Comparative Analysis of Secondary School Students' Performance in Science Subjects in Ondo State, Nigeria

The study investigated comparative analysis of secondary school students' performance in science subjects in Ondo State, Nigeria. The study specifically examined the mean average performance of students in the three science subjects in the selected public secondary schools; the trend of students’ performance in Biology, Chemistry and Physics in the selected public secondary schools; and the difference in students’ performance in the three science subjects in public secondary schools. The ex-post facto research design was adopted in this study. The population for the study consisted of all students who sat for West African Examination Council (WAEC) from 2005 - 2008 in public secondary schools in Ondo state. The sample for the study was students who sat for WAEC in 45 secondary schools in Ondo State using purposive sampling technique. The instrument that was used for this study was an inventory on Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination results. The data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics while the hypothesis postulated was tested using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that the trend in performance of students does not follow any pattern. In addition, there was difference in students’ performance in the three science subjects in public secondary schools in Ondo state as students performed best in Biology, followed by Physics while they performed least in Chemistry. It was recommended among others that Government should organise seminar and workshop for teachers of science subjects on ways to improve students’ performance in science subjects.

Keywords: Comparative Analysis, Students, Performance, Science Subjects,