SCHOOL LOCATION AS CORRELATES OF ACADEMIC ENGAGEMENT IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between school location and academic engagement among students in public secondary schools in Anambra State. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted the correlational research design. The population of the study comprised 267 principals in the six Education Zones of 267 public secondary schools in Anambra State. Census sampling was adopted for this study. Two structured questionnaires developed by the researcher was used for data collection. The instrument are titled “School Location Questionnaire (SLQ)” and ‘Academic Engagement Questionnaire (AEQ)’.The instruments were structured on a four-point rating scale of Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD). The instruments were validated by three experts. The reliability of the instruments were established using Cronbach Alpha with an average reliability co-efficient value of 0.84. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to answer research questions and test the hypotheses. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that there is a high negative relationship between schools located in rural areas and academic engagement of students in public secondary schools in Anambra State. The findings also revealed that there is a very high positive relationship between schools located in urban areas and academic engagement of students in public secondary schools in Anambra State. Based on the findings of the study the researcher recommended among others that Government at all levels should through the ministries of education and its supervising agencies develop outreach programs to increase parental involvement and community engagement in the educational process.