IMPACT OF CLASS SIZE ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL IN OVIA NORTH EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF EDO STATE

The study investigated class size and students’ academic performance in public senior secondary school in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State. To guide the study, four research question were raised, two of them were answered while one (1) was turned into hypothesis and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey research design and the correlation research design for the study. The population of study co sisted of five thousand, two hundred and twenty one (5,221) students from twenty eight (28) public senior secondary schools in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State. A sample of 783 students from two public senior secondary schools in Ovia North East Local Government of Edo State which is constituted seven point five (7.5%) percent of the total population was purposively selected. Two research instruments were used for this study. The study revealed that the level of student – teacher ratio is high in public senior secondary schools in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State, the level of students’ academic performance in public senior secondary school was moderate with 57.7%, there is a significant relationship between class size and students’ academic performance in public senior secondary school in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State. Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made; government should provide adequate facilities and classes to correspond with the student population, government should employ more trained teachers to cater for the student – teacher ratio in schools and the school management should be encourage to adopt a maximum of 40:1 student – teacher ratio for effective teaching and learning