Abstract
This study investigated the perception of the influence of the physical school environment on the academic performance of junior secondary school learners’ in Egor local Government Area, Edo State, Nigeria. The study specifically determined the perception of the learners on the extent to which classroom condition, ventilation, lighting and cleanliness influence academic performance. It also found out if male and female learners’ perception were significantly different. Furthermore, it determined if building and non-building repairs by school management significantly influence learner’s academic performance in Egor Local overnment Area of Edo State, to achieve the purpose of the study one research question was raised and answered while two null hypotheses were formulated and tested. The study adopted a survey design. The population of the study was 2,341 junior secondary school two (JSS2) learners in the 2023/2024 academic year from the 12 public junior secondary schools in Egor Local vernment Area of Edo State, Nigeria. The sample size was 100 JSS2 learners from four public senior secondary schools in Egor Local Government Area selected through simple random sampling technique. The instrument used for data collection was a researcher designed questionnaire tilled ““Perception of the Influence of the Physical School Environment on the Academic erformance of Secondary School Learners in Egor Local Government Area (PIPSEOAPQ).” The instrument has two sections. Section A and section B. section A elicited response on sex while section B contained seven questionnaire items with respond options of Very High, High, Moderate, Low and Very Low for item 1 to item 6. Item seven respond option ranges from very often, often, occasionally, rarely and never. The instrument was validated by three experts from the Department of Educational Evaluation and Counselling Psychology. The instrument was pilot tested with 20 students who were part of the population but not part of the study. Thereafter, data collected was subjected to Spearman's rho reliability computation. It yielded reliability coefficient of .952. Data was collected independently by the researcher. Permission and informed consent were obtained from school management and participants of the study. Data collected were analyzed using mean and mode scores. A mean score of 3.0 was set as the enchmark for item to be accepted to be agreed upon by participants of the study. In addition, ranges of criterion were also set to draw conclusion on the extent to which learners perceived questionnaire item in relation to the school physical environment to influence their academic performance. A mean value 3.5 and above was judged as very high; 3.0 to 3.45 was for high, < 3.0 to 2.99, moderate, < 2.99 to 2.5 Low and < 2.5 as very low. Research question one was analyzed and answered using mean and ode descriptive statistics. Hypothesis 1 was tested using two sampled independent t-test while hypothesis 2 was tested using regression statistics. The findings from the study revealed that the influence of the physical school environment on the academic performance of junior secondary school learners based on classroom condition, ventilation, lighting and cleanliness were very high in Egor local Government Area of Edo State. The mean and mode scores were 3.8000, 5.0, for classroom condition; 3.5000, 3.0 for ventilation; 4.0000, 5.0 for lighting and 3.8000 and 3.0 for cleanliness respectively. The findings also reveals a df = 98, and sig, (p-value) of .645, and a t-value of -.953 testing at .05 alpha level that there was no significant difference between male and female perception of the influence on the school physical environment on learners academic performance in Egor local Government rea. It further reveals that, for every one-unit increase in Building Repairs by School Management, there is an increase by .423 units in academic performance controlling for non- building repairs by School Management, which is found to be a significant change as perceived by learners in Egor local Government Area. Recommendation were made arising from the findings from the study that, the government should do everything possible to ensure that schools in Egor local Government Area are always kept clean with appropriate ventilation, lighting and good classroom conditions. School management should repair school building often to aintain good classroom conditions conducive for learning because the school physical environment highly influences male sand females academic performance highly
