ASSESSING FACTORS AFFECTING ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS OF DALA LOCAL GOVERNMENT KANO STATE NIGERIA

The study assessing factors affecting academic performance among secondary school students of Dala Local Government Kano State, Nigeria. The Objectives of this study are to find out; the home factors, intervention and school factors that affect academic performance among secondary school students of Dala local government Kano State. Based on these objectives three research questions were formulated. The research design adopted for this study is descriptive survey method. The population of this study comprised 2086 all secondary school Teachers in Dala Local, Kano State and a sample size of 357 was drawn. The instrument used for this study was questionnaire constructed by the researcher namely: "Questionnaire for the Assessment of Factors Affecting Academic Performance among secondary School Students". The validity and reliability of the instrument was obtained and the reliability index of 0.72 was established. Descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation was used to analyze the research questions of the study. The research found out that: the home factors that affect academic performance among secondary school students of Dala local government Kano State involve parents' educational attainment, none chalant attitude of Parental towards the education of their children, poor parents'/students relationship in the home and broken home, the school factors that affect academic performance among secondary school students of Dala local government Kano State involve effective school administration, teachers' competency, available teaching and learning facilities and teacher-students' ratio and the psychological factors that affect academic performance among secondary school students of Dala local government Kano State involve defective learning strategies/ study habits, stressful and frustration situation, substance abuse and low student's self-concept/ self-efficacy. Lastly, the study recommends among others: The school authority should organize effective school admiration; employ or train competent teachers as well reduce higher population of students in classes and parents should give more attention to the studies of their children and the should consider the consequences of marital conflict of the education of their children.