1.0 INTRODUCTION
In many countries of the
world Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) is viewed as a good investment
for national development. Education in Nigeria is an instrument for effecting
national development, which is highly valued because it is a system expected to produce qualitative and
quantitative human resources required for
nation’s economic growth by using the right mix of input
(FGN,2004). On the strength of the
above, there are views
that non TVE schools serve as inclusive academic communities where learning
help in achieving success at higher rates than TVE schools.
Many non TVE schools are boarding
schools with self-contained communities in the local government where students
and faculty members eat together. They share relaxing times watching TV and
playing games together, because teachers and staff in a boarding school
function in place of parents. They take the
place of parents by playing a powerful role in the shaping and guiding their
young ones while they are at school and not allowed to go home at the end of
classes, they cannot avoid the strong
influence teachers have on them. This is a major reason many parents send their children to boarding
school.
Boarding schools generally have smaller classes that help teachers
engage every student in the classroom, whose settings are often specifically
designed to encourage students participation and eye
contact among everyone in class (Desarrollo, 2007). Boarding schools promote socialisation
and mainstreaming of minority children, as children from remote and rural areas
or of ethnic and linguistic minorities can be introduced to new ways of living,
routines, responsibilities, technologies, teachers and fellow students from
outside their community. In a boarding school students can develop skills that
can serve them to live in a broader community. Learning and living together with other students, boarding offer
students a good opportunity to help each other with their studies during and
after school hours; cooperate and respect other people’s habits and values;
develop social and communication skills through interaction with other students
and staff. UNESCO (2010) opined that boarding schools provide a centralized
location for learning and living that can be an effective link between the
remote communities of origin and the larger society. Most of the boarding students read regularly
because they have scheduled time for reading in their curriculum, they
sometimes use library and library books.
Independence, self-confidence and
responsibility, are the characteristics of persons who have been to a boarding
school, as they rely less on their parents.
Boarding schools offer structure and discipline; as they are obligated
to study according to a structured program during and after school hours; they
learn to respect rules, conduct duties on time, go to bed on time and rise up
early.
Lack of discipline and lateness to school is a negative characteristic
of day-schools, as students and teachers have less regards for rules and are
less responsible, as they are more irregular and less punctual at school. Despite those problems, an average
boarding student enjoys living and studying conditions, which are luxurious,
compared to the hardship and squalor endured by many day students.
Academics
at boarding schools operate at high standards, as students are pushed to
"ask why," thus becoming inquisitive and this enables them tackle
challenging problems. Course selections
at boarding schools tend to be quite diverse, have plenty of academic
performance (AP) options, and offer a wide range of topics. Athletic and extracurricular options tend to
be broad thus encouraging students to try new things. Counsellors often have
plenty of experience in helping students identifying appropriate schools and
advising them on getting admission into competitive institutions. Another situation that leads to
preference for boarding schools is the case of semi-orphans or lack of good
parental care for the children. Also, monitoring and coaching of students is
better in boarding schools. Often parents of students, who are illiterate, are
unable to monitor the progress of their children and coach them in their
studies. Furthermore, in boarding schools it is easier to monitor and coach students
than in day schools, because students stay intern during and after school
hours. A lack of monitoring and support
of children is a negative characteristic of day-school, especially in the case
of illiteracy. Monitoring and coaching of students is very important in order
to achieve good educational results. Parents play an important role in this
respect, in the case of illiterate parents, monitoring and coaching by parents
can be problematic, as it is difficult or highly impossible to monitor the progress
of their children and to coach them, which if in a boarding school, the school
can fill this gap.
Day school provides the right
balance between family life and school life. The child can go to school to
learn and develop social skills, but come home and have bonding time with the
family. Day school is much less costly than boarding school and this may play a
role in final decision as well. TVE in most developing countries are mainly day
schools, students always grow up in an upright way and very responsible because
their parents or guardians involve them in responsible activities. As we can
see, some students lack good manners because they live without parents who
would correct them in case they make any mistakes. These show that, when
parents devote more time for their children, it leads to a healthier
relationship that is mutually beneficial. Many day schools offer coeducation
facilities and this is an important requirement in terms of today’s world.
Interacting with the opposite sex in the early years will enable children to be
comfortable in the presence of the opposite sex when they reach a stage where
they might have to work alongside them in an official environment. Children who
have not had this opportunity might be shy and uncomfortable whenever they are
in company of people from the opposite sex. Most day schools encourage children
to mix with the opposite sex from their early years and this builds confidence
and helps in exchange of ideas between the sexes over the formative years. This
is one of the most important functions performed by a day school. Day schools are a preferred option as they are much less
expensive than a boarding school. Tuition fees in day schools are cheaper. Most
good quality day schools are relatively cheaper than boarding schools and this
is another reason why parents opt for day schools over boarding schools. The
current pandemic being a disease cause by Corona virus and named as COVID-19
caused a lot of panic leading to the closure of boarding houses and with government
forcing schools to close down became a blessing to some student making them
closer to their real parent for the first time. Day schools allow parents to
admit students in private tuitions of their choice as well, in case their
children need extra coaching. Most boarding schools have fees that are a bit
exorbitant, and unless parents are willing to fund a new experience and style
of education for their children, most average parents prefer day schools. May
be this is the reason why TVE schools are mainly day schools in developing
countries.
The whole system of
education revolves round the academic performance of students, boarding or day
school in the system has become an index for measuring students’ academic
performance in the educational process in this highly competitive world. The
choice to make by stakeholders in the educational sector, is been considered
critical in the society and it has been observed by the researchers in recent
times, that certain factors are responsible for the academic performance of
boarders and day students. Moreover, despite many researches on
academic performance there is still much to be done.
Secondary education is the foundation for all
students anywhere in the world, it is necessary to consider the analysis of
academic performance of boarding and day students at this level in a TVE
subject looking at Agricultural Science.
Since some school structures that are boarding also have day
students that attend the institution by day and return off-campus to their
families in the evenings. The advantages and disadvantages to
both school settings, is a further consideration when making choices about the
child’s academic performance whether to choose a day or boarding school for
them to attend. Also, literature has shown that there are differences in
academic performance of boarding/day students as manifested in their
examination.
Other
factors responsible for academic performance of boarding and day students are
gender and environment of the students etc. There is the need for parents to
know which of their children either male or female to send to boarding or day
secondary school. This study is therefore an attempt to compare students’
performance in day and boarding private senior secondary schools in Lagelu Local Government Area of Oyo State
The general purpose
of this study is to compare students’ performance in a day school and in boarding
private senior secondary schools in Lagelu Local
Government Area of Oyo State. The specific objectives are to:
i. find out the students’ performance in Agricultural science
as TVE subject in day senior secondary schools in Lagelu
Local Government Area of Oyo State.
ii. investigate the students performance in boarding
senior secondary schools in Agricultural science in Lagelu
Local Government Area of Oyo State.
iii. compare academic performance between boarding
and day students in agricultural science
in Lagelu Local Government Area of Oyo State.
2. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
STUDY
The finding of this study will be
beneficial to stakeholders in the educational system such as parents, boarding
and day students, psychologists, school counsellors, educators, researchers and
government. The study would be of great assistance to Lagelu
Local Government Area of Oyo State in particular and Nigeria in general and
contribute to existing literatures.
Students will be acquainted with the
right information concerning TVE in boarding and day schools and
co-educational. They will be provided with the merit and demerit of being a
boarder or day student and their academic performances.
The study will assist parents to know
whether to send their children to boarding or day school; it will afford them
the benefit of the structure of both types of schools. It will equally assist parents to know which
sex perform better in boarding than day school. It will also assist parents to
know whether to send their male or female children to boarding or day school;
Parents having being informed; such information or the awareness may help
parents to monitor the activities of their children at home in order to regulate the watching
of films, Television, Playing of games, Football and the use of smart phones
texting/chatting/pinging. it will equally help them
reduce time spent on domestic house chores,
and friend (idle time), monitor study patterns of their children, school
assignment to allow for proper
concentration thereby creating the enabling environment for learning. The
release of such information to parents/guardians will also help them engage their
children meaningfully and help utilizing their time better than what they are
doing now.
3.0 METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research design
The descriptive
survey research design was used for the study. This study is designed to ascertain
students’ performance in a vocational subject in (boarding and day) senior
secondary schools in Lagelu Local Government Area of
Oyo State.
3.2 Population
The population of
this study include the selected boarding senior secondary schools and Day
senior secondary school in Lagelu Local Government
Area of Oyo State. There are three schools in the study area which run boarding
and day education concurrently.
3.3 Sample and sampling procedure
The sample sizes for
this study include agricultural science students selected from the schools
using simple random. The selected schools include
i. Valencia Group of
School, Kolapo Ishola,
Ibadan
ii. Airforce Comprehensive
College
iii. Livingstone College
of Art and Science
3.4 Instrumentation
The instrument used for
this research was a self- designed performance inventory. The grades obtained
by students in West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE)
results was used with particular reference to agricultural science for the
years (2016–2018) in Lagelu.
3.5 Data collection techniques
The researcher
visited the different schools personally with the letter of Introduction and
directly obtained the data for analysis. The information relevant to the study
was extracted. In this study, grades from 2016-2018 WAEC Agricultural science
results from Boarding and Day students from the selected schools were collected
in Lagelu Local Government Area.
3.6 Methods of Data Analysis
Data collected was analysed using simple percentage
statistical tools for the analysis of data, which include: simple percentages
to obtain mean score and frequency distribution tables showing the extent of
degree to measure students’ performance. T-test was used to analyse the
formulated hypotheses.
Data in table 6 show that the sig
value is less than the set alpha value of 0.05 of level of significant, we can
concluded that there is therefore significant difference in the mean scores of male and female boarding students in
agricultural science. The result revealed that female boarding students
performed significantly better than their males’ counterparts in boarding school.
4.2 Discussion of findings
4.2.1 Difference in academic performance of boarding and day students
The
study establishes that there is significant difference in academic performance
of boarding
and day students that boarding students perform significantly better in
Agricultural science than day students. The finding concurred with the finding
of Adetunde, and Asare,
(2009) in mathematics. There are
some boarding students who will study because there is control over them. There
are however day students who will have done better by sitting behind their
books and study if their parents where there for then. The role of parents on
day students is a factor for the insignificant difference in their performance
otherwise day students should have done better than the boarding students.
.
4.2.2 Sex difference in academic performance among
boarding students
The study finding that female boarding students
performed better than their males’ counterparts in Agricultural science, partially corroborate with the result of Abudulahi (2010) and
consistent with previous research study on academic performance of
boarding and day students, with the students being exposed to the same
teachers, same facilities, using same text books. Abudulahi (2010)
study looked at academic performance of students in science subject in Kwara state using
public secondary schools. To justify the claim in the study students’ test
scores was use to examined the study habit in agricultural science and the
result revealed that certain reasons such as pattern of reading, note taking,
time spent could be responsible for the academic performance of both sex. Ahmed (1998) reported that the influence of
gender on achievement motivation was found to be statistically non-significant the
influence of various variables, affected students’ performance.
4.2.3
Sex difference in academic performance among day
students.
This
finding revealed that male day students perform better than female day
students. The results showed that boys and girls
differed significantly in drilling, interaction, sets and language dimensions
of study habit.
5.0 CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion therefore, boarding students performs
better than day students in agricultural science in Lagelu
Local Government Area of Oyo State. Female boarding students
performed better than their males’ counterparts in the subject also, Male students in boarding schools performed better than
male day students. However Female students in
boarding schools performed better than their female counterpart in day. It is
however concluded that boarding school should be encourage and parents should
be encourage to take interest in the study of the day students.
5.1 Recommendations
Based on the finding of the study and
conclusions drawn, the following recommendations were made:
1.
Boarding
school should be encourage for both sexes In TVE
2.
It
is also recommended that there should be adequate parental involvement in the academic
activities of day students.
3.
It
is recommended that the teacher should develop positive relationship with
boarding/day students and stress classroom activities that involve active
teaching learning process.
4.
The
School Counsellors should try to focus more on day student by way of
strengthening the academic activities.
5.
It
is recommended that inter house quiz competition involving all categories of
students on the one hand, inter house quiz competition between boarding and day
students should be encourage.
6.
This
research should be carried out further by other researchers to further validate
the findings.
6.0 REFERENCES
Abudulahi, O.E. (2010). Comparative Study of Kwara State Secondary School Students Study habit in English Language; Implication for Counselling Educational Research vol.1 (6)
Adetunde, A.I. and Asare, B.
(2009). Comparative Performance of Day
and Boarding Students in secondary school certificate mathematic Examination: A
case study of Kasena-Nankana & Asuoguaman Districts of Ghana.
Desarrollo, I. (2007). The Quality of Education
in Latin America and Caribbean Latin America. Washington
D.C: Research Work Institute World Bank.
FGN (2004).Federal
Republic of Nigeria, National Policy on Education Lagos; NERDE press.
UNESCO (2010). Education for all: the quality
imperative, EFA Global Monitoring Report.
