AN ASSESSMENT OF THE INFLUENCE OF OVERPOPULATED CLASS ROOM IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN LAGOS STATE

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE INFLUENCE OF OVERPOPULATED CLASS ROOM IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN LAGOS STATE

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Since the ingrained firmness of western education in Nigeria, It has encountered myriads of issues (Ijaiya, 1999).  Most Nigerian administrations have been fighting with these difficulties throughout the colonial or post-independence period. It has led in the setting up of several committees (e.g. the Asuby commission of 1960; the 1969 curriculum conference; the Education Reform Committee of 2006 etc) to evaluate Nigeria’s educational challenges and offer recommendations.

Specifically, among the difficulties confronting the Nigerian educational system are huge and inadequately resourced classrooms. The issues of teacher scarcity and classroom shortage are intricately linked, and when these are paired with increasing student enrollment, the outcome is over-crowded classrooms (Ijaiya 1999).  This has become a reality that educators must view as a problem and must tackle openly. The social-demand for formal education in Nigeria led in an upswing in school enrollment with a significant rise in class size, consequently leading in a high teacher-pupil ratio. Class size is a key influence in affecting the accomplishment of educational goals and objectives. The ideal student population in a single classroom should not exceed 40 pupils per teacher. Teaching and learning as well as classroom management become unproductive since teachers are prone to increased stress in controlling the pupils.

The introduction of UBE in the nation underlines the reality that instructors are being burdened with increased duty since many schools have grown overcrowded. Overpopulated classrooms are regarded unconductive for both teachers and students whenever it comes to the problem of continuous assessment marking and the capacity to offer targeted attention to those requiring additional aid. When teaching massive groups of students, there is a risk of learners copying and cheating; students' negative attitudes against learning new things; disciplinary issues; students utilizing their mother tongues when requested to work in pairs or groups; noise; and a lack of opportunities for improving an individual's communication abilities;  challenges of boredom in teaching and testing; and teachers dominance. All things impact the work performance of teachers.

1.2        STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

According to Odorah(2015) class size is a key contributing cause to the supposed teachers’ ineffectiveness non many schools in Nigeria. For instance, it has been noticed that pupils may be too tough to regulate by instructors in many of the huge classrooms owing to excessive crowding of student in these courses (Akudu, 2007). (Akudu, 2007). In other words, teachers lose their capacity to achieve or maintain effective teaching in a congested classroom, and this issue of high class size in secondary schools has been ascribed to numerous causes, including the inclusion of too many subjects on the secondary school timetable, which inevitably has given birth to accommodation of all the subjects on the school timetable, coupled with a dearth of trained teaching professionals to teach these subjects. Another challenge is the problem of insufficient teaching resources such as graphs, images, charts and so on which are highly important for successful instructional delivery in schools. These resources are meant to support the process of teaching and learning, assuming they are effectively given. Even while teachers tend to differ in their views towards teaching large classes, most of them seem not to be well inclined to the teaching of large classes and as it is generally known.

In Nigeria, schools are extremely crowded and the national policy of education established an ideal ratio of teacher to child in a secondary school as 1:40 maximum. This research is thus interested in identifying the key challenges presented by overpopulated classrooms in Nigeria, with a view to proposing solutions that might assist to mitigate the problems.

1.3  PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The major aim of this study is to assess the influence of overpopulated class room in secondary schools in Lagos state. The objective is therefore sub-outlined below;

1. Identify the causes of overpopulated class room.
2. Identify the implications of overpopulated classroom.
3. Ascertain whether overpopulated class room affects effective classroom management.
4. Ascertain whether overpopulated classroom affects effective teaching and learning in secondary schools.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION

The study will be guided by the following questions;

1. What are the causes of overpopulated class room in secondary schools?
2. What are the implications of overpopulated classroom in secondary schools?
3. Does overpopulated class room affect effective classroom management?
4. Does overpopulated classroom affect effective teaching and learning in secondary schools?

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