Danfodio University Model Secondary School (UDUMSS) and Government Day Secondary School Runji Sambo (GDSS) in the English language. English language which we know is very important to teaching and learning in Nigeria. It is used as a medium of instruction in Schools. Its standard is usually measured in terms of students’ performance in (SSCE) Examinations i.e West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the National Examination Council (NECO). It is claimed that student differences could be a result of poor performance in the language of instruction. Whatever the case might be, it is suggested the situation has accounted for alarming concerns by the Teachers, Parents, State Government well as individuals too.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
It is observed that two public secondary schools can have different students’ academic performance in English language subjects. This may be attributed to poor physical facilities, inadequate instructional materials, lack of competent teachers and student phobia for the second language this is challenged to find out the reasons for and how these can affect students’ performance. Table 1 below shows the students performance of the university model secondary school and Government Day Secondary School in WAEC from 2012-2014
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