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THE CORRELATION BETWEEN SOME INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS AND
STUDENTS’ ATTRITION RATES IN SCHOOLS
ABSTRACT
This study was undertaken to examine the correlation between
some Institutional factors and students’ attrition rates in schools in Surulere
Local Government Area of Lagos State. To achieve this, three hypotheses were
formulated. Some of the major variables considered were the quality of
teachers, class size and instructional facilities. A Rate of Students’
Attrition Questionnaire (ROSAQ) was employed to elicit response from 500
students randomly selected from 10 schools. Data collected was analysed using
Chi Square tested at 0.05 level of significance under 18 and 15 degree of
freedom. The result showed a definite correlation between the institutional
factors on student’s attrition rates. All variables were found to have
significant influence on students’ attrition in secondary schools within the
Local Government. Based on the findings, it was recommended that funding be
increased to schools to enable them not only maintain facilities but improve on
the quality of instruction in these schools to motivate students to remain in
school.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
It is no longer in doubt that education is a catalyst for
national development. This probably accounts for the kind of attention and huge
investments that most countries who desire technological advancement give to
it. Nigeria as a developing Country is not left out of this race. As a country,
she has experimented with several systems of education in her bid to find the
system that suits her best. From the Universal Primary Education (UPE), to Nomadic Education, and presently, the Universal Basic Education (UBE), have all
been attempts by the different Nigerian governments to provide functional and
qualitative education for its teeming population irrespective of age, size,
religion location or occupation in order to speed the process of her
development.
The Nigerian Government has tried to give high priority
attention to the provision of education to its citizens especially in the first
two levels (primary and secondary) of education as reflected in the launched
Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme in May, 2000. It has also increased its
investments in the sector and has encouraged private participation in the
provision of education at all levels. However, despite these attempts, it has
been observed that Nigerian educational institutions still experience major
problems of retaining students within the system, particularly at the primary
and secondary school levels as children drop out of school at will without
enjoying the benefits of these huge investments. Nakpodia (2010) attests to this when he noted
that recently, secondary school students are observed to be leaving school at
will to engage in diverse socio – economic activities.
It will therefore not
be an understatement to say that since the introduction of western education in
Nigeria in the mid-19th century till date, the issue of students’ attrition in
schools has been a very serious problem to researchers, parents and educational
planners.
Though, there has been no uniform approach to defining what attrition is, most definitions view
attrition as a situation where students on regular school terms withdraw or
drop out from school for any other reason other than death or transfer to other
schools before graduation or completion of a programme of study. The summary of some of these views
seem to point to the fact that
drop outs are considered as under
achievers, not working up to their abilities, they are dis satisfied with
school, hostile, aggressive, rebellious
and are socially rejected by most of the other students because they are often
considered a problem to the society. Equally too, earlier researches in the
1970s and the 1980s tended to portray attrition as being a result of the
students’ inability to adapt to the school environment. Recently however, commentators now tend to
agree that individual attrition, whether voluntary or involuntary is rarely the
result of one single factor but rather, a combination of many factors (Yorke,
1999; Braxton, 2000).
Pascrell, Smart, and
Ethiton (1993) who studied the degree of school persistence of 825 students
from 85 different colleges over a nine year period agreed from these studies
that, academic and social integration were found to be significant predictors
of persistence for males and females alike.
To Phillip, (1 996), Attrition or the incidence of dropout
was most likely to be caused by alienation of a learner in the classroom. . To
him, a student who does not accept personal responsibility for his achievement
status is the educational equivalent of the society’s alienated man, he is of
the opinion however that in such a case, the reason for this alienation could
be traced to either the personal history of the learner, his present reality or
his home conditions.
In Nigeria also, several studies have been carried out on the
subject. From some of these studies, (Okeke, 1990, Ekperigin, 1990, Nakpodia,
2010), varied factors were identified as
possible reasons that can either directly or indirectly cause attrition ; These factors ranged from institutional factors like leadership style,
the non-availability of facilities within a school or other variables like
illnesses, poor academic performance, and dismissal from school or even the
parent’s inability to finance the education of their children or some other
personal circumstances.
The fact however
remains that students’ attrition in schools, for whatever reasons still
represent a form of wastage within the educational system. This is because of
the great financial losses, greater utilization of facilities as well as lower
graduation rates that it usually involves.
First, the repeaters will spend additional time than the specified number of years
required in the school and they would
therefore have to be “reprocessed’ within the system thereby incurring
additional expenses and secondly, excessive dropout rate at any level of education would most likely cripple the system and can even bring about
the virtual halt to the educational
system.
To Odekunle (2007), wastage in the educational system is seen
as the inefficient utilization of educational resources both human and
materials which can manifest in the form
of drop outs, repeaters, premature
withdrawals, unemployed school leavers or even brain drain. In his words;
‘Repetition and drop out are major sources of wastage in any educational system
(and) excessive repetition causes congestion at any level and grade in the
system of education’.
This fact is also, attested to by Nwadiani (1988), who,
writing on the adverse effects of dropout on the Universal Primary Education in
Nigeria, stated that:“...dropout will kill the scheme. Millions of naira will
go down the drain when a teacher who is supposed to be teaching 30 pupils
teaches only 10, when books bought for a class of 30 is locked up in a
cupboard”.
To some other commentators, student’s attrition could also be
attributed to the socio economic background of the students. It is believed
that children from poor backgrounds
tend to exhibit high dropout tendencies as against those from higher socio
economic ones. Even when intelligence is
taken into account, it is noticeable that college persistence is more likely to
come from children whose parents are more educated. Closely related to this, is
the interest and expectation of parents to the education of their wards.
Available records tend to show that college per sisters were from families
where parents were more open, democratic, and supportive and had less conflicting
relationships with their children. This meant that the children get more
parental advice, praise and the parents expressed interest in the college
experiences of the children and also had greater expectations for their wards.
This seems to point to the fact that parental level of expectation may have as
much influence upon the child as much as the child’s own expectation for
himself.
However, much as the family influence is in determining the
child’s educational performance at school, there have also been indications
that the child’s ability is also crucial.
Ability and the role of intellectual development is a vital factor where
dropout is concerned. A child whose intellectual development or intelligence quotient
(IQ) is low will always find school very
boring due to difficulty in assimilating
learning experiences, this can lead to his gradual withdrawal from school. This
is particularly important as recently a lot of students are entering colleges
with substantially higher levels of
academic disenchantment, they are frequently reported as ‘feeling bored’
in class, missing classes and spending less time on their studies outside of
class. The imperative of this is that admitting students with this kind of
lower level of academic motivation and a history of reported academic boredom,
then submerging them in large classes which seem to be the bane of most of our
educational settings would seem to be just the right formula for promoting
their passivity and consequently lack of interest in school with eventual
withdrawal from school as the ultimate end.
High attrition rates in schools should therefore be
considered a serious problem worthy of attention because, if this is not
controlled, there is a tendency that the aims and objectives of education will
be thwarted.
This research is therefore initiated to examine three institutional factors i.e. the quality of
teachers, class size and the availability and quality of instructional
facilities to facilitate the teaching and learning experiences in schools; to
explore the relationship of these to the high attrition rates prevalent in the
educational system in Surulere Local Government area of Lagos State.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Government is reported daily to spend mind boggling sums of
money each year on the education of its youths most especially on the Universal
Basic Education scheme which is envisaged to be the foundation of any lifelong
learning experience. However, in recent
times, there appears to be a seeming
expression of grave concern by the public and even educational planners on the
alarming rate in which students drop out from school especially at the
secondary school level without benefiting from these huge investments. What
this implies is that if students do not remain in the school to enjoy the
benefits of these huge investments by Government, then both capital investments
as well as the human resources (students who should benefit from it) are
wasted.
Though it is not easy
to determine with utmost certainty the number of students that drop out of our
schools because of the lack of a uniform approach to counting the number of
dropouts in the system, it is estimated that in Nigeria, a sizeable number of
students dropout from school daily and that the bulk of those who drop out are
usually between the ages of 15 and 21 and are mostly from secondary schools.
These postulations have very far reaching implications especially when one
considers the assumptions that delinquency rate is ten times higher among
dropouts and that they are more likely to become burdens on the society . Today, most dropouts are
unemployed, and they have lesser chances of securing jobs than those who
graduated, because of this, they tend to be involved more in criminal and
dubious activities thereby becoming not only a great threat to themselves but
also to their parents and the society.
Though the National Policy for Education had proposed the
provision of vocational, adult and distance education as a means to curbing
this, the problem seems to persist. It
is thus this situation that t has motivated an investigation into the causes of
the rate of attrition in schools within Surulere Local Government area of Lagos
state. The study is therefore an attempt to explore the correlation between
three institutional factors - the quality of teachers, class size and the
availability of instructional facilities and the rate of students’ attrition in
schools within the Local Government.
1. 3 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to examine students’ attrition
rates in secondary schools within Surulere Local Government area of Lagos State.
In particular, the study will examine three institutional factors –
1. The quality of
teachers in the schools
2. Availability and quality of instructional
facilities in these schools, as well as the;
3. Class sizes in
these schools
Attempts will be made to determine whether there exist a
correlation between these factors and the attrition rate prevalent in schools
within the Local Government area.
1.4 Research Questions
To achieve the stated purpose, this study will be guided by
the following research questions which will be answered during the course of
the study:
What are the qualities of teachers found in the various
schools within the local government area?
What is the relationship between these qualities of the
teachers and students’ level of attrition?
What is the perception of roles by both the teachers and the
students? And does this have any bearing with students’ attrition rates?
Does the availability of instructional facilities in these
schools have any bearing on students’ attrition rates?
Does class size whether large or small have any relationship
with student‘s attrition rates in the schools?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
To determine the extent to which these institutional factors
correlate with students’ attrition rates, the following hypotheses were
formulated to be tested during the course of the study:
There exist no significant
relationship between the quality of teachers and students’ attrition
rate.
Class size has no significant relationship with student’s
attrition rates.
The availability of instructional facilities in these schools
has no significant relationship with student’s attritions.
1.6 Assumptions
This research is carried out based on the following
assumptions:
1. That the incidence
of students’ attrition cuts across all local Government areas of Lagos State -
Surulere especially
2. That high
attrition level if it exists in schools is not in the interest of all stake
holders in the educational sector and the country at large
3. That student in
most secondary schools in Nigeria and Surulere local Government area in
particular, operate within similar administrative and institutional
environments and these environments can either have positive or negative
influence on their retention in schools.
1.7. Significance of the Study
This study is significant for the following reasons:
1. The findings
of this study would be very beneficial to educational planners and
administrators as it will assist them in mapping out policies for students’
retention in schools, develop academic as well as social programmes, and review
curriculum that will meet the diverse needs of the students.
2. The study will also
assist teachers by raising their awareness on the various needs of the students under their
care.
3. Through this study, parents would be equally
sensitized on the various ways and methods of dealing with their children and
wards and the need to provide good and basic necessities capable of reducing
drop out rates in schools.
4. The findings of
this study will also be a build up on the body of knowledge and past studies
that have been conducted on similar issues.
It will therefore be a good
reference material for scholars.
5. Findings from this
work will also provide an additional empirical evidence to enable
administrators draw workable conclusions about specific characteristics that
are usually linked with teachers’performance. This knowledge should assist them
on the best way to distribute teachers across schools and classrooms. This, in
the long run should have implication for efficiency and guide efforts towards
future teachers’ policy.
1.8.Limitation of Study
This researcher makes bold to accept that there could be a
possibility of other surprising variables that could be unearthed in the
process of this research which is likely to influence the findings of this
study. What is however important and pertinent to mention here is that this
study is already Ex post -facto in outlook with all the independent variables already
identified. The possibility of their being totally controlled by the researcher
in this study may however not be possible.
Furthermore, there is the dearth of statistical data.
Ultimately, what this implies is that there may be limited materials to do a
comparative analysis of attrition rates with other Local Government areas.
1.9.Operational Definition of Terms
1. Attrition Rates:
Attrition rates would refer to the number of students who leave the
school without the completion of a programme for one reason or the other. This
is usually manifested in high drop out rates, repeaters as well as any type of
premature withdrawal from a school programme.
2. Repeaters: This refers to those who are held back for the
non - completion of an educational course, or a class, usually a course that
has been previously failed. Usually, repeaters would have to be reprocessed
within the school system once more.
3. Drop Out: This is a
term used to refer to some one whom on account of one reason or the other is
unable to complete an educational programme and who has to withdraw from the
system.
4. Institutional factors: In the context of this study, would
refer to factors or variables within a school that are likely to encourage
repetition, drop out or high attrition level among students. For example, the class size, administrative
style, types and quality of teachers, as well as the types of instructional
facilities. Usually, institutional factors are variables within the control of
the school or institutions.
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