ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ BASIC SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PERFORMANCE IN BASIC EDUCATION CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION IN JOS NORTH, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

The study investigated the analysis of students’ Basic Science and Technology performance in Basic Education Certificate Examination in Jos North, Plateau State, Nigeria. The researchers formulated three research questions and two hypotheses to guide the study. The study adopted the descriptive exploratory research design. The population of the study comprised of all the students that sat for Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for the past five years (2019 to 2023) from the 22 public secondary schools and 229 private secondary schools in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State, Nigeria. The sample of the study comprised of five publics and five privates’ secondary schools. The instrument used for data collection was the schools’ records BECE results from 2019 to 2023. The three research questions were answered using simple percentages while the two hypotheses were tested using t-test at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that the trend of BECE Performance follows the same pattern from 2022 to 2023 but no clear pattern of performance was found from 2019 to 2021. Public schools show a major variability and inconsistency over time when compared with private schools which maintain relatively stable performance levels. There are notable differences between urban and rural school performances from year to year, with urban schools showing significant improvement toward high performance passed. The study recommends that stakeholders in the study area should encourage to ensure equitable distribution of resources in terms of infrastructure, recruitment of adequate and competent teachers to both rural and urban schools to enhance students’ performance in BECE among others.