CAUSES OF STUDENT POOR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN TEACHING OF SOCIAL STUDIES IN SECONDARY SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 

          Education is the acquisition of knowledge and skills or attitude. It can be defined as the process which individual acquired skills, attitude and competence; education is a right of every child. Whether traditional or modern it has always been a major concern of man.

          Every human being needs basic necessities such as food, water, clothing/ shelter, education and health care for his or her daily life.

          Many authors have written on the causes of student’s poor academic performance in teaching social studies in secondary school certificate examination, a case study of Ikpoba Okha local government area of Edo state.

          These authors thought social studies as catalyst for engineering desire social change. However there has been an enormous gap which continues to exist between intended changes and actual classroom practice in social studies education in Nigeria adaptation of the subject teaching to integrate from teacher centered to child centered pedagogy; form expository to inquiry teaching, yet researches shows that there is little or no change in the classroom.

          According to Charles (2009) in his definitions also called attention to the sources of social studies content and made reference to needed outcomes. According to him social studies embraces materials rated to human relationships drawn from history, geography, science and the arts. They include content and activities that may be used to develop insight into human relationships in such a way that children build competence in basic social processes and skills essential in democratic living.

          The special emphasis in Charles definition on the use of relevant social science to create competence on basic social processes and skills needed in democratic living is not worthy.

          Winners (2008), a study of man in his totality where he lives, his activities in the past and present, his culture, his frame of mind and how he relates to others, it focuses on developing the right values, attitudes and abilities which will help the child to get on well with others as he grows up to become a responsible citizens.

          Branner Etal (2009) who wrote a year earlier had placed an equal stress on knowledge, skill, attitudes and actions in his definitions.

          According to him social studies is a programme of study which a society uses to instill in students the knowledge, skills, attitudes and actions considers important concerning the relationships human beings have with each other, their world and themselves.

          Social studies is the study of how man lives in the society, Nulls (2007) expressed this definition in a more academic form, noted that social studies is an inter disciplinary field in which man learns about problems and survival in his environment. He added that it is a study of ho man influences and he is in turn influenced by his physical, social , political, religious, economic, psychological, cultural, scientific and technological environments.