International Journal of Innovative Research and Development

Abstract

 For some years now, senior secondary school students have recorded an abysmally low achievement in qualifying examinations especially the West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE). Several factors have been suspected as being contributory to this ugly trend especially in Ebonyi State. This study investigated the correlation between availability of teachers of English and senior secondary school students’ achievement in reading comprehension in English language in Ebonyi State.  The design adopted for this study was the correlation design. The population consisted of 33,986 senior secondary school 2 students and 420 English language teachers which brought the total population to 34,406 respondents. Using Taro Yamen formulae for determining sample size, 396 student respondents was selected and added to the teacher population of 420 bringing the working population size to 816. One research question was formulated for the study and one null hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance. Instruments for data collection were a reading comprehension test adapted from the government-prescribed English language text – Intensive English for Senior Secondary Schools 2 and a Teacher Characteristics Inventory test (TCI). Research questions were answered using coefficient of correlation, while hypothesis was tested at an alpha level of 0.05, using step-wise linear regression. Items whose ‘T’ were less than significance of “T” were accepted (not rejected) while items whose ‘T’ were greater than significance of “T” were rejected (not accepted). Results showed a very high positive relationship between teacher availability and students’ achievement. Based on the finding, recommendation was made.

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