Influence of Home Environment on Academic Performance of Secondary School Students in Agricultural Science in Adamawa State Nigeria

Abstract

This study used ex-post facto and correlation survey to investigate the influence of home environment on academic performance of senior secondary students in Adamawa State. The population of the study consisted of 8,548 students in class 2 in 2012/13 to 2013/14 academic sessions. A total sample of 900 students was drawn from the population using multi-stage random sampling technique to respond to the instrument for data collection for the study. The instrument was a 40 item researcher designed questionnaire titled Home Environment Factors and Students' Academic Achievement Test in Agricultural Science (HEFSAATAS) consisting of two sections A and B. Inferential statistics z-test and Correlation analysis were used to analyse and interpret the data. The results showed that parental educational qualification (r = 0.73), occupation (r = 0.71) and home location (r = 0.73) were highly correlated with students' academic performance while parental economic status (income and affluence) have moderate correlation (r-0.60) but all the independent variables have significant influence on students' performances in Agricultural Science at the secondary school. It was recommended that parents and other significant persons should make students' homes conducive and stimulatory to learning not only the school subjects but education in general.