According to Egwu (2015), sees economics as the social science they analyzed production, distribution and consumption of goods and services.
Economics aims to explain how economics work and how economic agents interacts Economics analysisis applied throughout society, in business, finance and government, but also in crime. Education, the family, health, law, politics, religion, social institution, war and science.
Academic performance according to the Cambridge university reporter (2013) is defined in terms of examination performance that is characterized by performance in test, in course work and performance in examination both internal and external.
The method of teaching is another factor responsible for poor performance.
Baja cited that ‘teaching at all levels of the country is out dated. The norm is the traditional approach with the teacher at the center of activities and with memorization as the prima means of learning. Although memorization has its place, it cannot on its own arouse the pupil’s real interest and imagination, nor can it capture their involvement in the process of learning.
According to Abdullah (2014), he stated that ‘in spite of orientation courses, some teachers still go back to their schools to teach by the lecture method or textbook method. In this regard, schools where teachers vary their methods of teaching, the students tend to understand more than schools were the teachers use the lecture method to impact knowledge to the students. Different methods of teaching help to cater for the different abilities of students in class and more able to understand better.
Economics is a subject taught is both theoretical and mathematical level in senior classes with the use of syllabuses .it is usually introduced in ss1 and also required thinking and reasoning. According to Okafor (2013) teaching of economics required specific skills just as the teaching of other subjects. In teaching of economics, it is responsibility of a teacher to select and plan for the contents of the course he is to teach.
According to Agusiobi, (2012) teachers factor in teaching is to address students and make sitting arrangement in the class during his lesson. Ogalanya (2014), motivation strategies, good teaching method, available instructional materials and encouragement. Bloom said it is to give much positive reinforcement and encouragement to students. The researcher sees teachers factor in teaching are stimulate learning as well as guiding, correcting the activities of students. Teaching and learning of economics is not something that one would acquire once in time, it requires gradually a step and a process for one to understand Following the introduction of the Universal Secondary Education, programme into the country, this caused a gigantic increase in student’s population in schools. Some schools have almost eight hundred students on roll. However, there is no doubt that less time is available for individual attention to the students. In most of the classroom, where group work is done, the classes are so noisy and rowdy and the teachers are unable to control the students. Such a situation does not allow for effective learning. Due to the number of students in the classroom, the teachers use much of the time meant for teaching in controlling the students, as such, much work is done in short time because the teachers will now try to teach everything for the period in less time. There will be no time left for the teacher to pay attention to individual students with individual difference. This does not give room for effective teaching of and it affects the performance of the students in Economics.
lack of sufficient instructional materials generally hinders the teaching and learning of Economics. This fact cannot be over-emphasized, as instructional materials are the only way open to teaching of Economics to support verbal illustration to sustain the pupil interest for a considerable length of times.
M. A. Maduabun( 2014) pointed out that if is to be properly learned, the classroom for sole reliance on the inadequate school resources will create an undesirable class majority, he therefore suggested that it is described that teacher should endeavor to improve the quality of their teaching through improvisation, so as to make learning a bit more pleasurable and effective.
Statement of the problem
Declining achievement in the subject has elicited great concern among Economics educators within Nigeria and across its borders. Innumerable efforts in trying to improve the performance of Economics have been witnessed since independence. Various efforts have been geared towards improving the pedagogical approach and in shaping of the Economics curriculum.
The many reason put forward to explain the low students’ academic achievement could possibly be summarized under students related factors like lack of proper equipment, uncondusive environment and so on, home environment like poor parental upbringing, peer group influence, illiteracy of parents. The implication here is that teaching and learning of Economics needs urgent and effective remedies. The remedies among others are; Teacher support materials and provision of the relevant resources in all the secondary schools for improved teaching and learning of Economics.
This poor performance in Economics has raised a concern due to the fact that the country aims at achieving high technological advancement in the 21st century. It is the intension of this study to know if the assessment of factors influencing academic performance of senior secondary school students could amentionate the situation.
The general objective of this study is to investigate the factors responsible for poor performance of senior secondary school students in Economics a case study of Nsukka Local Government Area, Enugu state.
The specific objectives includes:
Significance of the study
Scope of the study
This study aimed at identifying the factors that cause poor performance among senior secondary school students in Economics in secondary schools. It examined various factors which include; students related factors ,school related factors ,and home environmental factors that affect senior secondary school student poor performance in economics .it was delimited to Nsukka LGA of Enugu State.
Research Questions
To achieve the objective of the study, three research questions were raised