ABSTRACT
This study investigated classroom psycho-social factors as a predictor(s) to slow learners‟
academic performance in upper basic science, Funtua zone, Katsina Nigeria. A correlation
research design was used. The study population comprised of all co-educational Junior
secondary II Basic Science students for 2017/2018 session in Funtua education zone with a
total of 5044 students. A total of three hundred (300) of Junior secondary two (JSS 2) basic
Science students took part in the study. The research instruments used for data collection
were, Basic Science Performance Test (BSPT), Intelligent Quotient (IQ) Test and
Questionnaire. BSPT was found to have reliability co-efficient of 0.79. The research
questions were answered with the used of correlation analysis to determine the extent of
relationships of independent variables with dependent variables. Regression analysis was
used to test the null hypotheses of the study with the significant level fixed at0.05. The
findings showed that there was a significant positive relationship between classroom
psychosocial factors of parental influence, teacher-students interaction and academic
performance, hence the hypothesis. Based on these findings, relevant recommendations
were made. A major highlight of the recommendation is that parents should promptly pay
the school fees of their childr5en and also ask the children the type of friends they keep
during or after school hours.
CHAPTER ONE
THE PROBLEM
1.1 Introduction
Basic Science, formally known and tagged, as „integrated science‟ was originally
conceived as a science subject that deals with the study of some few subjects amalgamated
into one. In the context of Nigerian science, it originally included topics from Biology,
Chemistry, Physics mainly and offered as general science. Later reviews have included
other areas on earth sciences, geography and the solar system. The reviews particularly that
of Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (Fafunwa, (2015) cited in [STAN] (1973) have
attempted to integrate all aspects or topics regarded necessary for giving science
foundational knowledge and training to science discipline studies in secondary schools.
Basic Science in its contemporary sense is the removal of boundaries between division,
subjects of science to offer science as a fundamental unity, a problem solving strategy and
introduction to specific science studies. The National Council on Education (NCE) at its
meeting in Ibadan in December 2005 approved a new education curriculum structure
namely: Lower Basic Education Curriculum, Middle Basic Education Curriculum and
Upper Basic Education Curriculum listing relevant subjects for each level.
The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN, 2005) in her effort to transform the country
accepts that we cannot do without universal education and we cannot re-order our social
attitude to our country and reinvent our spirit of patriotism without inculcating in the
people the right values through functional education. The FGN, therefore, convened a
National Stakeholders Forum in October, 2010 to deliberate on the state of education in
Nigeria. The delegates at that summit observed that too many subjects were offered at the
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Basic Educational level and called for reduction. Also, many topics were repeated in many
subject areas leaving them boring. Again, some of the subjects were given prominence in
the curriculum just for their own sake. They were neither adapted to the needs of the
learners nor crafted in the national interest. The Nigerian Educational Research and
Development Council, NERDC, was directed by the NCE to review, restructure and
realigned the Basic Education curriculum to reflect global best practice and contemporary
national interest. After a painstaking and fruitful effort to reduce, select and harmonize the
9-year UBE curriculum of 2009, the NERDC created the subject known as Basic Science
and Technology, which is an umbrella embracing the previously autonomous subject of
Basic Science, Basic Technology, Physical and Health Education and Information
Technology, each of which now becomes a theme under the umbrella subject called Basic
Science and Technology
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