Schools are located variously, some in the urban while others are in the rural areas. It is observed that schools located in the urban areas tend to have more facilities, manpower, government attention, etc. However, in recent times, educators in Nigeria have been increasingly concerned about the need to improve on the learning interest and overall academic achievement of students.

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Teaching is a complex process, it is not only conveying information to students but how the students mentioned understands what is being taught and they can implement it in daily life. The method of teaching is a teaching strategy to achieve the expected goals. By applying and utilizing an accurate/effective teaching method, the teacher will achieve the goal of teaching smoothly. When the teaching methods are formulated in order for students to have a better understanding, then the goal of improving on the learning interest of students must have been achieved. Thus teachers should use methods that can support teaching and learning activities, so it can be used as an effective tool to achieve the goal of teaching and learning. Thus basically learning methods are learning methods that are used by teacher to achieve the goals in teaching and learning activity. The better and more effective methods are used in teaching and learning, the more students develop interest in learning which will lead to an overall improved academic achievement. Therefore, the method to be used for effective teaching and learning should be of a grave concern to teachers and educationists. It has also been noted that lecture method commonly used for teaching/learning process in Nigerian schools is not so effective because the students are not given the opportunity to interact with the environment and maximally develop their intellectual capabilities. Teaching is a process of facilitating students learning through a proper management by the teacher of the interrelationships among the students’ interest, the content for learning and the methods and materials he or she intends to use in the teaching and learning of the content materials. It may involve giving instruction to somebody on knowledge, skills and attitudes with the intention that the person will be able to know the information or do something or act in a particular way that is compatible with the instruction. More so, Physical environment can affect students’ comfort and also their ability to learn. Students who are comfortable are likely to get much information compared to those who are uncomfortable. Unfavorable classroom can discourage the learners and they become less willing to learn invariably affecting their interest in the whole academic process and space.
A good school location and Classroom environment provides students’ with effective instruction and promotes smooth teaching-learning process and affect academic achievement positively. The power of the classroom environment is expressed in the formulation of situational interest as key factor in the enhancement of student engagement. Situational interest is the affective reaction triggered by specific or appealing stimuli in the environment. It can be enhanced through the manipulation or modification of certain aspects of the learning environment and contextual factors such as teaching strategies, task presentation and structuring of learning experiences.
The longer distance to school reduces the ability of learners to focus their attention in studies due to long walks or getting to class late. In some cases, because of traveling long distances without assured transport, students tend to lose interest in learning and in some cases may decide not to attend classes for that day reason why most of the learners are affected by the distance which made them use most of their time on traveling than learning.
SCHOOL LOCATION
The school is a social and learning agent that provides the environment upon which a child may be formally educated in order to attain educational goals. School is one of the institutions that is responsible for the development and training of the mind and skill of man. School is also for the preparation of man for the challenges and responsibilities in the society at large. Location of a school has an important role to play in the educational attainment of students in the school.
School location refers to where a given school is situated. It could be in an urban or rural area. School Location influences on the learning interest of students. The location of a school can either make students to look forward to going to school to learn or detest going to school.
Walking longer distance to school every day can lead to fatigue and hunger which may result to feeling drowsiness during learning as a result of walking over long distances compared to students from rich families who usually cycled to school making them at the advantage of arriving at school early without having lost any considerable amount of energy.
TEACHING METHOD
Teaching method is the way teachers deliver the subjects to students by using certain methods corresponding to the characteristics of students that were encountered. Each student has different characteristics from the very clever, moderate, and there is also less able to receive lessons quickly. Therefore, a teacher must be able to apply the learning method in accordance with the characteristics of students. Unless the students whose middle - low ability will be left behind in the understanding of the material that is presented. And it will make the students mentioned are not interested and lazy to learn because they have felt unable to do. Teaching method helps to determine the success or failure of learning and teaching activity and it is a unity in teaching system. The more precise methods are used by teachers in teaching, the more it is expected to be more effective in the achievement of learning goals.
But the factors that affect the teaching method are a protégés (learners), goal, situation, facilities, and teachers. The type of teaching methods used should be able to make the teaching atmosphere an interactive, instructive or educative, putting learners to take active learning, as well as foster and develop interest in learning and increase learning spirit; it can improve the learning outcomes and live up teaching process which is ongoing.
The method of teaching is a teaching strategy to achieve the expected goals. By utilizing an accurate method, the teacher will achieve the goal of teaching smoothly. When the teaching methods are formulated in order that students have a better understanding of the subject under discourse then it can be said that academic goals have been achieved. Thus teachers should use methods that can support teaching and learning activities, so it can be used as an effective tool to achieve the goal of teaching. Thus basically learning methods are learning methods that are used by teacher to achieve the goals in teaching and learning activity. The better and the more appropriate methods are used in teaching and learning activities to the student; the learning achievement will increase and can be optimized.
STUDENT LEARNING INTEREST
In education, student learning interest refers to the inclination of the student towards a particular subject in which he or she is easily able to connect without any hassle or hurdle. The student may develop an interest in any specific content or work in education. The necessity of interest in learning does not only mean that someone has an interest in learning about something. It also means that when someone has an interest in something it becomes easy and even enjoyable to learn about that topic.
When a topic connects to what students like to do, engagement deepens as they willingly spend time thinking, dialoging, and creating ideas in meaningful ways. Making learning contextual to real-world experiences is a key learning technique with differentiating for student interests.
Learning interest is a powerful motivational process that energizes learning, guides academic and career trajectories, and is essential to academic success. Interest is both a psychological state of attention and affect toward a particular object or topic, and an enduring predisposition to reengage over time.
THE EFFECT OF SCHOOL LOCATION AND TEACHING METHOD ON STUDENT LEARNING INTEREST
The application of teacher’s teaching method needs special environment and atmosphere. It is important to create conducive learning atmosphere in order to get students interest and undivided attention. At school or at home, students will be able to learn well if the environment is conducive. Conducive learning environment is an atmosphere that is comfortable and pleasure. Pleasure in this case is far from sound and noise that can disturbances learning concentration. Pleasure means learning atmosphere is joyful and enthusiastic. Learning atmosphere is far away from the stresses and specific targets to students who are learning. The learning process can run effectively if learning environment supports the learning process. To create an effective and conducive and also fun learning environment, teachers must be smart to manage the classroom with empowering the potency of classroom and facilities that are available actively and efficiently. With using appropriate methods to the material and the characteristics of students
The relationships of teacher’s teaching method or model and the learning interest of students greatly affect student’s achievement. Because two factors directly affect the learning process which are the appropriate model of teaching and learning environment that will create fun learning environment and it will indirectly improve student’s achievement. learning environment and teacher’s teaching methods is a very important aspect in determining the success of learning process to student‘s learning achievement.
The learning atmosphere in the classroom also takes important role to the learning process. Classroom atmosphere should be conducive, quiet (it doesn’t mean that students should keep silent for listening to the teacher delivering the material), comfortable, and enjoyable. Because the students' interests or mood affect the performance of brain, if students feel comfortable and happy in teaching and learning, the brain will easily accept the material that is identified by the teacher. Meanwhile, if students feel uncomfortable in class, unpleasant, and it is not conducive so that the students will be bored, lazy listening to teachers who are delivering the material, students will also want an immediate end to the learning process. Their minds have been distracted and they do not focus on the lessons that are taught by teacher by so doing they start losing interest in learning. Student’s learning achievement is the result of the student’s hard work through a variety of activities that occur in the process of teaching and learning. And this case cannot be created if the teacher's teaching methods and learning atmosphere in class are not in accordance with the characteristics of students. A good achievement is an accomplishment that is gotten by hard work, seriousness and diligence, so that satisfactory achievement of students will be obtained.
CONCLUSION
Conclusively, the attitude of some teachers as well as their teaching methods can lead to students lose of interest in learning, poor attendance in lessons, lateness to school, unsavory comments about student‘s performance that could damage their ego, and poor method of teaching.

Education is regarded as the greatest agency for human development; it is for this reason that many countries in the world spend a lot of time and money to provide adequate education to their citizens. Education is the deliberate and systematic influence extended by the mature person upon the immature through instruction, discipline and harmonious development of physical, intellectual, aesthetic, social and spiritual powers of the human beings, according to their essential hierarchy for the individual and social uses which is directed towards the union of the educated with the creator at the final end.

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Education in Nigeria is an instrument “par excellence” for effecting national development; it has witnessed active participation by non governmental agencies, communities, and individuals as well as government interventions.
MATERIAL RESOURCES
Instructional materials are needed to convey ideas to the children to enhance their understanding). Instructional materials are the basic components in teaching at all levels of education, especially higher education. They help the students to understand what is being taught when they see and handle the object itself. The materials resources provide opportunities for students to broaden and deepen their knowledge by providing a variety of firsthand, developmentally appropriate experiences and by helping students acquire symbolic knowledge through representing their experiences. A visual presentation of an idea or a concept using pictures, charts and models helps the students to develop mental images of the object that the lecturer is talking about. Material resource management has a great role for the achievement of educational goals by providing quality service and optimizing profitability through effective and efficient utilization of it. Effective and efficient materials functions contribute to the improvement of performance, leads to a significant reduction in the total materials cost, and helps to enhance the profitability of schools.
MANAGEMRNT OF MATERIAL RESOURCES
The material management concept is based on the potential advantages to be obtained from controlling the flow of materials and goods from supplier through stores and production to dispatch. The overall control would thus embrace purchasing, stores, Inventory control, production planning, and physical distribution. Material resource management in schools is a specific activity of school administration to achieve positive end results. The material resources in the higher education are the instructional materials such as writing materials, the tables, chairs, boards, books, indoor and outdoor games, the classrooms, the play field and other infrastructural facilities in the school. Material resources management in higher education involves a coordinated effort to effectively manage the available material resources in the school to promote learning through careful planning, organizing, controlling and evaluation of available material resources in the school. The application of appropriate management techniques in material resource management would assist in taking care of all available facilities. In other words, facilities which might have suffered neglect as a result of carelessness, ignorance, lack of commitment and lack of resources for management of the preschool teachers would be pruned to damage. Also, material resources which are well managed are likely to be durable. This will save us the cost of replacement within a short period of procurement. In addition, there would be safety from danger, disaster and theft when material resources in schools are well managed; key concepts in material resource management in schools include provision, utilization, maintenance and improvement of educational facilities and material resources. It is important to achieve organizational goal with acquisition and utilization of the right quality and quantity material resource used to deliver service. Material resource management is common to all types of organization. It is basic, because no organization can operate or survive without it. Thus, the success or failure of any organization depends on the material resource management and utilization. Material resource management is said to be that, process of management, which coordinated, supervises and excites the tasks associated with the flow of materials to, through and out of an organization in an integrated fashion
ACAEMIC PERFORMANCE
Academic performance/achievement refers to performance outcomes in intellectual domains taught at school, college, and university. As an indicator of intellectual education, academic achievement is the most important prerequisite for individual and societal prosperity. Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement.
MATERIAL RESOURCE AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
The success of teaching and learning has been linked to availability of resources and that to support poorly performing schools, educational authorities must increase student levels and competencies by use of these resources for students to be ready for National Assessments. This can be done through instructional material development and allocation of resources. Resources ranging from textbooks to library books to websites, a variety of resources are available to help teachers meet the needs and pique the interest of their learners. This study focused on material resources (books, charts, computers, projectors, chemicals etc.) and physical facilities (libraries and laboratories) only. The Teaching/Learning resources may be in form of text, audio or audio-visual. There are also several instructional materials such as the chalkboard, books and periodicals, wall sheets, charts, maps, atlases and globes, media such as specimens – both living and preserved artefacts, models and puzzles. These resources made teaching and learning easier thus upping students’ academic outcomes. There is a positive correlation between the availability of textbooks and students’ learning outcomes. The consequence of not using these resources, as summed up by the researcher, led to students with good grades from primary school level receding in academic achievement in secondary school resulting to academic underachievement

Early childhood education is the term commonly used to describe the formal teaching and care of young children by people other than their family or in settings outside of the home. According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) the developmental definition of early childhood education, spans the human life from birth to age eight.

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However, typically early childhood education covers the period from birth to when a child starts school and this can be as early as five years of age. Early childhood development and education is the overall development of the child socially, physically and intellectually.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
The Early Childhood Education Curriculum prepares students for future success in the field of early childhood education by improving academic and technology skills, improving employability skills, and articulating courses to community colleges. The rigorous and relevant 2-year program is based on state and national standards, CDA (Child Development Associate) competency standards, NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) standards, and 21st century workforce skills. The course is a 2-year program offering 4 Carnegie units of credit. The industry of early childhood education is preparing for changes due to high rates of teacher retirement, national and state initiatives and requirements, and the new focus on the field of early childhood education. The course allows for core academic subjects to be integrated into the curriculum, which are vital to students’ success.
THE IMPORTANCE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
ECE is considered to be of utmost significance. This is realized by all the members of the community, irrespective of their backgrounds and occupations. The first three years of the life of the individual are considered to be crucial. At this stage, the child develops the connections to lead to advancement. Whether the parents are educated or not, it is vital for them to possess efficient knowledge, regarding how to implement the functions of growth and development and recognize the significance of education. When they will be aware of various strategies in terms of child development, they will be able to render an effectual contribution. Parents are the ones, who are dedicated and responsible to a major extent for the operative growth and development of their children. Until the age of three, children are close to their mothers and depend upon them for implementation of all activities and functions. When children reach the age of four, they begin to realise that outside their home also there is a world, which they have to get acquainted with. ECE helps the students to develop theirmental capacity and improve their skills and abilities. The social requirements of an individual begins to augment as he grows. ECE is significant as it makes provision of knowledge and information that aims at the overall development of the individual. This area has bought into existence the works of many theorists, researchers, educationists and economists. Individuals and organizations, who have developed keen interest and enthusiasm in this area, have worked towards advancement. The problems relating to economic growth and productivity have been a matter of concern and ECE is a direct concern, as it renders a significant contribution towards the development of future citizens
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Academic instruction is arguably the primary business of education. To this end, schools are expected to influence students’ learning, socialisation, and even vocational preparedness. Despite the attention paid to a broad definition of educational outcomes, however, academic performance remains central. Students’ academic performance is a term that appears frequently married in higher education discourse. Academic performance is a multidimensional construct composed of the skills, attitudes, and behaviors of a learner that contribute to academic success in the classroom. It is a satisfactory and superior level of performance of students as they progress through and complete their school experience. The implication of this definition is underscored by research which repeatedly demonstrates that the vast majority of students who withdraw from school do so for no reason other than poor academic performance. Although the importance of academic achievement is rarely questioned, reaching unanimity regarding its measurement has been elusive. The measurement of students’ academic performance continues to be a controversial topic among policymakers, measurement experts, and educators. Researchers have used a variety of ways to measure academic achievement such as report card grades, grade point averages, standardized test scores, teacher ratings, other cognitive test scores, grade retention, and dropout rates. However, for the purposes of this study, student academic performance is defined by the degree to which a student is able to accomplish a given class work in the school setting.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE
Early childhood education is the term commonly used to describe the formal teaching and care of young children by people other than their family or in settings outside of the home. According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) the developmental definition of early childhood education, spans the human life from birth to age eight. However, typically early childhood education covers the period from birth to when a child starts school and this can be as early as five years of age. Early childhood development and education is the overall development of the child socially, physically and intellectually. It encompasses the care, development and education of children below the age of six years. Pre-primary education is defined as the education meant for children between the ages of 3 to 6 years. Pre-primary education can be seen as the education given in an educational institution to children aged 3-5 years plus prior to their entering the primary school. That is to say that early education is a special kind of education provided in an institution for children, prior to their entering the primary school. Early childhood education, in the context of formal education can be said to be “a formalized educational process to which children between the ages 2½ through five plus are subjected to in designated pre-school institutions”.
A child who fails to acquire early education may suffer emotionally, socially, intellectually and even physically if he or she is trusted into the primary school without a sustainable early childhood education involvement that will give him a solid foundation in the primary school. Infact, for the effective and efficient unfolding and development of a child’s latent abilities, attitudes and other forms of behaviour of positive values in the society in which he lives, early childhood education becomes very imminent. This is of utmost importance because researches on early childhood education have shown that early childhood education involvement have great impact on every facet of a child’s development and academic performance and had suggested that the first teacher is an extremely important person in the child’s life, hence he becomes a role- model to the child. The formal school setting in early childhood education is a supplement to the home and a substitute. It promotes the complete development of the child that the house can easily provide. Most parents are limited in what they can give such as space, variety of equipment, educational materials and experiences of their children. Many parents are burdened with their own concerns that they are unable to provide the guidance that a child needs as he faces problems and frustrations especially where mothers are the sole support or the breadwinner of the family.
Children may be left in the care of untrained and unhealthy people in crowded apartment devoid of play materials and playmates that children need leading to neglect and deprivation which may result to lasting severe and negative effects in the life of the child. If however the formative years are characterized by exposure to a wide variety of learning activities and social contacts, skilled teaching, and intelligent guidance, then healthy growth and adjustment occurs. Early childhood education give children a group experience which extends values of family given then a total experience in democratic living in which cooperation is strengthened and competition minimized
CONCLUSION
In conclusion pupils who had early childhood education perform better in their cognitive skills, motor-skills, and affective skills than pupils who did not attend early childhood education in life

With the level of competition in the manufacturing and service industry; there is need for total quality management practices among small business owners. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management system that takes into consideration all the areas of the operations in an organization. Accordingly, since the 1980s businesses and organizations around the globe have launched Total Quality Management (TQM) programs in an attempt to retain or regain competitiveness in order to achieve customer satisfaction in the aspect of increasing competition from around the world in this era of globalization and internationalization.

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Therefore, for businesses and organizations that would want to meet and exceed the expectations of their customers both home and abroad, total quality management is the requisite strategic tool for performance measurement. In view of that, all firms seek to adopt and implement a set of operations management practices that have been successful elsewhere and that will help them to identify changes in their environment and to respond proactively through continuous improvement
TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Total Quality Management is a management philosophy which focuses on the work process and people, with the major concern for satisfying customers and improving the organizational performance. It involves the proper coordination of work processes which allows for continuous improvement in all business units with the aim of meeting or surpassing customer’s expectations. It emphasizes on totality of quality in all facets of an organization with the aim of reducing waste and rework to reduce cost and increase efficiency in production. Total Quality Management is applicable to any organization irrespective of size, and motives, even the public sector organization will soon start adopting the ideology in order to make them effective in meeting public demands. However, the adoption of the ideology by most organization has been hampered due to their noncompliance with the procedures and principles of Total Quality Management implementation.
Total Quality Management means that the organization‘s culture is defined by and supports the constant attainment of customer satisfaction through an integrated system of tools, techniques and training. Even though many thinks that Total Quality Management is old, many of the new continuous improvement initiatives are based on Total Quality Management philosophies. Total Quality Management encompasses a number of different initiatives. For example, Six Sigma, which is popular today, is a methodology within Total Quality Management, not an alternative to it. Lean Sigma is another methodology that is widely used today that is included within Total Quality Management. Total Quality Management also includes initiatives such as ISO 9000 and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA). Regardless of the different perspectives, the underlying theme common to all frameworks is that Total Quality Management is based on a prevention work process that strives to increase quality and efficiency, improve productivity, and enhance customer satisfaction.
SMALL SCALE BUSINESS
Small scale business is an important hub of economic activities in many developing countries. It is a business unit which requires relatively little capital. Basically, small scale enterprises cut across many economic activities. This includes agriculture, services, production and consumption.
The idea of small scale business is borne out of the need to tackle poverty. Yet there are many efforts or methods to achieve the growth of small scale business. Central to the problem of poverty is the availability of work. Work allows people to produce for themselves (i.e. food) and earn the money needed to buy goods and services. It is also from work that wealth is created through taxation, which allows governments to fund proper services such as health care, clean water and education. Work, more specifically decent work, is not easily created, however. It develops out of a complex and balanced system of economic, social and political activity. This work concept is better understood in the activities of small scale business. This is effort to ensure that people are actively engaged in economic activities that allow them to overcome problem of poverty.
Small scale business development is about creating an environment so that owners and workers can work smarter, work safer and work more productively. In doing so, they can reduce their poverty. This is the challenge of poverty reduction through small enterprise development. The development is such that self belief in smartness, safety and productivity now influence small scale economy. It is a common place in Nigeria to see people resorting to small scale business as means of survival. This sector now serves as safety net for numerous people who are jobless.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT TO SMEs IN NIGERIA
The benefits and goals of total quality are lower costs, higher revenues, delighted customers, and empowered employees. Costs can be lowered by reducing errors, reducing rework, and reducing non-value added work. Higher quality can also equate to higher revenues through satisfied customers, increased market share, improved customer retention, more loyal customers, and premium prices. Customers continue to demand higher quality goods and services. Delighted customers always purchase over and over again, advertise goods and services for the company, and check first when they are going to buy anything else to see what is offered by the company they are loyal to. Empowered employees have the means to measure the quality of their own work processes, to interpret the measurements, and compare these measurements to goals and take action when the process is not on target. These empowered employees also understand who their customers are; what the customers need, want, and expect; how to design new goods and services to meet these needs; how to develop the necessary work processes; how to develop and use the necessary quality measurements; and how to continuously improve these processes. The implementation of Total Quality Management can generate improved products and services, reduced costs, more satisfied customers and employees, and improved bottom line financial performance. Other benefits of Total Quality Management include improved small scale business image, improved certainty in operations, improved morale, improved management, and committed customers. However, it is not easy for management to implement total quality management because it is a cultural overhaul. The benefits of better quality through improvement of the process are not just better quality and the long-range improvement of market-position, but also greater productivity and profit. Improvement of the process increases uniformity of output of product, reduces mistakes, and reduces waste of manpower, machine-time, and materials.
TQM have been applied to SMEs by previous scholars. This is due to the dominant role played by SMEs in most developed and developing countries. Some have indicated that SMEs place high emphasis on performance in such areas as greater market focus, efficient use of material and human resource and improving business competitiveness in the market through the application of quality management in the firms. There have been a number of studies concerning TQM and SMEs performance. There is a substantial positive effect of the TQM implementation on both the operational and the organizational performance.
CONCLUSION
The study was conducted to investigate the role of TQM as a management tool effect on SMEs in Nigeria as far as performance measurement is concerned. Quality it is said helps a firm gain competitive advantage; therefore the practice of quality management will help Nigerian products gain competitive advantage over foreign products. This study has established that Nigerian SME’s believe quality management is a key-contributing factor to firm growth and performance. However, some managers may be conversant with quality management practices and its advantages and therefore would want to implement them; their employees may not know what they are. Therefore, top management consistent in information flow is very essential. Also, there is need for the creation of an entity exclusively responsible for quality and quality standards. Its responsibility should be assisting firms in the implementation and practice of quality management and the manufacture of quality products.

One of the best things that have happened to students especially those in the University is the introduction of mobile banking by commercial banks in Nigeria. Students can do their banking activities at the comfort of their homes or hostels without going the bank or ATMs. There are benefits and challenges of mobile banking to students that is what this article is all about.
2.0 Mobile Banking
Mobile Banking is usually defined as carrying out banking business with the help of mobile devices such as mobile phones or personal digital assistant(s) (PDAs). The offered services may include transaction facilities as well as other related services that cater primarily for informational needs revolving around bank activities.

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Considering these factors and in keeping with the just defined scope of this study mobile banking can be defined as the provision of banking and financial services with the help of mobile telecommunication devices. The scope of offered services may include facilities to conduct bank and stock market transactions, to administer accounts and to access customised information.
3.0 Services Offered in Mobile Banking
Mobile Banking, as defined above, includes a wide range of services. These services may be categorised as follows.
1. Mobile Accounting
2. Mobile Brokerage
3. Mobile Financial Information
These sub-applications of Mobile Banking are discussed below in detail.
Mobile accounting: Mobile Accounting can be defined as transaction-based banking services that revolve around a standard bank account and are conducted and/or availed by mobile devices. Not all Mobile Accounting services are however necessarily transaction based.
Mobile Brokerage: Brokerage, in the context of banking- and financial services, refers to intermediary services related to the stock exchange centre, e.g. sell and purchase of stocks, bonds, funds, derivatives and foreign exchange among others. Mobile Brokerage, thus, refers to mobile financial services of non informational nature revolving around a securities account
Mobile Financial Information: Mobile Financial Information refers to non-transaction based banking- and financial services of informational nature
4.0 Challenges for Mobile Banking
Interoperability: There is lack of common technology standards for mobile banking. Many protocols are being used for mobile banking – Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), to name a few. It would be a wise idea for the vendor to develop a mobile banking application that can connect multiple banks. It would require either the application to support multiple protocols or use of a common and widely acceptable set of protocols for data exchange
Security: Security of financial transactions, being executed from some remote location and transmission of financial information over the air, is the most complicated challenges that need to be addressed jointly by mobile application developers, wireless network service providers and the banks IT departments.
Scalability & Reliability: Another challenge for the CIOs and CTOs of the banks is to scale-up the mobile banking infrastructure to handle exponential growth of the student base. With mobile, the student may be sitting in any part of the world (true anytime, anywhere banking) and hence banks to ensure that the systems are up and running in a true 24 x 7 fashion. As students will find mobile banking more and more useful, their expectations from the solution will increase. Banks unable to meet the performance and reliability expectations may lose student confidence.
5.0 Benefits Of Mobile Banking
Cost benefit: Prior researchers have stated the benefits of mobile banking concerning the flexibility they offer in terms of greater coverage, accessibility against the conventional banking channels such as retail branches or ATMs. The banks have to make a huge investment in establishing the infrastructure and systems required for smooth flow of mobile banking. But at the same time the banks also do not need to set up physical branches at various remote and far flung locations. This helps the banks in saving the cost incurred on setting up of the branches, maintenance of the branches and staff. This reduces the burden of banks which can be passed on to the students in terms of decreased costs for banking services. Cost saving can be attained by drifting the students towards online banking, which makes it an important goal for the financial service providers and banks. This can result into savings in terms of reduced cost for the students. At the same time the student does not have to travel to the bank branches or ATMs which might be located at a distant place for every transaction thus reducing the cost burden for the student.
Time benefit: The students incur a lot of time in traveling to the bank branches or ATMs for doing their transactions. They also have wait in long queues for the banking transactions. The branches are open for a limited time which makes it even more difficult for the people who travel long distances for banking transactions. Mobile phones offer the convenience of transacting from anywhere and at anytime instantly thus reducing the mobility of students. This results into reduced travelling cost. The mobile banking can offer the real time access to financial services without the constraint of time and distance
Personalization: Personalisation refers to the modification of service as per the need or requirement of an individual. Mobile banking has the potential to offer services specific to the individual requirement (e.g. time, location and the choice of the user). These services increase the proximity of the marketer to offer customized push marketing thus increasing the chance of sale. This helps in increasing the brand presence and thus raises the student loyalty. Personalization can be seen as the readiness of information. It can defined as the point to which the interaction between the seller and receiver can be modified to the needs, interests and habits of the individual. It assures the receipt of most recent and suitable message by the student. It improves the student’s perception of the seller, and reduces their cost and effort to browse and search information. Thus the students have the benefit of convenience and customized communication. The students can avail the banking services as per their individual needs through the mobile banking.

It is evident that the role of interest as it boosts motivation and guarantees an individual’s engagement in content-specific activities. It is a powerful driving factor that triggers and promotes learning and is considered essential for academic success. Interest is characterized by increased attention, effort, and affect, experienced in any particular moment, as well as an enduring predisposition to reengage with a particular object or topic over time. Interest appears to be especially important in attracting and sustaining students’ attention. Its presence ensures active and meaningful engagement in science classes, which is key to academic success and better learning outcomes.

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Students’ interest can be classified in two types: situational and individual. While individual interest concerns personal interests one holds over time, situational interest is generated by a source external to the individual, such as an experiment or a demonstration that a teacher may conduct in the classroom. “Furthermore, interest is content specific and has a learning function. Situational interest has a relation to content such that it might be unexpected, novel, complex, or mysterious, which makes salient a gap in one’s knowledge a gap that motivates people to engage with the content. Another influential factor that stimulates students’ interest is the connection between what they learn and real-life contexts, as this addresses topics that are relevant and applicable to their lives.
REASONS WHY STUDENT LOSE INTEREST IN A PARTICULAR SUBJECT
- Teaching method: Teaching method is the way of teachers delivers the subjects to students by using certain methods corresponding to the characteristics of students that were encountered. Each student has different characteristics from the very clever, moderate, and there is also less able to receive lessons quickly. Therefore, a teacher must be able to apply the learning method in accordance with the characteristics of students in order to improve their interest in learning the subject. Unless the students whose middle - low ability will be left behind in the understanding of the material that is presented. And it will cause the students mentioned are not interested and lazy to learn because they have felt unable to do. Teaching method helps to determine the success or failure of learning and teaching activity and it is a unity in teaching system. The more precise method that is used by teachers in teaching is expected to be more effective the achievement of learning goal
- School location: School location refers to where a given school is situated. It could be in an urban or rural area. A lot of researches had been carried out in respect to school locations and some hold the view that location influences the academic achievement of students in such a school. Undoubtedly, it could be argued that since some of the test developers are teachers usually drawn from well established urban schools in addition to those in the employ of the relevant ministries and examining bodies, it is obvious that the items making up the tests are bound to be drawn to reflect the interest of the norm group to the detriment of those in the rural areas. School location usually influences truancy among students which in turn affect students’ interest in learning.
- Peer group influence:
A peer group consists of people or individuals that are within ages that are close in years, for instance between range of one to four years, the school serves as primary setting for the membership of peer group, they may be in the same class, the same sex and close interaction is of equals. It is generally observed that peer group has a lot of influence on students. This is seen from the role played by the peer group in the life and learning of a child, it is believed that students feel more comfortable and relaxed among fellow students. A child who is brilliant and surrounded by dull friends would lose interest in learning. On the other hand, a peer group which inclined to study would have positive effect on a dull member towards learning and stimulate his/her interest on learning. This is the form, way and why close friends of the same sex (peers) communicate among themselves whether in public or exclusively. Another major factor that influences students’ interest in a particular subject is peer group influence. When two or more friends like a particular teacher, they tend to like the subject taught by the teacher. But one among the friends hate a particular subject the rest tend to hate the subject as well.
- Teachers’ experience: Most students lose interest in learning a particular subject when the teacher is not experienced or does not really have adequate knowledge of the study subject he/she is teaching. The common refrain that teaching experience does not matter after the first few years in the classroom appears no longer supported by the preponderance of the research, particularly when teachers’ effectiveness is examined across the continuum of their individual careers, rather than by comparing different cohorts of teachers with each other. Of course, not all experience is educative: some highly experienced teachers are not particularly effective or have retired on the job, and some novice teachers are dynamic and effective. However, by and large, a more experienced teaching workforce offers numerous benefits to students and schools. A growing research base suggests that teachers’ effectiveness rises sharply in the first few years of their careers, and this upward trajectory continues well into the second and often third decade of teaching, with a steeper slope when teachers work in collegial settings. The effects of teaching experience on student learning interest in a particular subject are significant.
- Class size: Class size can be defined as the number of students in a class at a given specific time undergoing teaching and learning instructions of a teacher. class size can be seen as the number of students per teacher in a given class. In Nigeria, small class size is very common in private schools while large class size is a peculiar feature in public schools because the government does not usually invest in public school developments. The general consequences based on experience is that teaching and learning in large class sizes is not usually interesting (compared to small class sizes) with teachers unable to teach, explain and evaluate concept effectively to the best of students’ understanding, hence the students’ learning interest is affected. However, class size affects the level of understanding of the students since the teacher will not have full attention on every student in the classroom. Both large and small class size affects students’ learning interest. The effect of class size on students’ learning interest has indicated inconsistent findings. Class size has insignificant influence or relationship with students’ learning interest. The smaller class size can have a consistently positive effect on students’ learning interest, but that the result does not mean that the positive benefits of smaller class size were not present.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion student lost interest in learning a particular subject because of various reasons as highlighted above. Every student wants to have a conducive learning environment to study. If most schools especially tertiary institution could hire the services of professionals with wealth of experience and good understanding of the subjects they are assigned to teach; it will go a long way to influence students’ interest in a particular subject.

Over the years, virtual learning has become a household name in the education sector. The essence of virtual learning is to enable all students’ access instructional materials and learn their academic courses online without being presence in the classrooms. The importance of virtual learning was seen during the covid 19 lockdown; students and teachers interact with one another using communication technologies. However the correlation between virtual learning and academic performance has not really being fully ascertained. In this article we will look at the correlation between virtual learning and students academic performance.

VIRTUAL LEARNING

There is no single definition of virtual learning since the systems for such learning are continuously evolving and learners are adopting new tools such as blogs and wikis as these emerge on the Internet. Virtual learning is learning that is not confined within the walls of a classroom, but that, which expands the possibility of using internet facilities, platforms, satellite links, and related system to access, analyse, create, exchange, and use data, information, and knowledge in ways which until recently, were almost unimaginable.

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It involves learning acquired via interaction with digitally delivered content, network-based services and tutoring support often with any type of on-line tool and media including the Internet, intranets, extranets, simulations and games, virtual worlds, clouds, satellite broadcasts, and web platforms. It is carried out through the use and integration of electronic discourses, such as email, portal, downloadable-executable-file, face-book, social networking, web platforms, electronic dissertations and e-portfolios, among others. Mobile learning which is the ability to obtain or provide educational content on personal pocket devices such as PDAs, smart phones and mobile phones, is also a form of virtual learning.
Virtual learning is carried out through online learning, web-based training and technology delivered instructions in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). VLEs are defined as computer based environments that are relatively open systems, allowing interactions and encounters with other participants and providing access to a wide range of resources. The VLEs provide tools that are customized for education. Sometimes called course management systems (CMS), learning platforms (LP) or learning management systems (LMS), these VLEs are tools that have become increasingly popular for learning in higher educational institutions due to vast growth of internet technology. Virtual learning is made possible by developments in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) which have been rapid in recent years and have promised improved education and training to an increasingly diverse cohort of students. With the exponential growth of ICT, the higher education environment is expected to have a greater focus on meeting student expectations with more emphasis upon widening students’ participation in ICT. The use of ICT in higher education has also necessitated the concern with development of lifelong learning skills, the emergence of new subject disciplines and increased use of technology in learning.

THE BENEFITS AND USES OF VIRTUAL LEARNING

One reason why there is so much discussion around virtual learning is that there are many purported benefits and uses of online learning. Some of the most important ones are: its effectiveness in educating students, its use as professional development, its cost-effectiveness to combat the rising cost of postsecondary education, credit equivalency at the postsecondary level, and the possibility of providing a world class education to anyone with a broadband connection. What has received most of the attention for virtual learning is the postsecondary education arena. The rising cost of postsecondary education and the importance of a postsecondary degree are well documented in the literature. The lifetime earning gap between high school graduates and college graduates is continuing to widen. At the same time, the cost of college tuition is rising faster than inflation and the student loan debt is rapidly increasing. As of 2014, the total national student loan debt is over one trillion dollars. Many scholars and educators believe that virtual learning can be an effective tool in combating the rising cost of postsecondary education by spreading the cost of a class over a much larger number of students compared to the traditional setting, dividing the cost by tens or hundreds of thousands of students as opposed to dozens. Moreover, the marginal cost of a student in an online setting is negligible relative to the traditional setting, necessarily constrained by a number of factors such as the size and availability of the physical classroom. Intimately connected to this issue of cost and postsecondary education are the required credits to obtain a postsecondary degree. Traditionally, students have to earn most of the college credits at an institution before they are awarded bachelor degrees at that institution. The point of contention is how online classes will play a role in awarding credits or credentials, and many educators connected to virtual learning are hoping that there will be credit equivalency for some online classes. The goals of this endeavor are to increase completion rate, reduce time to degree attainment, reduce costs to postsecondary education, and offer more access to non-traditional students. As of 2013, the American Council of Education had approved five online courses for college credit. However, there is concern over whether colleges will accept the recommendation, and there is also concern about the dilution of a traditional degree due to the transition.

DEVELOPMENT OF VIRTUAL LEARNING IN NIGERIAN SCHOOLS

The development of virtual learning in Nigeria could be traced back to the development of telecommunication which began in 1886 when e-cable connections was established by the colonial masters between Lagos and the colonial office in London to transmit information and receive feedback. By 1893, all government offices in Lagos were provided with telephone service for easy communication, feedback and easy access and later all other parts of the country were provided with telephone services. A lot of changes have been witnessed in the telecommunication industry since 1886.
The provision of telecommunication services was initially monopolized by the Nigeria Telecommunication (NITEL) until sometimes in 90’s when the federal government of Nigeria commenced the liberalization policy of telecommunication industry. Four (4) private telephone service providers (Mtel – NITEL, Econet Now Vmobile, MTN and Communication Investment Limited – CIL) were initially licensed to provide General System for Mobile Services. CIL license was later revoked for inability to pay the license fee before the prescribed which was later given to Globacom (Glo) Nigeria. With this development, more companies were licensed to provide internet services in Nigeria, and this led to improved access to the internet by Nigerians. The country has less than 11 ISPs in 2000, but by the year 2006, it has risen to above 100 and many got connected to the information super-highway, through broadband VSAT connection see.
In Nigerian schools, the commonest type of virtual learning adopted is in form of lectures note on CD-ROM which can be played as at when the learners desires. The challenge of this method is that the numbers of students per computer in which these facilities are available are un-interactive as compared to when lectures are been received in the classroom. Some institutions adopted the use of intranet facilities; however, this is not well maintained because of incessant power problem and high cost of running generating set. Most students in Nigeria go to the cyber café but because there are people of diverse intension on the net at the same time, and the bandwidth problem, a multimedia interactive cannot be done.

CHALLENGES OF VIRTUAL LEARNING

- Inequality of access to the technology itself by all the students. The cost of a personal computer (PC) and Laptop are still very high in Nigeria considering the income level of an average worker in the country. Few students that are privileged to have a PC/Laptop are not connected to the internet as this does attract extra cost which they cannot afford.
- Technophobia: Most of the students have no computer education background, hence they are afraid of operating one, some go to the extent of hiring expert at a cost to fill their admission, registration and other documents meant for them to fill online. However, the very few who have access to the computer do not know how to use it and maximize it usage.
- Internet Connectivity: The cost of accessing internet is still very high in Nigeria. Most Students make use of Cyber Café who charges between #100.00 and #150.00 per hour despite their poor services and slow rate of their server
- School Curriculum: Most of the students admitted have no information technology/computer education knowledge because it was not entrenched in the curriculum at their elementary and secondary education level. Not until recently when computer education is been introduced at elementary level and it is not yet a compulsory subject at the secondary level of our education.
- Attitude of Students: ICT give room to independent learning and most students are reluctant to take responsibility for their own learning, but they preferred to be spoon-fed at all times.
- Software and License cost: It is very expensive to get some of the software because they are not developed locally, they are developed in Europe and other developed countries to suit their own system and make their own living. The cost and even the interpretation some of the software’s put off some of the students who showed interest.
- Maintenance and Technical Support: There are few technical staff to maintain the system. This makes it very expensive for students that have a PCs to maintain when a technical problem is noticed
- Electricity: The perennial problem in Nigeria is the problem of electricity instability which has been a major setback for our technological development. Some of the students that reside in cities and towns are faced with the problem of epileptic supply of electricity, while majority of them live in rural areas that are not connected to the national grid.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Students academic gain and learning performance is affected by numerous factor including gender, age, teaching faculty, students schooling, father/guardian social economic status, residential area of students, medium of instructions in schools, tuition trend, daily study hour and accommodation as hostelries or day scholar. Many researchers conducted detailed studies about the factors contributing student performance at different study levels. The higher education performance is depending upon the academic performance of graduate students. The measurement of students previous educational outcomes are the most important indicators of students future achievement, this refers that as the higher previous appearance, better the student’s academic performance in future endeavours. Lot of studies have been conducted in the area of students’ achievement and these studies identify and analyze the number of factors that affect the academic performance of the student at school, college and even at university level. Their finding identify students’ effort, previous schooling, parent’s educational background, family income, self motivation of students, age of student, learning preferences and entry qualification of students as important factors that have effect on student’s academic performance in different setting. The utility of these studies lies in the need to undertake corrective measures that improve the academic performance of graduate students. It is generally assumed that the students who showed better or higher performance in the starting classes of their studies also performed better in future academic years at degree level. Everyone can be surprised with this assumption if it could be proved scientifically. From the last two decades it has been noticed significantly that there is great addition in research literature and review material relating to indicators of academic achievement with much emphasis on this dialogue, whether traditional achievement measures of academic performance are best determinants of future academic gain at university or higher level or innovative measures. However, it is also observed that many of the researchers are not agree with this view point or statement.

VIRTUAL LEARNING AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Academic performance has been a fundamental concern in education right through recorded history while it is daunting to try to make sense of all the literature in this area. The impact of Virtual learning is assessed by ascertaining if students were able to grasp what was delivered or taught to them. Virtual learning reduces the ability of students to grasp what is taught or delivered. Online teaching strategies have a negative impact on academic performance. Virtual learning and the traditional face-to-face approach are comparable. The core arguments are that Virtual learning has positive impact on students‟ performance and that it increases the enrolment in academic program. Online learners achieve the same level of performance and satisfaction which is equal to that of face-to-face setting provided that the quality of instructional materials is similar.

Understanding the nature, magnitude, significance and implication of peer group influence in education, is very crucial and important for the “productivity” of educational processes, and the organizational design of school systems in our Nigerian Educational sectors and around the globe. However, Academic activities are directed towards ensuring that students gain mastery of educational objectives. In schools, the extent to which these objectives have been met is determined greatly by the interaction of peer groups which could possibly reflect in student’s academic performance. Peer group play a large role in the social, emotional and academic development of students. Peer group influence begins at an early age and increases through the teenage years. Thus, understanding the prospects and challenges of peer group is crucial for the productivity of educational processes and the organizational design of school systems in order to improve student’s academic performance.

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Peer group is a small group of similar age, fairly close friends, sharing the same activities. In its most acceptable form, peer group is a healthy coming-of age intermediary, by which youth grasp negotiating skills and learn to deal with challenges and to solve problems in a social context. Peer group can also act as positive role model, for example, if one is involved with a group of people that are ambitious and working hard to attain high academic goals, one might feel pressured to follow suit to avoid feeling excluded from the group.
Friendships are critical interpersonal vehicle that move them towards psychological growth and maturity, allowing social compassion which influences the development of self-evaluation” which suggests strongly, the unprecedented effect of peer group in almost all facet of adolescent’s growth. Such effect could be seen in social and emotional lives of young people, which does not end at the above mentioned, but could also manifest in their attitude towards educational activities and careful consideration of these elements has shown that they reflect in the academic performance of students as well as their study habit. More so, it is generally observed that peer group has a lot of influence on students. This is seen from the role played by the peer group in the life and learning of a child, evidence abound that students feel more comfortable and relaxed among fellow students. A child who is brilliant and surrounded by dull friends would lose interest in learning and study. On the other hand, a peer group which is prone to study would have positive effect on a dull member towards learning and stimulate his/her interest on learning. The nature of a peer group determines the impact on the motivation of and achievements of its member. Therefore, one group may have a negative impact on its members while the other may have positive impact on its members as well.

PEER GROUP

Peer group is a group of people of same age or social status. The peer group is the first social group outside the home in which the child attempts to gain acceptance and recognition. Adolescents always emulate their mates in whatever form of behaviour they exhibit, particularly that which interest them thus, since socialization only refers to changes in behaviour, attitudes having their origin in interaction with other persons and those which occur through interaction, a child learn more through interaction with peers.
Peer group is the pivot of social change and during interaction with peers, the child`s life is transformed from the helpless child into matured adult. A peer group is also defined as a small group of similarly aged; fairly close friends, sharing the same activities. In general, peer groups or cliques have two to twelve members, with an average of five or six.
However, the attractive nature and the morals of the group determine whether a group is likely to have positive or negative impact on members’ motivation and achievement. If the atmosphere of the group is warm, understanding and supportive, the group influence, task performance and achievement will most likely be positive. A hostile group will constantly, mostly such that does not place prominence to academics will frustrate and produce a negative impact not only on the member’s growth and behaviour but also on their drive to studies and academic achievement. Conversely, the kind of person a student is shows the type of group he or she is most likely to join. Imitation of behaviours in a group occurs when a person acts in a way that is likely to be joined by the rest of the group. Students who are playful but have academic traits should be encouraged to join a study inclined group.

STUDY HABIT

Study habit is an action such as reading, taking notes, holding study groups which the students perform regularly and habitually in order to accomplish the task of learning. Study habits can be described as effective or ineffective depending upon whether or not they serve the students well.

INFLUENCE OF PEER GROUP ON STUDY HABIT

Generally, it has been observed that a group which a child belongs to could influence his learning, studies from various cultures have shown that a child right from infancy to adolescence is faced with urge to belong and to be accepted by the group. A basic human need is to acquire an affiliation to a group in the society. Peer relationships are common in the schools and homes and this plays important roles in the socialization of children in Nigeria. Students in the midst of their group transformed into the true picture of their behaviour, they feel more comfortable among fellow students but feel morose at home or at the presence of teacher. The most important influence on student behaviour to learning is not always the teacher but the fellow students. When they are in a group that study’s hard, they gradually follow suit and become addicted to study thereby, improving their study habit.
It is generally observed that peer group has a lot of influence on students. This is seen from the role played by the peer group in the life and learning of a child, it is believed that students feel more comfortable and relaxed among fellow students. A child who is brilliant and surrounded by dull friends would lose interest in learning. On the other hand, a peer group which inclined to study would have positive effect on a dull member towards learning and stimulate his/her interest on learning. Therefore, the nature of a peer group determines the impact on the motivation of and achievements of its member through observing and imitating the behaviour of others, learners can bypass much wasteful random behaviour and come close to reproducing the behaviours of which members are recognized. A child may not be dull but playful. If he is well monitored and he falls into a group of brilliant students who are not playful, he imitates them and this changes his attitude towards learning for better. This is why it is important for teachers to be able to distinguish a playful child from dull one. Students who are playful but have academic traits should be encouraged to join a study inclined group.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, peer group plays an important role in the lives of students. They form a critical part of the social environment of school and also create and maintain a culture different from the home. It is obvious Peer groups are not a fad or a trend, they are around to stay; therefore, Parents, Teachers and Administrators should be on watch-out to identify the types of peer their students move with both in school and outside the home. They should do their best to see that their children relates with friends who can positively influence them and have good impact on their study habit which will in turn have a positive impact on their academic performance.

In recent decades, education systems have participated in the sweeping changes brought about by the global dissemination of new information and communications technologies (icts). The exponential growth of information that is available anywhere to anybody and the ability to access and share this information regardless of the user’s physical location have transformed the way in which people work, organize, socialize, create, participate in public forums and use their free time.

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Incorporating ICTs has become a very important priority in the education sector. These technologies can contribute to universal access to education, equality in instruction, quality in teaching and learning and the professional development of teachers, as well as to more efficient management and administration of education systems

ICT

Information Communication Technology (ICT) will mean all electronic system that has to do with information gathering, processing and disseminations. These include all forms of computer system (mainframe, mini, micropalm pilot etc.). Information technology is a technique and the equipment that facilitates the acquisition, recording, processing, storing, retrieval, transmitting and receiving information that has been processed using some electronic equipment and appropriate methods. Information Communication can be seen as the scientific, technological engineering and management techniques used in information handling and processing.
The term Information Communication Technology originated from the coming together of three (3) technologies (micro electronics, computer and communications). Microelectronics are made from the reduction of electronic circuits on sting silicon chips so as to receive a small raw data and organize it into meaningful information. Computers are the major platform upon which Information Communication Technology stands on communication. The processes of telecommunication using telephone and telegraphic lines to send messages from one place to another, is the third aspect of Information Communication Technology. Computer is an electronic machine or a set of machines which accepts raw data presented to it in a specific format carries out some operations on the data and produces results in a specific format as information for:
i. Human decision making
ii. Signal to control some other machines or processes
iii. Further input into some other machines
A computer is any machine or device, under the control of a stored program, can accept data in a prescribed form, process the data and supply the results as information in a specific form. Computer comes from the word compute meaning calculate. It could be seen as a machine that performs arithmetic and logical operation quickly. They can store and process information and data and then made available to the users efficiently. With the general purpose of software, computer is no longer the domain of mathematicians, engineers and scientist. The name computer was later changed from computer to Information Technology (IT). Information technology is concerned with the handling and processing of information using electronic devices. It creates opportunity to handle, text and images, numbers and graphs, instruction, sound and music and to process information by organizing, storing and retrieving, sorting and analyzing, presenting and communicating. Computer can also be seen as an electronic machine operating under the control of instructions stored in its own memory that can accept data (input) manipulate the data according to specified rules (process) produce results (output), and store the results future use.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Achievement can be defined in various ways according to what actually the researcher wants to use it for. It is the ability, talent, expertise, capability, proficiency and skills for particular class performance, specific subject performance, overall performance, grades, marks, GPA, percentage etc. “Academic achievement” is hypothesized as learning proficiency and expertise and is defined as person’s comprehensive performance in education and to trust in own capabilities.
Academic self-concept may be defined as an individual’s estimation of his/her educational areas and fields or talents. More positive self-beliefs are associated with academic achievements in schools.
In Nigerian student’s academic self-concept has a strong positive relationship with their academic achievements. Furthermore, positive self-concept predicts academic achievements in school students.
Academic self-concept (ASC) fluctuates as school children move towards higher grades and class levels and it usually apt to grow in the same path of their educational attainment. However, others concluded that spell the abbreviation first (ASC) inclines to move in the contrasting way as someone moves upward in grades/class level.

ICT AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF EDUCATION STUDENTS

ICT can provide a considerable benefit in supporting learning for education students. By using technology in their learning, the students can be active learners. They will be aware of what information they need, why they need it, and how they can get that information. An active learning allows the students to decide when they require particular information and whether they have already understood that information or not. This active learning also implies an independent learning. By having access to internet in their school the students will not totally depend on the teachers. They can explore information available in the internet, find information that they need, copy it, and go on to find more and more information. By using this learning system, the education students also becomes self-managed in their learning process. Self-managed learning allows the students to be self-motivated and self-directed learners who will be able to readily, efficiently, and quickly respond to the quick change of information. The use of blog, for instance, can allow the educators and students to be very up-to-date to the issues and discussion in educational sector or other sectors. Thus, we do not have to wait the newest revision of printed educational books or journal to know what happens in our educational sector for longer time. ICT also can provide a way for dynamic and collaborative learning. By using internet our learning is not limited to the school hours, demographically where we are, and who our teachers are. We can access internet anytime and anywhere e-learning allows the students to get information faster from everywhere and anytime. Technology also enables us to cross the demography limits. Rural students can access information from urban areas, get information and share knowledge with other students or teachers in the same area or even different countries. Besides dynamic learning, ICT allows all the human components of schools; the principals, administrators, teachers, IT coordinators, and the students to get involved in the collaborative learning and forming learning communities.
ICT can improve children’s literacy. The effective use of ICT can upgrade the education students’ literacy and numeracy. Microsoft word, for instance, can motivate the children to learn writing skill. They can enjoy and being excited typing many new words using computer. It also can improve the children’s speaking and listening skills. This is because they may work collaboratively with their peers, teachers, and parents/adults. Those children need to hear what others say to them and tell what they want to know. The children also can develop their reading skills by reading stories accessed through internet. Thus, ICT plays an important role in scaffolding process to improve children’s literacy.

Scaffolding is the support given during the learning process which is tailored to the needs of the students with the intention of helping the students to achieve their learning objectives. Instructional scaffolding is the provision of support to promote learning when concepts and skills are being first introduced to the students. These supports may include; resources, a compelling task, templates and guidance on the development of cognitive and social skills. These supports are gradually removed as the students develop autonomous learning strategies, thus promoting their own cognitive, affective and psychomotive learning skills and knowledge.

INSTRUCTIONAL SCAFFOLDING

The scaffold instruction is defined as the organized pattern and sequence of content, tasks, learning materials as well as to optimize learning both teachers and students involvements. To master new skills, tasks and to be able to comprehend and apply the skills without any guidance, the process of scaffolding supports learners. To present complex phenomena in simple understandable form as well as visually accessible knowledge, scaffolds are planned guidelines, conceptual framework, pictorial aids or images. To enable individual as an independent learner and mastery new skills and tasks, scaffolds provide incentives for teachers.

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Teachers can polish students’ those potentials that are out of the range of their current abilities. Scaffolding is a way through which teachers lead the learners from something known to unknown. Scaffolds perform as enablers, if accurately managed, in various learning settings. To break knowledge into small components and then leading towards construction and then extension are the forms of scaffolding.
It is the use of problem solving techniques under the supervision of adults as well as mutual collaborations with more capable peers. Through scaffolds, an expert as well as a more well-informed person can assist the students towards accomplishment of their set goals and to enable them to utilise already learnt skills, tasks and approaches to improve themselves to mastery those skills. Eventually, the internalized expertise achieved through supportive guidance becomes a part of their learning. The wisdom acquired through scaffolding was the instructor's contribution to bring creativity among learners.
So in response to the child's utterance 'cow', she might say 'Yes, that's a cow. What does the cow say?', or she might ask for an elaboration 'And what did we see when we went to the farm today?' Whereas sequential scaffolding is the scaffolding found in the games played with children at meals, bath times, and so on.
Learning is a process of gradual internalization of routines and procedures available to the learner from the social and cultural context in which the learning takes place. In instructional scaffolding the language learner is assisted in a new task by a more skilled language user who models the language task to be used verbally and/or in writing.
As well as through modeling, scaffolding is provided by leading or probing questions to extend or elaborate the knowledge the learner already possesses. Rather than evaluating the learner's answers, the teacher is supporting, encouraging, and providing additional props. As the learner's competence grows, so the scaffolding is gradually reduced until the learner is able to function autonomously in that task and generalize to similar circumstances.

GUIDELINES FOR IMPLEMENTING SCAFFOLDING

The following points can be used as guidelines when implementing instructional scaffolding.
1. Select suitable tasks that match curriculum goals, course learning objectives and students’ needs.
2. Allow students to help create instructional goals (this can increase students’ motivation and their commitment to learning.
3. Consider students’ backgrounds and prior knowledge to assess their progress material that is too easy will quickly bore students and reduce motivation. On the other hand, material that is too difficult can turn off students’ interest levels).
4. Use a variety of supports as students progress through a task (e.g., prompts, questions, hints, stories, models, visual scaffolding including pointing, representational gestures, diagrams, and other methods of highlighting visual information.
5. Provide encouragement and praise as well as ask questions and have students explain their progress to help them stay focused on the goal.
6. Monitor student progress through feedback (in addition to instructor feedback, have students summarize what they have accomplished so they are aware of their progress and what they have yet to complete.
7. Create a welcoming, safe, and supportive learning environment that encourages students to take risks and try alternatives (everyone should feel comfortable expressing their thoughts without fear of negative responses).
8. Help students become less dependent on instructional supports as they work on tasks and encourage them to practice the task in different context.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement.
Academic performance is the measurement of student achievement across various academic subjects. Teachers and education officials typically measure achievement using classroom performance, graduation rates and results from standardized tests.
Academic achievement is important for the successful development of young people in society. Students who do well in school are better able to make the transition into adulthood and to achieve occupational and economic success.

STUDENTS’ LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE

Educational institutions are mandated to use education as a tool for social transformation. The success of a school is measured by the quality of students it produces. The success of any educational institution is measured by the performance of its students in both academic and non-academic tests. When contending that the performance should not only be based in terms of test and examination results and student ability to apply what is learnt and the rate at which students move on to higher institution of learning, but should include other areas such as whether the students have acquired the survival skills. In spite of that, the use of students’ achievement in academic work to assess the teacher’s effectiveness has gained ground. Academic performance has been used to grade schools and most importantly to determine ones career paths. The ‘good schools’ are acclaimed to be those that are able groom the students well enough to achieve the set standards. This is measured by use of students’ academic performance both at school level and nationally. The importance of students’ high performance has attracted the attention of the public, policy-makers, educators, learners and ministry of education alike.

HOW INSTRUCTIONAL SCAFFOLDING INFLUENCE STUDENTS’ LEARNING PERFORMANCE

In general, scaffolding is construed as support given by a teacher to a student when performing a task that the student might otherwise not able to accomplish. First common characteristic in the various definitions of scaffolding is contingency; often referred to as responsiveness, tailored, adjusted, differentiated, titrated or calibrated support. The teachers’ support must be to the current level of the students’ performance and should either be at the same or a slightly higher level. A teacher acts contingently when he/she adapts the support in the way or another to a (group of) student(s). A tool for contingency is diagnostic strategies, to provide contingent support, that is one must first determine the students’ current level of competence. Only with such knowledge can the support to be provided be adapted to the students’ level of learning (i.e. made contingent). Many authors have acknowledged the importance of diagnosis in relation to scaffolding and were referred to as: dynamic assessment.
Instructional scaffolding can be thought of as the strategies that a teacher uses to help learners bridge a cognitive gap or process in their learning to a level they were previously unable to accomplish. These strategies evolve as the teachers evaluate the learners initial level of ability and then through continued feedback throughout the progression of the task. In the early studies, scaffolding was primarily done in oral, face-to-face learning environments. The influence of instructional scaffolding on academic performance of students in secondary schools is seen in the performance of students.

There is a lot that entails having confidence in research project. Research project is beyond coming up with a project topic. It has everything to do with the entirety of the research work from the undergraduate project topic, getting the research materials etc. and all through the end of the research work which ends at the defense hall. The internet facilities have shown to improve the confidence of students in research projects. This is because the internet has a way of providing all the necessary information one need whether social, economic, religion, academic and otherwise. This technology has reshaped the tertiary educational practice in terms of academic learning and research project.

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The usage of the internet in higher institution have improved educational development and research and has encouraged virtual interactions for sharing research findings. Like in any other higher institution of learning around the globe, Nigerian university undergraduate students are often required to conduct diverse research work as they progress through their final year. The qualities of a student's research and learning are largely dependent on the quality, quantity and current internet resources. However, the rationale for internet utilization for academic and research purposes stems from the benefits derived, such as free access to online journals, magazines and other information resources. The use of the internet in the educational setting has enabled easy access to many resources and information sharing. It provides access to global sources of information and permitting researchers to discuss and share experiences as well as research findings which can be easily accessed by others. The internet facility which is widely used by students and educators has efficiently helped students to carry out substantial research work
THE INTERNET
The Internet has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before. The invention of the telegraph, telephone, radio, and computer set the stage for this unprecedented integration of capabilities. The Internet is at once a world-wide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for geographic location. The Internet represents one of the most successful examples of the benefits of sustained investment and commitment to research and development of information infrastructure. Beginning with the early research in packet switching, the government, industry and academia have been partners in evolving and deploying this exciting new technology.
The internet has been described as the communication superhighway thet links, hooks, and transforms the entire world into a global village where a different individual can easily get in touch, see or speak to one another, as well as exchange information instantaneously form one point of the globe to another. It is also a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities, consisting of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols. The advances in information technology and the development of computers have affected student approaches to research and learning in the contemporary higher educational settings. Studies have shown that technology is one of the key modifiers of human behaviour and this has now become a norm for social interactions
INTERNET FACILITIES
The Internet is a global network of billions of computers and other electronic devices. With the Internet, it's possible to access almost any information, communicate with anyone else in the world, and do much more.
The benefits of internet facilities utilization
• It broadens ones horizon.
• It enlightens one’s scope by divulging global information.
• The novelty of workers with a computer raises the students’ motivation.
• Linking new learning in other institutions of the world.
• Bridging communication gap between developed and developing countries.
• Research mark made easy.
• Assist students to be computer liberates.
UNDERGRADUATE PROJECT
Undergraduate research is an inquiry or investigation conducted by an undergraduate that makes an original intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline. Undergraduate project is an academic assignment (or research) undertaken by a student towards the completion of his/her academic pursuit of a first degree as stated in his first degree curriculum.
Undergraduate research projects can be designed to fit a variety of class constructs and to promote student learning at all levels of undergraduate education. It is also a task undertaken by student(s) within a given period of time in a given subject area aimed at making the student have independent capacity for inquiries and to supplement and as well complement formal teaching in his area of study. This enables the student hone-in the theoretical course work in the university. There is no doubt that the exercise will reveal to the lecturer who is assigned to supervise the student, the student’s area of strength and weaknesses. When these weaknesses are corrected during lecturer – student interaction, the student comes out to be the pride of the university – the alma mater.
Undergraduate research projects can be student or faculty initiated, and students can either participate in a work in progress or enter a project at its start. Undergraduate research is the exploration of a specific topic within a field by an undergraduate student that makes an original contribution to the discipline.
THE BENEFIT OF THE INTERNET IN RESEARCH PROJECT WRITING
The most effective communication resources, computers and the Internet, are part of our daily life and have become one of the important tools in the education. The Internet helps transfer information between different points therefore this satiation makes the Internet a very powerful information system. People in different age groups and jobs, students and academicians who do scientific research and prepare projects prefer using the Internet because it is the easiest, fastest, and cheapest ways of accessing necessary information.
As a result of the information that can be accessed through the internet, it has become a veritable tool for research work. Students have come to build strong confidence on the internet in terms of their research project. Undergraduate students can easily get materials for research project. So it automatically gives them confidence with the knowing that they can get all or almost the materials they need for undergraduate research project.
CONCLUSION
The use of the Internet in the educational environment has enabled easy access to many resources, and information sharing has, therefore, significantly increased. Moreover, the prevalence of this sharing has brought additional benefits in that these resources can be used in any location and any time. Students have come to build their confidence around the internet because of the information available and materials shared by other researchers as well.

For a country to develop, it must have adequate human capital to do so. The human capital is obviously obtained through sound education. It is believed that education is a pivotal part of human development, and can positively influence standards of living, health and governance. Schools handle the important responsibility of imparting education to students and developing them into responsible and enterprising citizens. This can only be achieved when the quality of education provided is the top priority of every government and the school in particular.

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Education is a very important human activity. It helps any society fashion and model individuals to function well in their environment. It improves the productive capacity of the society, reducing poverty by mitigating its effects on population, health and nutrition. One of the indicators of quality of education being provided is cognitive achievement of learners.
For successful achievement of academic performance in schools there is need to provide key physical infrastructure which include:- science laboratory, school library, classrooms and various types of solid waste disposal. Science laboratory is central to scientific instruction where theoretical work is practiced. Practical in any learning experiences involve students in activities such as observing, counting, measuring, experimenting and recording. Without proper and well- equipped science laboratory, it is not possible to carry out the science teaching process effectively in any school or educational institution.
One of the vehicles by which the process in inquiry can be leant is the laboratory where the student experiences the inquiry process, thus the study in a laboratory is an integral and essential part of science subjects. Science laboratory activities are hands-on experiences which emphasis process skills posited as motor skills that help the scientists to find answers to problems and enhance the learning of science. Laboratory activities stimulate learners’ interest as they are meant personally engage in useful scientific activities and experiments. This affords the learners the basic skills and scientific methods of problem solving. it is therefore, very necessary that students manipulate materials and equip in learning of Science through equipment; this will help them not only to acquire science process skills and new knowledge but also scientific attitude such as honesty, open-mindedness and cooperation as moralities of science and enhance understanding and retention of difficult concepts and procedures. Laboratory facilities give students some basic insight into scientific concepts and leave them with feeling of the reality of science which in turn improves their academic performance in examination.

HEALTH EDUCATION

Health education is any combination of learning experiences designed to facilitate voluntary actions conducive to health. Health promotion is the combination of educational and environmental supports for actions and conditions of living conducive to health, thereby including health education.
Health education is a type of education designed for individuals or the public at large to gain the knowledge, skills, value, and attitudes necessary to promote, maintain, improve, and restore their, or another person's, health.

LABORATORY ACTIVITIES

Laboratory activities offer important experiences in the learning sciences that are unavailable in other school disciplines. For many years, laboratory experiences have been shown to promote key science education goals. This implies that laboratory experiences are therefore very important to a student as they enhance better understanding of science and lead to better performance in sciences. Lack of adequate exposure to practical work has been noted as one of the contributing factors to dismal performance in examinations. It is also an established fact that some students saw and handled experimental equipments only during national examinations.
Laboratory work stimulates learners’ interests as they are made to personally engage in useful scientific activities and experimentation; promotes that science is not only product or process; affords the learner the basic skills and scientific method of problem solving and knowledge obtained and promotes long term memory.
Laboratory method is a unique source of quality teaching and learning in science because science students are able to observe and manipulate materials to demonstrate certain aspects of the subject matter which has been learnt in class through lectures, discussions and textbooks. Hence, laboratory method provides students with opportunities to engage in processes of investigation and inquiry which is believed to enhance quality education.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement.
Academic performance is the measurement of student achievement across various academic subjects. Teachers and education officials typically measure achievement using classroom performance, graduation rates and results from standardized tests.
Academic achievement is important for the successful development of young people in society. Students who do well in school are better able to make the transition into adulthood and to achieve occupational and economic success.

LABORATORY ACTIVITIES AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN HEALTH EDUCATION

Laboratory has been conceptualized as a room or a building specially built for teaching by demonstration of theoretical phenomenon into practical terms. Little wonder the saying that “seeing is believing” as the effect of using laboratories in teaching and learning of health education and other science related disciplines as students tend to understand and recall what they see than what they hear or were told. Laboratory is essential to the teaching of sciences and the success of any science course is much dependent on the laboratory provision made for it. The laboratory could be described as a place where theoretical work is practiced whereas practical in any learning experience involve students in activities such as observing, counting, measuring, experimenting, recording, observation and carrying out field work. These activities are totally different from the theoretical work which involves listening to talks and taking down notes from such talks.
Laboratory work stimulates learners’ interests in health education as they are made to personally engage in useful scientific activities and experimentation; promotes that science is not only product or process; affords the learner the basic skills and scientific method of problem solving and knowledge obtained and promotes long term memory.
Laboratory helps to provide a forum wherein the learner is given the exercise to health education subjects, his beliefs, ideas, statements, and theoretical propositions etc. to some forms of experimental test. To maintain and arouse the interests of students in subjects involving laboratory work, the teacher should be effectively involved in order to transfer knowledge and facts to learners for a good performance in any examinations. In line with this, one then pauses to ask, to what extent has laboratory been able to achieve its objectives. In this regard, the teacher assumes a position of dispenser of knowledge with the laboratory serving the function of drill or verification. However, at the other extreme, the teacher assumes the position of guide to learning and laboratory as a place where knowledge is discovered. However, there are growing evidences that teachers do not exhibit behaviors which are complementary to achieving the stated objectives. They include methods of teaching practical work; inadequacy or absence of well-equipped laboratories; high enrollment of students; inadequacy of resources for teaching and learning practical work; quantity and quality of teachers.
Laboratory method is a unique source of quality teaching and learning in science because science students are able to observe and manipulate materials to demonstrate certain aspects of the subject matter which has been learnt in class through lectures, discussions and textbooks. Hence, laboratory method provides students with opportunities to engage in processes of investigation and inquiry which is believed to enhance quality education. Therefore, no course in science subjects can be considered as complete without including some practical work. The practical work ought to be carried out by individuals either in science laboratories or in classes. At school level, practical work is even more important because of the fact that we learn by doing. Scientific practices and applications are thus rendered more meaningful. It is an established truth that an object handled impresses itself more firmly on the mind than the object merely seen from a distance or in an illustration. Thus practical work forms an important feature in science subjects’ courses and improves general academic performance.

CONCLUSION

Laboratory is very crucial to the teaching of health education and the performance of any science subject depends on the laboratory provision and lack of well- equipped laboratories affect student’ performance in sciences. In conclusion, the frequency of teachers teaching science subjects in laboratories and also allowing students to use laboratories frequently help improve their academic performance in the science subjects. Engaging students in laboratory activities promotes the development of science concepts.
Laboratory activities with practical skills help students to remember what they are taught in theory thus improving their performance in science subject examinations. Schools with well-equipped laboratories have better results in the school science examinations than those that are ill-equipped.

Accounting is like eyes and ears of the management, it is also regarded as the language of business. Each business entity must know what is doing and where it is going financially. Accounting keeps the financial score for a business, it call attention to the problem and the opportunities that comfort the enterprise. Where action in needed, it suggests possible solution or answers.

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Accounting is an intellectual discipline, we need a working definition, accounting is defined as the act of analyizing evaluating and interpreting an organization financial activities and communicating the result to those who are interested. It can also be defined as the process of identifying, measuring and communicating the result to those who are interested.

ACCOUNTING INFORMATION

Financial Accounting is the aspect of accounting profession which applies knowledge in analyzing, classification and recording of financial transaction so that performance and financial state of the business may be clearly demonstrated to those entitled to the information i.e. shareholders of the company, employees and the community at large”.
Shareholders who invested their money in the company want information on how well the company is doing so that if the management is not doing well, corrective measures should be taken. The end result of which financial statement are:-
- Profit and Loss Statement
- Balance sheet
- Cash flow statement
The information is prepared in general terms suitable for presentation to shareholder, creditors and general public. Creditors, would want to known whether a company is doing well before they could grant a loan to the company i.e. upon the presentation of the financial statement which would show the activities of the company whether the company is sound and that is a high probability that the loan will be rapid when due.

MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING
Management accounting application of appropriate techniques and concept in processing historical and projected economic data of an entity to assist management in establishing plan for reasonable objective. It cut across such areas as cost accounting, budgeting, internal credit and financial accounting to provide the various level of the following functions.
i. Planning
ii. Co-ordination
iii. Control
Planning: Before any organization or company commerce its activities, it has to plan for what to do. It involves the planning as to what product to be produced or if the company has been of evasion, whether the price of its product should be decreased, all these are made by the company. Any form of planning is called budgeting i.e. planning the overall activities of the company for certain period of time usually a year. Before a decision is made, there must have existed a problem, the ways of solving these problems must be identified with their advantage and disadvantage to allow for choosing the way of solving the problem. Management accounting is useful especially in the analysis of the decision make process.
Co-ordination: For an organization to achieve its set objectives, all the entire department in the organization must work hand in hand. For instance, store must contact the accounts section first to know of there is money to enable them order the required stock. Also, the sales department should inform the production unit on the stage of a new product, whether public reaction to such a product is negative or positive, this will enable the product unit to know the necessary action to be taken so as to achieve the set target.
Control: This involves the arrangement whereby the manager oversees the activities of the employees of the organization. The manager should make sure that all the employees perform the work assigned to them properly and if there is any deviation from the set objectives, he should call the attention of the defaulting staff to adjust. Employee are informed about management policies and plans through accounting reports. Accounting information motivates the worker by inducing them act in a way that is consistent with the organization overall goals and objectives
THE USE OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION AND FINANCIAL DECISION
Accounting information are required and used by various classes of people e.g. owner of the business, the government, investors, employees and creditors. The owners of the business share performance, compare their organization with similar others to enable them decide either to increase or decrease their share in the company. Through the use of accounting information, the government can determine that business are meeting their legal obligation to pay taxes, contribute social security benefits for their employees and also satisfy other regulations such as those concerning the registration and trading of their stock. Investors need to make decision whether to insist or not with the accounting information available, the investors is able to make a careful investigation to determine that a particular business is buoyant enough for him to invest his money. Most of the investors invest with the expectation of earning a return on their investment, they invest with the hope of getting dividend whenever profits are declare and also increase in the market value of the share owned by them. Creditors provide loans to the company, this however does not make them owners of the company but they are interested in analyzing the company’s financial statement to make sure that their investment is safe and that interest due to them can be paid to them including the principal when due. Creditors are specifically concerned whether such a company is a profitable venture, which is more likely to meet its credit obligation.
Employees use financial statement to determine if they are obtained a fair share of the resources distributed by the company to bargain for wages and fringe benefits. A prospective employee usually finds out the activities of an organization before accepting or even applying for employment in such as company. Hew investigates the activities of the company through its financial statement to determine its operation, growth and profitability. An employee would like to find out if there is job security in the company or not.
CONCLUSION
The tools used by accounting staff in any company will make sense only if the application if the accounting principles and techniques discussed in chapter two are used to various aspects of the problem to be solved when making decision. Accounting information makes a significant contribution of the decision making in an organization. The application of accounting information in a business concern is capable finding solution to management problem in terms of decision making. Accounting need to work together with the management so that the company can achieve its set objectives. The information provided by the management accountant should be used by the managers, and then the management accountant should make sure that they provide the needed information at the right time.

The use of instructional materials and teaching method among other factors affects students’ performance the most. However the correlation between them is very important in order to improve teaching and learning process in the educational system (primary, secondary and tertiary institution).
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
Instructional materials refer to those alternative channels of communication, which a classroom teacher can use to concretize a concept during teaching and learning process. Traditionally, classroom teachers have relied heavily on the 'talk-chalk' method during their teaching. But recently, instructional materials help to provide variations in the ways in which messages are sent across. In using instructional materials teachers and students do not only extend the range of sense organs we use but also extend the range of materials used for convening the same message through the same organ. For instance, in teaching a topic a teacher can manipulate real objects or use their stimulators. Instructional materials therefore constitute the media of exchange through which a message transaction is facilitated between a source and a receiver.

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In addition to extending the range of materials that can be used to convey the same instructional message to learners’ instructional materials also facilitate the 'process' nature of communication. Infact it means that the receiver and the source share and exchange ideas, feelings in any communication.
Instructional materials are essential and significant tools needed for teaching and learning of school subjects to promote teachers ‘efficiency and improve students’ performance. They make learning more interesting, practical, realistic and appealing. They also enable both the teachers and students to participate actively and effectively in lesson sessions. They give room for acquisition of skills and knowledge and development of self- confidence and self- actualization. Teaching aids are those materials used for practical and demonstration in the class situation by students and teachers. Instructional materials are objects or devices that assist the teacher to present a lesson to the learners in a logical and manner.
More so, instructional materials are visual and audio-visual aids, concrete or non-concrete, used by teachers to improve the quality of teaching and learning activities. Therefore, effective teaching and learning requires a teacher to teach the students with instructional materials and use practical activities to make learning more vivid, logical, realistic and pragmatic. Instructional materials are however, indispensable to the effective teaching and learning activities. Teaching aids are always useful in supporting the sense organs. Despite the fact that instructional materials are essential tools that can make learning practical and knowledge acquisition easier.
TYPES OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
Before a teacher can design or produce an instructional material, he/she has to know what these instructional materials are, their advantage and disadvantage, characteristics and limitations etc. Therefore, some types of instructional materials could be outlined as thus- Graphic materials, Three- dimensional materials, still pictures, still projected pictures, motion pictures and Audio materials.
(1) Graphic materials: - This represent these charts, graphic, posters and diagrams, cartoons, comics, maps and globes which we draw on a cardboard paper or on a piece of cloth and present to our learners to help them visualize what we have been laboring so hard o explain verbally. Graphic materials belong to the finally of two- dimensional material and proportional relationships that may exist among variables in a phenomenon. Graphic materials are used to compress information, to focus and captivate attention, to vary stimuli presented and as an aid to recall. Graphic materials when properly produced can help in attaining all processes in the information processing model of learning as well as serve as avenue for applying principles from other learning theories.
(2) Three - Dimensional Materials: - They are different from charts and graphs which are illustration of two- dimensional materials because of the incorporation of a third element- department. Thus, whereas graphs and charts embrace the width and height of a visualized object, a three-dimensional embraces this third element department, a feature that makes the three- dimensional material a replica of the real thing. Different types of three-dimensional materials exist, namely: Models and mock-ups, specimen, kits and dioramas-which is the creation of a scene in an event.
(3) Still pictures: - This refers to flat opaque pictures which we take during festivals or when we are commemorating an event. They also refer to pictures we find in journals and magazines. They are called still pictures because in admiring them, we hold them in our hands or place them on a surface, which is we do not view them with the aid of projector, as is the case with motion pictures or still projected pictures. Like graphic materials, still pictures belong to the group of two -dimensional materials.
(4) Still projected pictures: - Still projected pictures are a class of instructional materials which our learners may not be familiar with. Therefore in order to assist them to better understand what is meant by still projected pictures is the negative format. Still projected pictures can be projected with a projector. The projector has powerful electronic bulbs, which throw light on to the image on the negative, and image is finally projected on to a screen or wall. Therefore, when dealing with still projected pictures, one is automatically dealing with a whole range of materials (such as slides, overhead transparency, filmstrip etc) whose image are imprinted in a negative/film and which has to be projected using different types of projector. A major characteristics is still projected pictures is that the images are projected one frame at a time. This is a major difference between still projected pictures and motion pictures. This characteristic enables a still projected picture to stay for as long as a learner wants it on a screen.
(5) Motion pictures: - Motion pictures are distinct from the other types of pictures because of the speed at which they are projected. It is this speed of projection that intact gives the impression of motion. Motion pictures range from the 8 mm standard format to 8 mm supper and finally to the 16 mm format. The width of the film thus constitutes a basic for classifying them. Motion pictures films have sprocket holes along both edges or along only one edge. The presence of sprocket holes facilitates projection. Motion pictures can be projected at 16 or 24fps (frame per second.) They can be silent or accompanied with sound. Sound films use either a magnetic tape or optical sound track for sound recording. If a film is sound, only one edge bears the sprocket holes while the other edge bears the sound components.
(6) Audio Materials: - This is a class name for tape recordings and discs. A disc or record as it is popularly called here is a round and flat acetate containing grooves, which produces sound vibrations through the action of a needled. Discs usually come in different sizes and play at different speeds. The clarity of sound production from a disc rests on the quality of needle, the speed and state of the grooves. Obviously, in oversea countries records exist for almost all subjects. People in music department appreciate the importance of records in their studies. Special effects such as the sound of thunder the cry of owl at night, the noise produced in a factory during work can all be recorded in disc and synchronized with other events to create special effects during production. To use a record, a teacher has to specify his objectives thoroughly. Hence, students can listen to a record as a group or individually.
TEACHING METHOD
It is the term of pedagogy; main focus is on effective presentation of subject matter to have mastery over it. It is step by step scientific way of presenting the subject matter. It is overall plan for systematic presentation based on a selected approach means method is the practical realization of an approach through a procedure in a system. Teaching method is what kind of activity we use in order to teach. Method refers to the procedure within an approach. We use method depends on a scientific than an approach and has step by step procedure to solve problem. It is nothing but an scientific way of presenting the subject keeping in mind the psychology and physical requirements of the children. It is a process or procedure whose successful completion results in learning or as a means through which teaching becomes effective. It is the formal structure of the sequence of acts. The term method covers both strategy and techniques of teaching. Different strategies may be adopted in following a method. It is wider term. Method is related to the nature of content of a subject to be taught. Teaching method is a style of presentation of content in classroom. Method refers to the formal structure of the sequence of acts commonly denoted by instructions. It involves the choice of what is to be taught and in which order is to be presented. There are two main types of teaching method which are non-participatory method and participatory method.
1. Non-Participatory method: In these type of methods teacher casts himself/herself in the role of being a master of the subject matter. The teacher is looked upon by the learners as an expert or an authority. Learners on the other hand are presumed to be passive and copious recipients of knowledge from the teacher. Examples of such methods are lecture method and demonstration method.
2. Participatory methods: This refers to the way in which teachers and students are in constant interaction, active involvement and continuous exchange of views and ideas in the overall teaching and learning. These methods are sometimes known as interactive teaching method or learner centered teaching method. It is a shift from a belief that learners are empty plate who are supposed to be imparted with knowledge to a belief that learners can construct knowledge and learn on their own if properly guided. They are designed only for smaller groups of participants, but their advantage is that they encourage better retention of learned. They are contemporary modern methods of education. . Examples of such methods are discussion method, question answer method, project method, problem solving method etc.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement. Academic performance is the measurement of student achievement across various academic subjects. Teachers and education officials typically measure achievement using classroom performance, graduation rates and results from standardized tests. Academic achievement is important for the successful development of young people in society. Students who do well in school are better able to make the transition into adulthood and to achieve occupational and economic success.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS, TEACHING METHODS AND STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE
Instructional materials play a very important role in the teaching and learning process. It enhances the memory level of the students. At this time that education has spread wide and entirely, oral teaching cannot be the key to successful pedagogy; therefore the teacher has to use instructional materials to make teaching and learning process interesting.
Instructional materials serve as a channel between the teacher and the students in delivering instructions. They may also serve as the motivation on the teaching-learning process. It is use to get the attention of the students and eliminate boredom. Instructional materials are highly important for teaching; especially for inexperienced teachers. Teachers rely on instructional materials in every aspect of teaching. They need material for background information on the subject they are teaching. Young teachers usually have not built upon their expertise whenever they enter into the field. Teachers often use instructional materials for lesson planning. These materials are also needed by the teachers to assess the knowledge of their students. Teachers often assess students by assigning tasks, creating projects, and administering exams. Instructional materials are essential for all of these activities. Today advances in technology have made it possible to produce materials and devices that could be used to minimize the teachers’ talking and at the same time, make the message clearer, more interesting and easier for the learner to assimilate.
Teachers with improved teaching methods and skills who take time to provide instructional materials and option that take into consideration or account the different ways students receive and express knowledge are more likely to see their students’ success. Science classroom should provide a variety of audio, visual and print input methods depending on students need, allow students the flexibility to communicate their true learning.
It is generally important that both teachers and school administrator that apart from the chalkboard and textbooks which are often available for the teacher to use, there are other materials that aid or are capable of complementing the teacher’s effort in teaching/learning process should also ensure their is flexibility in teaching methods.

Receiving a quality education is an important cornerstone in the lives of every individual. It is imperative that students have the tools they need to be successful—tools that include motivation and engagement. For some students, however, motivation is not always intrinsic. It therefore falls to others to guide students along the path to their own education. As teachers spend an incredible amount of time with their students over the course of the year, it is a teacher’s responsibility to foster an inclination for learning. Research has indicated that the relationship between teachers and students is an important predictor of academic engagement and achievement. In fact, the most powerful weapon teachers have, when trying to foster a favorable learning climate, is positive relationships with their students.
TEACHER-PUPIL RELATIONSHIP
Teacher and pupil relationship should be based on the principle of human relations which holds that “friendliness begets friendliness”. This principle relates to the principle of justice and fair play. Since 75 percent of the teachers time is spent with or for human beings who have individual needs, expectations, background, emotions, feelings and interests. The teacher must learn how best to relate with the pupils and even individuals in order to make the best out of them.

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The principle of human relation implies that the teachers should put in respect, courtesy, kindness, consideration, confidence, trust, open mindedness, sincerity etc in dealing with his pupils and even the society at large. A good teacher is essentially a friend but he must maintain his honour and respect from all learners. He is a friend to all, but a special to none particularly in the classroom setting.
FACTORS AFFECTING TEACHER-PUPIL RELATIONSHIP
The major factors that affect teacher and pupils relationship both in the school and outside school in clued the following:
a. Physical environment
b. physical and physiological state of teacher and the learner
c. Intelligence level of the teacher/learner
d. Cultural background
e. Recruitment of non – professional into the field.
Physical Environment
Effective relationship between the teacher and the pupils might be distorted by the physical environment where the classroom is sited. The communication within the classroom might be distorted by ventilation, external noise of traffic, construction, lightening and furnishing in the room. As a result, the learner is disturbed in a way that they become unreceptive to the details of the message communicated.
Physical and Physiological State of Teacher and the Learner
The state of the pupils mind determines his decoding ability. A learner finds it difficult to relater with his/her teacher when he is emotionally disturbed, hungry or finds himself in an uncomfortable environment. However, for learning to take place, an effective relationship between the teacher and the learner in the classroom and outside the classroom in indispensable. Therefore, teachers, parents and the government should realize that the psychological and physiological state of the teacher and pupils must be satisfied for the improve pupils relationship in the academic achievement to be established from biology student to the tertiary institutions.
Cultural Background
This is another major factor that affects teacher pupils relationship in the classroom. The ability of the learner to decode the message depends on his/her cultural set up. If the teacher and the learner have different cultural background, the teacher might use certain phrases, expressions, colloquialism etc which might be incomprehensible to the pupils. Therefore, for an improved relationship to take place between the teacher and the pupils, there is always a communication breakdown in the classroom and outside the classroom if the teacher uses words which the learners do not understand.
Intelligence Level of the Teacher/Learner
Relationship between the teacher and pupils in the classroom and outside the classroom is greatly affected and controlled by the intelligence level of the learner and the teacher. The pupils inability to interpret a message and relate with the teacher effectively may be due to his/her low level of the intelligence, especially when the content of the message is within his/her age. On the other hand, the teacher’s inability to relate with the pupils can impede proper interpretation of the message by the learner. This is a common feature if teacher’s selection of words, pronunciation, writing, spelling etc is either incorrect or unclear. If pupils have educated parents who will always encourage them to put more interest in their studies, there is a tendency that their performance will improve. Also, the government has to realize the fact that intellectual level of the teachers could be improved when they provided with the time frame of pre-service education.
Recruitment of Non – Professional into the Field
No profession either in Nigeria or any other country of the world can admit a non – professional into the field. But in teaching profession, it is not the case once someone can read, write and speak English; the person stands the chance of being a teacher. It is only in teaching that both professionals and non-professionals are left, and given free hand to practice the profession. However, for effective teaching to take place, the teacher must possess the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) as the minimum teaching qualification for teaching in the school as stipulated by the National Policy on Education.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement. Academic performance is the measurement of student achievement across various academic subjects. Teachers and education officials typically measure achievement using classroom performance, graduation rates and results from standardized tests.
Academic achievement is important for the successful development of young people in society. Students who do well in school are better able to make the transition into adulthood and to achieve occupational and economic success.
TEACHER-PUPIL RELATIONSHIP AND STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE
Academic achievement is the ability of the learners to acquire knowledge in a school setting based on what they are taught by their teachers for a specific period of time. He also said that academic achievement could be improved on the part of the learners, if the teacher base his interest in making use of free time, extrinsic motivation and avoiding negative reinforcement. For a successful academic performance to occur in the learners, the teacher must always try to create free time that will encourage cordial relationship between him and his learners and the learner must be given the freedom to participate, thereby expressing his or her views based on what he or her has learned or based on what they know.
The teacher must be aware of extrinsic motivation as in connection to the learners. Learners are motivated to learn when they are praised for doing well. The teacher must always remember to ask the entire members of the class to clap for pupil who got the correct answer to the question.
The academic achievement of the learner also has to do with the way the teacher react to reinforcement of the exiting teaching and learning problems. Many suggestions and disciplinary measures have been made by most scholars. They sometimes contradict each other. However, the class teacher needs to understand that the control of his class is in his hands, and that each incident requires its own special handling, taking the circumstances into consideration.

The issue of teachers’ motivation and teachers’ productivity sometimes called quality assurance has become a matter of debate and concern in educational systems and standards. In most developing countries of the world including Nigeria, there has been a growing awareness about teacher motivation which is a key to quality assurance, quality outcomes/delivery and high standards in the educational system. It is acknowledged that any nation that is aspiring to maintain high and quality standards or achieve quality assurance in its educational system must take teachers and their motivational needs with utmost high level of seriousness.

TEACHERS’ MOTIVATION

Teachers’ motivation is a complex and difficult term to define; therefore a precise definition of this concept is elusive as the notion comprises the characteristics of individual and situation as well as the perception of that situation by the individual.

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The school liveliness comes from the motivation of its teachers, although their abilities play just as crucial a role in determining their work performance as their motivation. Motivated and committed teachers can be a determining factor in the success of the school.


TYPES OF MOTIVATION

The major types of motivation we will be looking at are Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation- the search for optimal Motivation and performance indicated that motivation can be categorized into extrinsic and intrinsic types of motivation.
Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation is caused by the expectation of external sanctions to their own behavior. It is expected to achieve a reward or avoidance of punishment or of any potential unintended consequences. In other words, the conduct is instrumental: it becomes a means to an end. For example, by obtaining an economic, social or psychological reward (a bonus, the approval of their peers or recognition of your supervisor) Or it can be taken to avoid unpleasant consequences (the refusal of a salary increase, the rejection of others, or loss of confidence by his boss). Extrinsic motivation depends on another, other than the acting individual. That one can perceive a behavior, or you can evaluate it according to their standards. And also has the option of providing or not the rewards or punishments. Thus there is no guarantee that the conduct which the individual believes will lead right to the goal that promoted such behavior. Extrinsically motivated behavior arises from incentive motivation and consequences that is contingent on the observed behavior.
Intrinsic Motivation
Teachers are motivated by what they intrinsically believe is going to happen, not by what managers promise (extrinsic) will happen. Managers can motivate teachers by setting in motion the conditions required for motivation, namely; confidence, trust, satisfaction and creating an environment that reinforces those conditions. Green recognizes three of Herzberg’s motivators as being crucial in motivating people. These are recognition, interesting work and responsibility. He says, over and above monetary reward, what people crave is praise. They need assurance that their efforts are known, valued and appreciated. Sometimes all it takes to satisfy this deep desire is a sincere “well done”, preferably delivered in front of their peers. Making people work interesting means driving away boredom because it’s a great de-motivator. Make their work meaningful and you will spur them to realize their own highest potential. Intrinsic motivation is caused by the gratification derived from implementing the individual’s own behavior. The behavior is expressive: it is both means and end. The realization, for example, is a challenging job for which you have the skills, means that the activity is in itself satisfactory. With intrinsically motivated behavior, the motivation comes from internal needs and the satisfaction provides spontaneous activity. The intrinsic motivation by contrast, dispenses with any externality (Self-sufficient). Therefore, the emerging theories of motivation emphasize the importance and potential of intrinsic motivation without reinforcing means to the role of the external sanctions

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

Instructional materials, also known as teaching/learning materials, are any collection of materials including animate and inanimate objects and human and non-human resources that a teacher may use in teaching and learning situations to help achieve desired learning objectives. Instructional materials play a very important role in the teaching-learning process the availabilities of textbook, appropriate chalkboard, Mathematics kits, Science kit, teaching guide, science guide, audio-visual aids, overhead projector, among others are the important instructional material. Instructional materials are those materials used by a teacher to simplify their teaching. They include both visual and audio-visual aids and could either be concrete or non-concrete. These instructional materials bring life to learning by stimulating students to learn. Furthermore, instructional Materials are any item or element which a tutor uses to deliver the best teaching experience. They can be human or non-human resources like lectures, readings, textbooks, multimedia components, and other resources. Instructional materials help home tutors provide excellent educational services

TEACHERS’ MOTIVATION AND THE USE OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

When there is proper motivation, it leads to good performance and high productivity to the sustenance of the national growth and development and also the welfare of the citizens. Hence, the impact of motivation on teachers’ use of instructional cannot be over emphasized and they are as follows: Motivation help to direct and improve the learning and teaching process in classroom. For instance, when a motivated teacher is given a class to teach, he/she puts every effort to ensure that he gets his job done effectively and efficiently. Even when he fails in the teaching process, he does not get discouraged but rather puts more effort towards the achievement of his goals. Also, the impact of motivation on teachers can be seen in the classroom settings. Motivation energizes the behaviour of teachers and arouses them for action. Not only the motivation energizes the behaviour, it also sustains their interests and behaviour for a longer period of activity. Motivated state helps to increase efficiency and adequacy of behaviour. For instance, a motivated teacher faces his class work with zeal and interest and also makes use of instructional materials for effective teaching and learning. Such teachers will always be in school and carryout the necessary assignment. Another impact of motivation on teachers’ use of instructional materials could be seen in the performance and academic achievement of their students. The behaviour is directed towards a selective goal which the individual sets for himself. In such a situation, the teacher’s action or behavior does not move in a haphazard manner instead, it is being directed towards the achievement of a selective goal which the individual sets for himself. Example is when a teacher is determined to achieve efficiency in teaching and learning; such a person selects appropriate behaviour such as the use of instructional materials and other learning materials, so as to attain his set goals. And the motive ends by the achievement of the goals.

Education is a universal activity that is part and parcel of human existence. It is by this notion that formal education was set up and it has become a primary and vital process that determines a country’s development in terms of technology, economic sector, political sector, and even social sector. Formal education involves many people, i.e. the government, education ministries, society which includes the church, the teachers and the students. Motivation is defined as willingness and desire that makes one be committed to a given activity to achieve specific goals. Students’ motivation is a desire and willingness to learn using various educative methodology and style when dealing academic works.
MOTIVATION
Motivation may be defined as psychological forces that determine the direction of a person’s behaviour in an organization, a person level of effort and a person’s level of persistence in the face of obstacle. The direction of a person’s behaviour that people could engage in effort refers to how hard people work. Persistence refers to whether when faced with roadblock and obstacle, people can keep tying or give up.

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Motivation is so central management because it explain why people behave the way they do in organization. motivation also explain why a waiter is polite or not, why a nursery school teacher really tries to get to enjoy learning or just goes through the motions, and why some workers put faith twice the effort of others. Motivation can come from intrinsic sources intrinsically motivated behaviour is behavior that is performed for its own sake. The sources at motivation are actually performing the behaviour and motivation comes from doing the work itself. Extrinsically motivated behaviour is a behaviour that is performed to acquire material or social rewards or to avoid punishment, the sources at motivation is the consequences of the behaviour, not the behaviour itself.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement. Academic performance is the measurement of student achievement across various academic subjects. Teachers and education officials typically measure achievement using classroom performance, graduation rates and results from standardized tests. Academic achievement is important for the successful development of young people in society. Students who do well in school are better able to make the transition into adulthood and to achieve occupational and economic success.

APPROACHES TO LEARNING AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Approaches in the study of learning have been grouped around two orientations:
Quantitative (behavioral and cognitive) and qualitative:
Within the qualitative orientation there are two research lines: Styles and learning approaches. The latter are within the paradigm of information processing, but with a different phenomenological approach. Learning approaches have a predisposing character or orientation to learn in a particular way. This gives them a similarity with learning styles which are “specific and relatively stable ways to process information.” Learning styles are predispositions, relatively general and constant, responding to a subject’s trend. They derive from the willingness of an individual to adopt the same strategy in different situations, regardless of the specific demands of the task. However, the approaches are more flexible than the styles since they modulate according to the context and needs using the necessary strategies to achieve the intended objectives, which are more specific or particular. A learning approach describes the combination of an intention and a strategy when addressing a specific task, at a particular time. Thus, when there is a surface approach, there is an intention of getting high grades applying appropriate memorization techniques, and then the student will have an adequate performance. As for the deep approach it involves a self-determined motivation, which involves effort and pleasure for what is been studied. In this regard the student has a high probability of obtaining a high performance in his/her studies. It is important to remember that learning approaches are not something stable in the student, that is, they are not an immutable personal characteristic. On the contrary, a student is able to adopt either learning approach (surface or deep) depending on the academic task. In other words, learning approaches are based on both: The students’ individual characteristics and the teaching context. For this reason, “a learning approach describes the nature of the relationship between student, context and task”.
Deep approach:
It is based on an intrinsic motivation; the student has an interest on the subject and learning has personal significance for him. Strategies are used to achieve understanding and to satisfy a personal curiosity. Regarding processes, the student interacts with the learning content, relates ideas with prior knowledge and experience, uses organizing principles to integrate ideas, relates evidence to findings and examines the logic of the arguments used. Regarding results, a deep level of understanding is obtained by integrating well the fundamental principles and facts. Students with a deep approach usually achieve a good academic performance. However, an exclusively deep approach may not be as good for attainment as the predominantly deep approach.
Surface approach:
It is based on an extrinsic motivation; the student tries to “achieve something” and avoid failure. The student’s intent is to comply with the evaluation requirements by reproduction. Strategies are used in rote learning. The processes are oriented to rote learning by repetition, so that facts and ideas are barely interrelated. The student accepts ideas and information passively and concentrates only on a test or exam. The result is a rote memorization, without recognizing principles or guidelines, and a zero or superficial understanding level. These students have a poor performance with respect to the objectives and they think about leaving school early.

THE ROLE OF MOTIVATION IN STUDENTS’ LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE

Motivation is seen as the person’s effort to accomplish his/her duties, dedicating the needed effort and continuing it. Motivation plays a significant role in individual’s educational life and their achievement. Motivation reflects in learners‟ choices of academic tasks, the time and effort they allocate to each task, their perseverance in academic tasks. Motivation also enables them correctly handle obstacles they come across in the learning process. Motivation is a multidimensional construct. To them, researchers in the field of motivation in learning agree that a learners engaging in any learning condition has to answer three central questions: „Can I do this activity?‟, „Do I want to do this activity and why?‟, and „What do I need to do to succeed?‟ The concept of motivation is closely related to other constructs in education and psychology. They include attention, needs, goals and interests which all focuses on stimulating individual learners and rising their interest and attention towards engaging in an action or behaviors and the accomplishment of such actions or goals. The concept of motivation is functional when an individual is thrilled to satisfy some need or desire. The individual will involve in, or be attracted toward actions that are perceived as having the possibility to meet this need or desire. Educational psychologists are of the view that students‟ motivation is an indispensable requirement for efficient learning to take place. In the event of insufficient motivation to learn, the outcome of such learning will be unsatisfactory. The concept of motivation has been defined differently. However, all centered on what induce a person to perform a given action. Motivation can also be seen as “what causes people to behave as they do”. To them, motivation sketches the achievement and pursuit of goals.
Motivation is usually regarded as a prerequisite for learning showed that the literature is mostly focused on the factors that make individuals to act and to pursue these actions. In particular, the studies underlining the importance of motivation as a factor that facilitates the learning achievements of the individuals have argued that learning achievement and effectiveness may vary according to motivators such as interest, desire and need. In this regard, although there are studies showing that there is a positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and achievement there are studies suggesting that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation should be combined together in order to motivate an individual to get into action for a goal.

Learning through reflection is one of the most interesting experiences that students might have. It is considered a very good tool for self-assessing learning. It is believed that teachers who promote reflective classrooms ensure that students are fully engaged in the process of making meaning. Reflection plays in fostering self-reflection and critical thinking. He has defined it as an active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief. Reflections give students opportunities to think and reflect about their learning and note down the obstacles they might face during this process.

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English language is very importance in students’ academic performance in intelligence tests. The bond of contention now is can English language be a virile tool in measuring students’ academic performance in vocational education that involves a lot of practical in the acquisition of skills. The mindset is that the individual is trained to be self -reliant, and well productive. More importantly, English language skills are part of total education given to an individual in order to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge require for employment in specific occupation. Students require English language to properly understand the contents of the programs, which in turn will improve the academic understanding of the student.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS

English language skills is rarely done in isolation, when people are engaged in a conversation, they are listening as well as speaking, in order to interact with the person they are talking to. In the case of lecturers, for instance, they read notes they have written previously and, in the same situation, people who are listening to lectures are also taking their own notes, an activity that could even provoke a conversation or at least a comment among the people attending the lecture, for this reason, “If skill use is multi-layered in this way, it would make no sense to teach each skill in isolation. We will, therefore, look at how input and output are connected in the classroom, how skills can be integrated and how skill and language work are connected.” Consequently, integrating English language skills in a lesson is a natural process of “skill-mixing” that facilitates teachers “to provide maximum learning opportunities for the different students in classes, it makes sense to integrate different skills”. Since almost all educational programmes in institutions of higher learning in Nigeria are conducted in English, students who are enrolled need to have an adequate level of proficiency in English. Several research studies have deemed English language proficiency as an important factor to international students’ academic success in institutions where the medium of instruction is in English. A clear correlation between English language proficiency and academic performance has been established in previous studies.
Students who enroll in overseas programmes where the medium of instruction is English demonstrate their English proficiency by scoring well in standardized English language proficiency tests such as the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). International students fulfill the English language entry criteria; many still struggle to cope with the linguistic demands of their courses due to inadequate levels of English proficiency.

STUDENTS’ REFLECTION

Many teachers see reflection activities as student self-evaluation and that many students are reticent to participate in self-assessment because they “see that kind of judgment as belonging to the teacher”. However, the same study is clear to assert that to transition students from external to intrinsic motivation to succeed; reflection must be integrated and embraced within the classroom. Therefore, while reflection does not need to take the place of a teacher’s assessment, it can be infused as part of an activity to enhance student performance because, if students are “makers of meaning,” their own thoughts and interpretation of their work and its overall impact “have to be part of the mix”. All in all, the most compelling issue related to prior research in the use of reflective thinking is its inherent power to enhance outcomes particularly in combination or support of meta-cognition and/or critical thinking. From professional fields outside of education, to teachers, to students, the power of reflection is evident; however, its integration into the curriculum must be intentional and well planned to have maximum effect. This sheds light not only on the power of reflection as an academic learning tool, but on the transformative power of its ability to fundamentally change the way students think and perceive their effort, motivation, and ability to complete novel and familiar tasks. In addition to supporting students’ abilities to think about their thinking, the basic principle of meta-cognition, reflection also allows students affective outlets that can reduce stress and frustration toward the curriculum

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement. Academic performance is the measurement of student achievement across various academic subjects. Teachers and education officials typically measure achievement using classroom performance, graduation rates and results from standardized tests. Academic achievement is important for the successful development of young people in society. Students who do well in school are better able to make the transition into adulthood and to achieve occupational and economic success.

STUDENTS’ REFLECTION, ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Self-reflection’s currency as a topic of educational importance has resulted in the incorporation of reflection journals as learning tools that promote reflection into many curricula. Students’ reflection and English language skills are believed to enable students to critically review processes of their own learning and behaviours, and to understand their ability to transform their own learning strategies. The purposes of students’ reflection include: to critically review the behaviours; learning of self and others; setting or tracking learning goals and exploring connections between knowledge that was learned and students’ own ideas about them. It is hoped that through reflecting and writing about new information or ideas, learners can better understand and remember them. In addition, the articulation of connections between new information, ideas, prior or existing knowledge also deepens learning.

Cognitive Fatigue (CF) can be defined as a decrease in cognitive resources developing over time on sustained cognitive demands, independently of sleepiness. CF can be observed in the context of various attentional and executive cognitive functions with, amongst others, developing difficulties to suppress irrelevant information during selective attention, increased perseverations and time needed to plan, weakened cognitive control and decreased high-level information processing, or even declining physical performance.

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CF is also a significant contributing factor in loss of productivity, poor academic performance, increased risks of accidents and reduced quality of life in normal and clinical populations. Although fatigue as a global phenomenon has been investigated for more than a century now, the impact of CF at personal and economic levels continues representing an alarming figure in modern societies.

COGNITIVE FATIGUE

Cognitive fatigue refers to the feeling that people may experience after or during prolonged periods of cognitive activity. These feelings are very common in everyday modern life and generally involve tiredness or even exhaustion, an aversion to continue with the present activity, and a decrease in the level of commitment to the task at hand. In addition, Cognitive fatiguehas been associated with impaired cognitive and behavioural performance. Over the past decades, work has changed to a large extent from demanding physical effort, to demanding mental effort. This has resulted in a substantial increase in complaints related to mental fatigue: in the Netherlands, half of the women in the working population complain about being fatigued, while a third of the men report such complaints. Fifteen years ago, only 38% of the women and 24% of the men reported such complaints. Cognitive fatiguehas been shown to result in various deteri, orations in cognitive functioning. Fatigued subjects had difficulties in focusing their attention, planning, and adaptively changing strategies in the face of negative outcomes. Our own work showed that fatigued subjects had difficulties in adequately preparing their responses and had difficulties in sustaining attention and ignoring irrelevant information. In addition, fatigued subjects corrected their mistakes less often and post error performance adjustment was impaired. Common sense would dictate that Cognitive fatigueis the direct result of working for a prolonged period of time: the longer one works on a demanding task, the more fatigue one will experience. This, however, has been shown not to be the case. Fatigue may be experienced after working for a relatively short period of time, while working long hours does not always lead to fatigue. Indeed, working long hours has been shown not to lead to fatigue at all when the rewards of working (in terms of payment, but also appreciation by peers and co-workers) are perceived as high.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Academic performance is an issue that deeply concerns students, parents, teachers and authorities not only in our country, but also in many other Latin American countries and continents. The complexity of the academic performance starts from its conceptualization. Sometimes it is known as school readiness, academic achievement and school performance, but generally the difference in concepts is only explained by semantics as they are used as synonyms. Conventionally, it has been agreed that academic performance should be used in university populations and school performance in regular and alternative basic education populations. We will point out just a few because there is a diversity of definitions. Several authors agree that academic performance is the result of learning, prompted by the teaching activity by the teacher and produced by the student. Academic performance is “the product given by the students and it is usually expressed through school grades”. Academic performance as a measure of the indicative and responsive abilities that express, in an estimated way, what a person has learned as a result of a process of education or training. Academic performance involves meeting goals, achievements and objectives set in the program or course that a student attends. These are expressed through grades which are the result of an assessment that involves passing or not certain tests, subjects or courses. Academic performance also can be seen as the level of knowledge shown in an area or subject compared to the norm, and it is generally measured using the grade point average.
The purpose of the school or academic performance is to achieve an educational goal, learning. In this regard there are several components of the complex unit called performance. They are learning processes promoted by the school that involve the transformation of a given state, into a new state, and they are achieved with the integrity in a different unit with cognitive and structural elements. Performance varies according to circumstances, organic and environmental conditions that determine skills and experiences. The academic performance involves factors such as the intellectual level, personality, motivation, skills, interests, study habits, self-esteem or the teacher-student relationship. When a gap between the academic performance and the student’s expected performance occurs, it refers to a diverging performance. An unsatisfactory academic performance is the one that is below the expected performance. Sometimes it can be related to teaching methods

COGNITIVE FATIGUE AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

There has been substantial research on the effects of cognitive fatigue on academic performance, in operational settings and at work. Similarly, it is well established that acute fatigue can be associated with a negative mood and that chronic fatigue can lead to mental and physical health problems. In contrast to this, there has been little research on fatigue and the academic performance and wellbeing of students. Mental fatigue was also associated with poorer academic performance. Again, this effect of mental fatigue was independent of established predictors such as stressors and conscientiousness. The effects of fatigue on academic attainment were not due to differences in workload, academic stress or perceived efficiency. This suggests that students are not aware of the potential impact of fatigue and that further education about this topic is required. Cognitive fatigue causes irritability and bad temper in students. Students who are Cognitive fatigueed easily get annoyed with the least thing that another person. Cognitive fatigue in its own way kills the tolerance of student making them vulnerable temper issues. Student tries to be calm but because they are worried and disturbed they lose that control easily. Cognitive fatigue can have a negative effect on the information processing system. People with anxiety have difficulty storing and retrieving information. Some students are very difficult to formally or informally assess because of anxiety. The adverse impacts of Cognitive fatigue on students ignoring the fact that lower level of Cognitive fatigue positively affects students as it gears sensitivity and consciousness of a student towards studies which attract attention to academic work thus enabling improved academic performance, In addition, it is a fact that many students are bound to serious reading and concentration on other academic activities because of the Cognitive fatigue derived from the fear of failure which the researchers never considered.

Instructional materials have been observed as a powerful strategy to bring about effective teaching and learning. The importance of quality and adequate instructional materials in teaching and learning can occur through their effective utilization during classroom teaching. Instructional materials here include all the tools that the teachers can use to make the learning more interesting and memorable.
Effective teaching of any subject will not only stimulates student’s interest in the subject but also enhance their achievement in the examination. To achieve effective teaching and learning process, there is the need for use of instructional materials. Instructional materials are the different teaching aids or apparatus which a classroom teacher employs to facilitate his or her teaching for the achievement of the stated objective. Instructional materials as those materials which are helpful to the teachers and students and which maximize learning in various areas. The use of instructional materials in teaching of is very important because it provides a concrete basis for conceptual thinking motivates people to learn and captures pupils’ imagination if used correctly.

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The cognitive domain of learning involves knowledge and the development of intellectual skills. It includes the recognition of specific facts, procedural patterns and concepts that serve in the development of abilities and skills Achievement test is a test given at the end to find out the extent to which a student has achieved something, acquired certain information or mastered certain skill as a result of planned instruction or training.
Therefore, teaching as a concept requires that teachers should not only have knowledge and skills in a subject but also the professional competence in the use of methods and materials to be able to influence the behavior of learners by using instructional materials.

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

Instructional materials refer to those alternative channels of communication, which a classroom teacher can use to concretize a concept during teaching and learning process. Traditionally, classroom teachers have relied heavily on the 'talk-chalk' method during their teaching. But recently, instructional materials help to provide variations in the ways in which messages are sent across. In using instructional materials teachers and students do not only extend the range of sense organs we use but also extend the range of materials used for convening the same message through the same organ. For instance, in teaching a topic a teacher can manipulate real objects or use their stimulators. Instructional materials therefore constitute the media of exchange through which a message transaction is facilitated between a source and a receiver. In addition to extending the range of materials that can be used to convey the same instructional message to learners instructional materials also facilitate the 'process' nature of communication. Infact, it means that both the receiver and the source share and exchange ideas, feelings in any communication.
Instructional materials are essential and significant tools needed for teaching and learning of school subjects to promote teachers ‘efficiency and improve students’ performance. They make learning more interesting, practical, realistic and appealing. They also enable both the teachers and students to participate actively and effectively in lesson sessions. They give room for acquisition of skills and knowledge and development of self- confidence and self- actualization. Teaching aids are those materials used for practical and demonstration in the class situation by students and teachers. Instructional materials are objects or devices that assist the teacher to present a lesson to the learners in a logical and manner.
More so, instructional materials are visual and audio-visual aids, concrete or non-concrete, used by teachers to improve the quality of teaching and learning activities. Therefore, effective teaching and learning requires a teacher to teach the students with instructional materials and use practical activities to make learning more vivid, logical, realistic and pragmatic. Instructional materials are however, indispensable to the effective teaching and learning activities. Teaching aids are always useful in supporting the sense organs. Despite the fact that instructional materials are essential tools that can make learning practical and knowledge acquisition easier.

TYPES OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

Before a teacher can design or produce an instructional material, he/she has to know what these instructional materials are, their advantage and disadvantage, characteristics and limitations etc. Therefore, some types of instructional materials could be outlined as thus- Graphic materials, Three- dimensional materials, still pictures, still projected pictures, motion pictures and Audio materials.
(1) Graphic materials: - This represent these charts, graphic, posters and diagrams, cartoons, comics, maps and globes which we draw on a cardboard paper or on a piece of cloth and present to our learners to help them visualize what we have been laboring so hard o explain verbally. Graphic materials belong to the finally of two- dimensional material and proportional relationships that may exist among variables in a phenomenon. Graphic materials are used to compress information, to focus and captivate attention, to vary stimuli presented and as an aid to recall. Graphic materials when properly produced can help in attaining all processes in the information processing model of learning as well as serve as avenue for applying principles from other learning theories.
(2) Three - Dimensional Materials: - They are different from charts and graphs which are illustration of two- dimensional materials because of the incorporation of a third element- department. Thus, whereas graphs and charts embrace the width and height of a visualized object, a three-dimensional embraces this third element department, a feature that makes the three- dimensional material a replica of the real thing. Different types of three-dimensional materials exist, namely: Models and mock-ups, specimen, kits and dioramas-which is the creation of a scene in an event.
(3) Still pictures: - This refers to flat opaque pictures which we take during festivals or when we are commemorating an event. They also refer to pictures we find in journals and magazines. They are called still pictures because in admiring them, we hold them in our hands or place them on a surface, which is we do not view them with the aid of projector, as is the case with motion pictures or still projected pictures. Like graphic materials, still pictures belong to the group of two -dimensional materials.
(4) Still projected pictures: - Still projected pictures are a class of instructional materials which our learners may not be familiar with. Therefore in order to assist them to better understand what is meant by still projected pictures is the negative format. Still projected pictures can be projected with a projector. The projector has powerful electronic bulbs, which throw light on to the image on the negative, and image is finally projected on to a screen or wall. Therefore, when dealing with still projected pictures, one is automatically dealing with a whole range of materials (such as slides, overhead transparency, filmstrip etc) whose image are imprinted in a negative/film and which has to be projected using different types of projector. A major characteristics is still projected pictures is that the images are projected one frame at a time. This is a major difference between still projected pictures and motion pictures. This characteristic enables a still projected picture to stay for as long as a learner wants it on a screen.
(5) Motion pictures: - Motion pictures are distinct from the other types of pictures because of the speed at which they are projected. It is this speed of projection that intact gives the impression of motion. Motion pictures range from the 8 mm standard format to 8 mm supper and finally to the 16 mm format. The width of the film thus constitutes a basic for classifying them. Motion pictures films have sprocket holes along both edges or along only one edge. The presence of sprocket holes facilitates projection. Motion pictures can be projected at 16 or 24fps (frame per second.) They can be silent or accompanied with sound. Sound films use either a magnetic tape or optical sound track for sound recording. If a film is sound, only one edge bears the sprocket holes while the other edge bears the sound components.
(6) Audio Materials: - This is a class name for tape recordings and discs. A disc or record as it is popularly called here is a round and flat acetate containing grooves, which produces sound vibrations through the action of a needled. Discs usually come in different sizes and play at different speeds. The clarity of sound production from a disc rests on the quality of needle, the speed and state of the grooves. Obviously, in oversea countries records exist for almost all subjects. People in music department appreciate the importance of records in their studies. Special effects such as the sound of thunder the cry of owl at night, the noise produced in a factory during work can all be recorded in disc and synchronized with other events to create special effects during production. To use a record, a teacher has to specify his objectives thoroughly. Hence, students can listen to a record as a group or individually.

COGNITIVE SKILLS

Cognitive skills, also called cognitive functions, cognitive abilities or cognitive capacities, are brain-based skills which are needed in acquisition of knowledge, manipulation of information, and reasoning.
Cognitive skills are the core skills your brain uses to think, read, learn, remember, reason, and pay attention. Working together, they take incoming information and move it into the bank of knowledge you use every day at school, at work, and in life. Cognitive ability is closely associated with educational attainment, occupation, and health outcomes.

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS AND COGNITIVE SKILLS

One important dimension in teacher education that is getting a lot of attention is related to the use of instructional materials in enhancing cognitive skills. Instructional materials are those materials used by a teacher to simplify their teaching. They include both visual and audio-visual aids and could either be concrete or non-concrete. These instructional materials bring life to learning by stimulating students to learn. The use of instructional materials in the classroom has the potential to help the teacher explain new concepts clearly, resulting in better student understanding of the concepts being taught as well as enhance cognitive skills. However, they are not ends in themselves but they are means to an end.
It is held that good teaching resources can never replace the teacher but the teacher uses them to achieve their teaching and learning objectives. Some of the instructional materials necessary for effective teaching and learning include the chalkboard, models, graphs, charts, maps, pictures, diagrams, cartoons, slides, filmstrips, radio, and television. The importance of the use of these materials cannot be underscored.
Instructional materials are essential since they help the teacher and learners avoid overemphasis on recitation and rote learning that can easily dominate a lesson. Resource materials allow learners to have practical experiences which help them to develop cognitive skills and concepts and to work in a variety of ways.
The use of instructional materials is for more knowledge to be internalized, more of the learner’s senses have to be stimulated other than hearing alone. In learning and teaching, the various senses can be stimulated through the use of audiovisual materials.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, students taught with instructional materials perform better than those taught without instructional materials. Students learn and perform better when they are taught with instructional materials because the use of instructional materials gives the students the opportunity to see, feel and touch the materials during teaching.
Finally, hands-on instructional materials show, rather than tell, which increase information retention. A truism often heard in teaching is that if you have not learnt, I have not taught. A reasonable conclusion then is that the importance of instructional materials in teaching and learning is most efficient illustrated through student achievement result.

The school is a social and learning agent that provides the environment upon which a child may be formally educated in order to attain educational goals. School is one of the institutions that is responsible for the development and training of the mind and skill of man. School is also for the preparation of man for the challenges and responsibilities in the society at large. However, Schools are located variously, some in the urban while others are in the rural areas. It is observed that schools located in the urban areas tend to have more facilities, manpower, government attention, etc. as against those located in the rural areas.

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School location refers to the particular place, in relation to other areas in the physical environment (rural or urban), where the school is sited. In Nigeria, rural life is uniform, homogenous and less complex than that of urban centers, with cultural diversity, which often is suspected to affect students’ academic achievement.
SCHOOL LOCATION
School location refers to where a given school is situated. It could be in an urban or rural area. School location is a particular place in relation to other areas in the physical environment (rural or urban), where the school is sited. Human beings, have unlimited capacity to learn, but many however be limited by the behavior patterns and facilities that the immediate environment offers.
In Nigeria for instance, rural life is uniform, homogenous and less complex than that of urban centers, with cultural diversity, which often is suspected to affect students’ academic achievement. This is because urban centers are better favored with respect to distribution of social amenities such as pipe borne water, electricity, healthcare facilities while the rural areas are less favored. This is also true in the distribution of educational facilities and teachers. These prevailing conditions imply that learning opportunities in Nigerian schools differ from school to school. It would appear therefore that students in Nigerian urban schools have more educational opportunities than their counterparts in rural schools have.
TRUANCY
Truancy is defined as an action by a student being absent from school for no legitimate reason. Also, truancy is when a child missed school or class without an excuse from his/her parents or guardians. It also means a child leaving school or class without the permission from the teacher or principal. When a child is consistently late for school, he or she is considered to be a truant.
A truant therefore is a student who stays away from school without proper leave permission from school authority or the parents. Also, the students who always tend to keep themselves from studies and avoid attending classes are called truants. In short, truancy is a child who is absent from school on his own initiative without his or her parents‟ permission.
Truancy has caused a lot of harm to the educational system and has an ill-attitude on students academic performance, and moral lives which has caused most youths to exhibit negative attitude such as armed robber, prostitution, substance abuse, substance trafficking, and other social crime ranging from pick-pocketing to secret cult.
TYPES OF TRUANCY
There are three types of truancy which include: Habitual truancy, occasional truancy and casual truancy.
1. Habitual Truancy: This is type of truancy that occurs when a student (truant) constantly absent from school without the due knowledge or consent of his/her parents or the school authorities. Habitual truants are mainly those students who miss numerous full days of school academic activities. Their frequencies of absenteeism have become regular behavior or habit. It is important to note that students who are habitual truants have high chances of falling behind in school work, decline in their academic performance and even lose their attachment or positive attitudes towards school.
2. Occasional Truancy: This type of truancy occurs when a student does not constantly and continually absent himself from school. In this type of truancy, the student levels of absenteeism from school without the permission of parents or school authority is irregular. For example, a child whom the mother refuse going to school and was kept at home to help care for sibling and the child taken out of school for an out-of-season family holiday and so on are all instance of occasional truant.
3. Casual Truancy: This is the type of truancy which occurs when the students absence from school by chance. This type of truancy is not regular and constant but happens by chance. For example, students who remained lurking within sound of the school bell so that they could attend those lessons which interested them. A casual truant is student who keeps away from school and cuts up to 10 percent of the total number of working days during one academic session. A casual truant is an escapist to avoid unpleasant situation in the school, during school hours. He is amenable to suggestion and persuasion and hence most responsive. He is the marginal person to lapse into truancy if left alone and amenable to correction if properly handle.
4. Peer Group and Truancy: peer group means a small group of friends which have close relations with each other and they have regular interactions. They share views and exchange ideas with each other and do activities in groups. When children take steps into the stage of adolescence, they spend a large amount of time with their friends as compared to their parents. Those in a peer group have the same status and are about the same age, background, social and political affiliation.
Peer pressure is used to describe the demands for compliance to customs of the group and exhibiting dedication and loyalty to the members of the group. As members of a peer group, the group has more influence on the adolescents than they would have as on their own and they begin to recognize the value of united enterprise. Peer group is another factor that influences truancy. Peer groups are persons of the same age group, equals or friends with whom the child shares certain social characteristics. This social world to which they share same language, values, norms and mode of interaction may not be understood by the adults. However, it is through peer pressure that students are most likely to be introduced and involved in truant behaviors such as drinking, smoking, indecent act and drop out of school.
The peer group has effects on the student truant behaviors. As the child frees himself from dependency and control of the parents and other adults, he falls back on peer group for direction and control.
OTHER CAUSES OF TRUANCY
Several possible causes of truancy among students include student factors, family factors, school factors, and community factors. Also different teaching and learning styles, teachers‟ absenteeism, low teacher expectations, poor discipline and poor communication between teachers and students have an important relationship with truancy.
Furthermore, lack of parental supervision, poverty, misuse of substance and alcohol, lack of family support, household problems, broken homes, and households care duties are the contributory factors of truancy. Also, students‟ homework or assessment tasks, ailments, social incompetence, abnormal physical and mental health, lack of self-esteem, poor peer relationships, poor academic performance are some of the factors that contribute to truancy. However, school and family environment are the most influential factors in generating truancy among students. Truancy obstructs effective learning and causes poor academic performance of truant students‟ continuous keeping away from school lead to serious unwanted consequences for both the truant and the communities which caused deformation in the society.
SCHOOL LOCATION AND TRUANCY AMONG STUDENTS
school location means the extent to which school settings promote student safety and student health, which may include topics such as the physical plant, the academic environment available, physical and mental health supports and services, and the fairness and adequacy of disciplinary procedures, as supported by relevant research and an assessment of validity. The school is expected to provide an atmosphere that is conducive for proper learning and teaching as well as serving as a place to be loved by the students. However, in some situations school assists in making students to engage in truancy. For example, in a situation where a school is having teachers who are harsh to students, where there is high level of bullying, inappropriate school environment, boredom, poor management, poor relations with teachers and in some cases irrelevance of the curriculum, then there must be high tendency of truancy among the students. Harsh teachers, negatively school experience such as bullying, boring and boredom classes, inappropriate school environment, indiscipline prevalent in the school, lack of interest and curricular activities are some of the factors influencing truancy among students that come from the school itself. Therefore, it is crystal clear that the causes of truancy among students are many and varied. So attributing it to single cause is not possible. The factors influencing truancy are many and varied, and can come from the students, family, school, teacher, peer group, society and government at large. The school location has to be appealing to the students when, it is not attractive to them the students will resist and resent. To make the school attractive, the very location of the school, its surroundings and classrooms where study takes place have to be good. The environment is expected to have quality and qualified teachers that are committed. In an environment where teachers are not serious about their job can encourage students to become truants. Students can become truants when teachers teach only to earn a livelihood and not taking their profession as a sacred duty with commitment and dedication in building, moulding, and shaping the future of the children. When this situation prevails in the school, students can get an aversion to the school, its staff and environment and they can become truants.

Education helps in the development of individual’s intellectual ability and functionally in the society. Education prepares individuals to face problem situations and proffer meaningful solutions to them. Education is the process of equipping the individuals with appropriate knowledge, skills and competences for effective functioning in the society. This indicates that there is a total need to improve the quality of education of any nation as to produce quality individuals who will contribute positively towards the development of the nation.
Improvisation is the act of producing and using local resources in the absence of real ones in teaching and learning situations. Improvisation is also the act of using alternative materials and resources to facilitate instructions whenever there is lack on shortage of specific first hand teaching aids. It is a means of making local provision of teaching aids/instructional materials to impact adequate and relevant knowledge, skills, facts and values to the learner for the achievement of better understanding and retention during teaching/learning instruction.
The use of improvised instructional materials grants the learners a first-hand experience during teaching and learning process and reduces the burden of talking too much on the part of the teachers. It creates a clearer picture of the concept taught, makes the lesson interesting and less difficult for the learner to understand. Using improvised instructional materials, assists the teacher economically and also allows students interaction. It makes students use their intellectual ability during learning and teaching process.

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Instructional materials have been observed as a powerful strategy to bring about effective teaching and learning. The importance of quality and adequate instructional materials in teaching and learning can occur through their effective utilization during classroom teaching. Instructional materials here include all the tools that the teachers can use to make the learning more interesting and memorable. Instructional materials include books, audio-visual, software and hardware of educational technology. He further opines that the availability, adequacy and relevance of instructional materials in classrooms can influence quality teaching, which can have positive effect on students’ learning and academic performance.

[b]INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

Instructional materials are essential and significant tools needed for teaching and learning of school subjects to promote teachers ‘efficiency and improve students’ performance. They make learning more interesting, practical, realistic and appealing. They also enable both the teachers and students to participate actively and effectively in lesson sessions. They give room for acquisition of skills and knowledge and development of self- confidence and self- actualization. Teaching aids are those materials used for practical and demonstration in the class situation by students and teachers. Instructional materials are objects or devices that assist the teacher to present a lesson to the learners in a logical and manner.
Instructional materials therefore, refer to those alternative channels of communication, which a classroom teacher can use to concretize a concept during teaching and learning process. Traditionally, classroom teachers have relied heavily on the 'talk-chalk' method during their teaching. But recently, instructional materials help to provide variations in the ways in which messages are sent across. The process nature of communication implies that both the source and the receiver of a message are actively involved in a communication encounter. Infarct, it means that both the receiver and the source share and exchange ideas, feelings in any communication.
More so, instructional materials are visual and audio-visual aids, concrete or non-concrete, used by teachers to improve the quality of teaching and learning activities. Therefore, effective teaching and learning requires a teacher to teach the students with instructional materials and use practical activities to make learning more vivid, logical, realistic and pragmatic. Instructional materials are however, indispensable to the effective teaching and learning activities. Teaching aids are always useful in supporting the sense organs. Despite the fact that instructional materials are essential tools that can make learning practical and knowledge acquisition easier.

BENEFITS OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

The benefits and usefulness of instructional materials in teaching and particularly the teaching of these special needs learners cannot be over-emphasized. Specifically, the main purpose of using instructional materials in teaching and learning is to concretize students’ learning and achieve set goals of education. Classroom experiences reveal better students concentration and achievements when they are taught with instructional materials. Therefore, effective teachers are masters in the effective use of instructional materials to bring about desired behavioral changes of the learners.
Generally, students understand what is taught with different aids than when taught in abstract form. It has been found that what students see make greater impact than what they hear. So teachers must avoid telling the students but rather show them and help them to explore their world and as a result find out important facts. Students tend to understand facts when the teacher’s presentations enable them see and hear what is taught.
1. The essence of producing instructional materials is to facilitate the teaching learning process. The essence is not to use such instructional materials as objects of decoration in our classroom or as objects to be presented during award winning national exhibitions on improved instructional materials. If the essence of producing instructional materials is to use such materials to facilitate teaching learning, it therefore seems logical that the best approach to adopt in any production exercise is to predict out production on research findings on how individuals learn. Besides, there are for instance, many factors that affect attention of human beings. There are also ideas about how we perceive objects. Hence, for a classroom teacher, who wants .to produce instructional materials, his production has to be on sound principles.
2. While presenting various learning theories, one has to be sure that a classroom teacher is guided by expert ideas during his production and utilization of instructional materials.
3. They supply a concrete basis for conventional thinking and reduce meaningless work responses for pupils as it makes learning more permanent.
4. Instructional materials have a high degree of interest for the learner; for they offer a reality of experience, which stimulates self-activity on the part of pupils.
5. Instructional materials develop a continuity of thought, this is especially true of motion pictures, as they provide experiences not, easily obtained through other materials and contribute to the efficiency, department and variety of learning. Therefore, the use of instructional materials in teaching/learning process exposes the learner to primary experiences and this enriches learning.
TYPES OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
Before a teacher can design or produce an instructional material, he/she has to know what these instructional materials are, their advantage and disadvantage, characteristics and limitations etc. Therefore, some types of instructional materials could be outlined as thus- Graphic materials, Three- dimensional materials, still pictures, still projected pictures, motion pictures and Audio materials.
(1) Graphic materials: - This represent these charts, graphic, posters and diagrams, cartoons, comics, maps and globes which we draw on a cardboard paper or on a piece of cloth and present to our learners to help them visualize what we have been laboring so hard o explain verbally. Graphic materials belong to the finally of two- dimensional material and proportional relationships that may exist among variables in a phenomenon. Graphic materials are used to compress information, to focus and captivate attention, to vary stimuli presented and as an aid to recall. Graphic materials when properly produced can help in attaining all processes in the information processing model of learning as well as serve as avenue for applying principles from other learning theories.
(2) Three - Dimensional Materials: - They are different from charts and graphs which are illustration of two- dimensional materials because of the incorporation of a third element- department. Thus, whereas graphs and charts embrace the width and height of a visualized object, a three-dimensional embraces this third element department, a feature that makes the three- dimensional material a replica of the real thing. Different types of three-dimensional materials exist, namely: Models and mock-ups, specimen, kits and dioramas-which is the creation of a scene in an event.
(3) Still pictures: - This refers to flat opaque pictures which we take during festivals or when we are commemorating an event. They also refer to pictures we find in journals and magazines. They are called still pictures because in admiring them, we hold them in our hands or place them on a surface, which is we do not view them with the aid of projector, as is the case with motion pictures or still projected pictures. Like graphic materials, still pictures belong to the group of two -dimensional materials.
(4) Still projected pictures: - Still projected pictures are a class of instructional materials which our learners may not be familiar with. Therefore in order to assist them to better understand what is meant by still projected pictures is the negative format. Still projected pictures can be projected with a projector. The projector has powerful electronic bulbs, which throw light on to the image on the negative, and image is finally projected on to a screen or wall. Therefore, when dealing with still projected pictures, one is automatically dealing with a whole range of materials (such as slides, overhead transparency, filmstrip etc) whose image are imprinted in a negative/film and which has to be projected using different types of projector. A major characteristics is still projected pictures is that the images are projected one frame at a time. This is a major difference between still projected pictures and motion pictures. This characteristic enables a still projected picture to stay for as long as a learner wants it on a screen.
(5) Motion pictures: - Motion pictures are distinct from the other types of pictures because of the speed at which they are projected. It is this speed of projection that intact gives the impression of motion. Motion pictures range from the 8 mm standard format to 8 mm supper and finally to the 16 mm format. The width of the film thus constitutes a basic for classifying them. Motion pictures films have sprocket holes along both edges or along only one edge. The presence of sprocket holes facilitates projection. Motion pictures can be projected at 16 or 24fps (frame per second.) They can be silent or accompanied with sound. Sound films use either a magnetic tape or optical sound track for sound recording. If a film is sound, only one edge bears the sprocket holes while the other edge bears the sound components.
(6) Audio Materials: - This is a class name for tape recordings and discs. A disc or record as it is popularly called here is a round and flat acetate containing grooves, which produces sound vibrations through the action of a needled. Discs usually come in different sizes and play at different speeds. The clarity of sound production from a disc rests on the quality of needle, the speed and state of the grooves. Obviously, in oversea countries records exist for almost all subjects. People in music department appreciate the importance of records in their studies. Special effects such as the sound of thunder the cry of owl at night, the noise produced in a factory during work can all be recorded in disc and synchronized with other events to create special effects during production. To use a record, a teacher has to specify his objectives thoroughly. Hence, students can listen to a record as a group or individually.
STRATEGIES OF IMPROVISATION
There are seven strategies of improvisation
1. Trust: For a group of teachers to be successful and productive, the members of the group, referred to as “Players”, must trust one another.
2. Acceptance: This is the “Golden Rule” of improvisation. Teachers must be willing to accept a new idea to explore its possibilities. Teachers must offer to improvise using ideas, words or movement and must build on it. In other words, teachers must say yes, accept the offer, build on it, contribute and discover new ideas. It is this process that harnesses the power of collaboration. The brainstorming that occurs can lead to innovative solutions.
3. Attentive listening: Teachers must be aware of the partners with whom they are co-creating to increase their understanding of each other and to be able to communicate effectively.
4. Spontaneity: This allows teachers to initiate words and actions, building trust with the other teachers. This enhances co-creation in the moment, without the opportunity to revise.
5. Storytelling: This strategy often results in memorable content, when teachers develop the ability to create a story on their dialogue.
6. Nonverbal communication: This involves the use of facial expressions and body language to help communicate attitude, character, and trustworthiness.
7. Warm-ups: They are strategies that provide opportunities to develop trust and safe environments, where the teachers can feel free to explore the world of improvisation. These activities focus on changing teachers into an improvisational mode to allow them to improvise verbally and physically.
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement. It refers to the level at which a student, teacher or institution has managed to reach their educational goals. Achievement may be measured through students' grade point average, whereas for institutions, achievement may be measured through graduation rates.
Academic achievement is important for the successful development of young people in society. Students who do well in school are better able to make the transition into adulthood and to achieve occupational and economic success.
THE INFLUENCE OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVMENT
Instructional materials give room for acquisition of skills and knowledge and development of self- confidence and self- actualization. They are those teaching aids used for practical and demonstration in the class situation by students and teachers. Instructional materials are objects or devices that assist the teacher to present a lesson to the learners in a logical and manner.
In using instructional materials teachers and students do not only extend the range of sense organs we use but also extend the range of materials used for convening the same message through the same organ. For instance, in teaching a topic a teacher can manipulate real objects or use their stimulators. Instructional materials therefore constitute the media of exchange through which a message transaction is facilitated between a source and a receiver. In addition to extending the range of materials that can be used to convey the same instructional message to learners’ instructional materials also facilitate the 'process' nature of communication.
Therefore, effective teaching and learning requires a teacher to teach the students with instructional materials and use practical activities to make learning more vivid, logical, realistic and pragmatic. Instructional materials are however, indispensable to the effective teaching and learning activities. Teaching aids are always useful in supporting the sense organs. Despite the fact that instructional materials are essential tools that can make learning practical and knowledge acquisition easier and also improve overall academic achievement.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, improvised materials should not only be used or encouraged as useful models where application depends on change and circumstances but should be justified as strategy in such difficult times. But it should be available integral part of teaching even when the school budget is sufficient to cater for standardized materials. It allowed students to interact better in their lesson. It made learning exciting and fun. It encouraged active participation, bringing learning homewards and often improved and enhanced students’ performance.
Finally, hands-on instructional materials show, rather than tell, which increase information retention. A truism often heard in teaching is that if you have not learnt, I have not taught. A reasonable conclusion then is that the importance of instructional materials in teaching and learning science is most efficient illustrated through student achievement result.

Parenting education may be defined as any deliberate effort to help parents be more effective in caring for children. There are many different processes for educating parents, including group meetings, resource centers, newsletters, radio programs, home visits, mentoring, Internet resources, support groups, and books. The content of these different efforts varies substantially, ranging from behavior-management approaches to relationship enhancement approaches. What the programs have in common is the conviction that parents play a vital role in the development of children and that it is possible to help parents be more effective through training and education.

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Parenting education is conducted in many settings: school, health and religious organizations, and the community. It is conducted by people with different backgrounds including human development, nursing, psychology, social work, and education. There is a growing awareness in society that many social problems are the result of inadequate parenting education; parents are not automatically equipped to deal with the challenges of childrearing. Moreover, many social changes put additional pressures on families and limit their connections with family members and others. For example, since World War II there have been increased numbers of mothers working outside the home, increased rates of divorce, greater distances from extended family, and increased involvement with negative electronic media, and more overloaded family schedules. All of these changes can make the job of parenting more challenging.

CONTENT OF PARENTING EDUCATION

There are many different approaches to parenting education, each with different assumptions about the nature of humans (Are people basically good or bad?), the optimal outcome (Do we want an obedient child or an independent thinker?), and the process of change (Are people motivated by command or by invitation?). Advice given to parents centuries ago emphasized that children should submit to parents. With the growth of serious research on child development in the twentieth century, the definition of effective parenting has changed dramatically. Since the 1930s, there has been a clear recommendation that parents provide loving, supportive, involved care.

PROCESSES OF PARENTING EDUCATION

There are many ways to reach parents with messages for more effective parenting. Group meetings are the traditional way of teaching parents new skills. Meetings may include lectures, discussions, videos, role-playing, and opportunities for practicing skills. It seems likely that, if group meetings are to help parents be more caring and understanding, they must be conducted by leaders who are caring and understanding. Although group meetings may be difficult for parents to attend regularly, the group can offer much-needed social support. Many parents turn to books to inform their child-rearing efforts. Parents can find help in identifying good books and web sites through use of books such as Authoritative Guide to Self-Help Resources in Mental Health. The Internet is becoming an increasingly important avenue for delivering parenting education. Courses, articles, and parenting tips are available at many sites. As the versatility and sophistication of web-based technologies increase, parenting education resources on the Internet will likely incorporate more sound and video components. The Internet has not only become a significant source for parenting resources, it has also created opportunities for virtual conferencing and training. Webcasting will allow parent educators to provide or participate in conferences or training over the Internet. Web-based tracking and diagnostic tools are increasingly being used to customize information. As this evolving technology is incorporated into parenting information databases, users will have easy access to information that is relevant to their own needs and preferences. One challenge will be to clearly distinguish between parenting education and virtual counseling or therapy.

PARENTING EDUCATION

It has been widely accepted that the family milieu plays a significant role in children’s development. In psychology, the ecological theories of development have placed emphasis on the role played by the microsystem which is composed of persons who take care of the child, as well as the interaction of this microsystem with other systems in which it is situated. It has been demonstrated that the way in which parents exercise their roles has an impact on the child’s development and his/her school success. A great deal of research has attempted to identify characteristics of different intervention methods and approaches used by parents that induce favorable child development not only at physical, but also at cognitive.
The idea of training parents explicitly by using 'best practices' emerged in the United States in the 1970s. These parenting practices were based on scientific observation and stressed that certain types of parenting practices were more favorable for child development. The concepts of parenting and parenting education took shape in this particular context during a period when behaviorism reigned supreme. This theoretical framework, which employed stimulation and reinforcement methods through which children were used as subjects, was severely criticized and called into question. It was during this period that the term “program” referring to parenting education practices came into use. Although initially parenting education programs concerned mainly ‘at risk’ families, today the interest in parenting education programs is widespread on a global scale. This growing interest is related to the bewilderment that today’s human societies are experiencing, and it is the consequence of the internationalization of communication and technological developments. In the face of emerging and evolving situations, families often feel helpless and their immediate environments do not always offer models to provide them with satisfactory answers. Moreover, internationalization asserts some values that are perceived as righteous (e.g. gender equality, respect for the child etc.) and societies adapt to reconcile new ways of thinking. At present, parenting education programs seem to be the remedy to these individual or societal changes and demands. Today, as well as answering some common needs concerning all families, parenting education programs aim to respond to the specific needs of disabled children, intellectually-gifted children, children with behavioral disorders, and children with specific diseases, without excluding the needs of families with abusive, deficient or pathogenic parents

QUALITIES OF EFFECTIVE PARENT EDUCATORS

Having a solid understanding of the theoretical foundations of parenting programs helps us to sort programs based on philosophies, assumptions, and goals, thus enabling us to select a program that is theoretically sound and an appropriate match for our audience and outcomes of interest. However, regardless of the theoretical basis of a program, it is unlikely to be optimally effective unless it is delivered by a competent parent educator. It has been difficult to develop a set of agreed-upon standards or competencies of parenting educators because people working in this capacity have varied educational backgrounds (both in terms of academic discipline as well as level of education) and work in a wide range of settings (e.g., for profit, nonprofit, schools, hospitals, community service organizations). Despite these challenges, several individuals and entities have nonetheless attempted to identify the core competencies of parenting educators (i.e., the agreed-upon set of required attitudes, skills, and knowledge) as a first step toward creating professional development opportunities leading to standardized credentials. If you have a passion for helping others improve their parenting, these are the skills and attributes you might want to consider developing through your coursework, practicum placements, or paid or volunteer work.

ATTITUDE OF PARENT TOWARDS EDUCATION

Positive attitude towards education is very important to get success. And it is the parents who inspire the children to be educated and make all the arrangements to make them educated. Therefore, the parental attitude towards education is the utmost influential factor of the students‟ academic achievement. In, India the attitude towards education is also full of discrepancy due to the gender discrimination and locality of the residence. Till now, there is a lack of awareness of women education among the parents till now. Therefore, the investigator feels an urgent need to conduct a study on the relationship between parental attitude towards education and academic achievement of undergraduate students.

THE IMPORTANCE OF PARENTING EDUCATION TO UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

Parenting education improves parents’ sense of self- efficacy and competency, as well as parental satisfaction. It can also result in positive changes in parents’ attitudes about parenting as well as their self-esteem and feelings of self-mastery.
Parenting education promotes the use of positive parenting practices, such as using positive language, planned discipline, and family routines. It also encourages nurturing behavior and increases parents’ knowledge of child development and Parenting education often results in more social connections among parents. Parents use these connections to exchange parenting advice, provide emotional support, and share resources. This can lead to more positive feelings about parenting overall.
Undergraduate students of parents who participate in parenting education programs often demonstrate increases in their prosocial behaviors (e.g., empathy, sharing, helping others) and decreases in negative externalizing behaviors (e.g., aggression)
Parenting education programs can help improve communication skills between parents and children, and result in an overall better understanding between family members.
Parents may also experience short-term improvements in mental health, including a decrease in depression, anxiety, anger, guilt, and stress.
Parent education programs help parents learn alternatives to physical punishment and change the family mindset regarding appropriate expectations of children, appropriate family roles, and other values that discourage the use of corporal

Lateness to school remains a major that the school is facing. Lateness have devastating effect on teaching and learning process in the school which has great negative impact on school standard, students’ academic performance, absenteeism, distractions for other students, inhibition of goal achievement, irresponsibility and failure in life among other aftermaths.

LATENESS TO SCHOOL

Lateness to school is like a cancer that impedes the development and hinders the achievement of academic goals. It has been observed that students’ lateness is on the increase of indiscipline and this has eaten deep into the Nigerian society. Students no longer take punctuality in school as they should. The official arrival time for students at school in Nigeria is 7.30 a.m. unfortunately, many students can still be sighted walking around the streets by 9- 9.30; they walk around communities unconcerned.

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The school are doing all they could to curb this act but it seems the effort has no noticeable effect, thus, making lateness to school on the increase. This in turn culminates to increase in the turning out of half-baked graduates’ at all educational institutions in the society. The causes of lateness among students seem to be unclear with many submissions being made by stakeholders.

REASONS FOR PUPILS’ LATENESS TO SCHOOL

There are many factors that could make a student get late or develop the habit of getting late to school. This could range from sleeping late, poor preparation for school, school factor, illness, economic influence and family background among others, films at night; watching films at night, engagement in too many house chores, lack of motivation for school, lack of stringent rules in school against lateness etc. Social status of parents could influence students’ lateness to school. Similarly, school location, students’ attitude towards, poor parent-teacher supervision and poor teaching methods culminate into students arriving school late.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Academic performance is an issue that deeply concerns students, parents, teachers and authorities not only in our country, but also in many other Latin American countries and continents. The complexity of the academic performance starts from its conceptualization. Sometimes it is known as school readiness, academic achievement and school performance, but generally the difference in concepts is only explained by semantics as they are used as synonyms. Conventionally, it has been agreed that academic performance should be used in university populations and school performance in regular and alternative basic education populations. We will point out just a few because there is a diversity of definitions. Several authors agree that academic performance is the result of learning, prompted by the teaching activity by the teacher and produced by the student. Academic performance is “the product given by the students and it is usually expressed through school grades”. Academic performance as a measure of the indicative and responsive abilities that express, in an estimated way, what a person has learned as a result of a process of education or training. Academic performance involves meeting goals, achievements and objectives set in the program or course that a student attends. These are expressed through grades which are the result of an assessment that involves passing or not certain tests, subjects or courses. Academic performance also can be seen as the level of knowledge shown in an area or subject compared to the norm, and it is generally measured using the grade point average.

LATENESS TO SCHOOL AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Lateness to school has a positive relationship with students’ low academic performance. This means that the more students get late to school, the more to measuring they low academic performance. This could be due to the fact that (1) students’ inability to attend classes because they could not get to school as at when due, hence, they could not partake in all the school tasks and activities for instance, partaking in the assembly activities; (2) many late students serve punishments like washing toilets, corporal punishment, cutting grasses which make them miss school activities the more. Lateness is linked to time which is its measuring yardstick. It is pertinent to research into the factors responsible for students’ lateness to school as this study of this nature will be of immense significance to the Nigerian Government, school administrators, teachers, school counsellors, students, parents and the entire populace. For instance, through the findings of this study, school counsellors will be able to guide students against arriving late to school. Similarly, the findings of this study will be of immense benefit to parents as they will be able to monitor their wards and ensure they do not go late to school. The entire populace will also benefit from the findings of this study as students who do not arrive late to school are likely to be good instrument for national development in the nearest future. In addition, several studies have been conducted on students’ lateness, however, this study is different from the earlier ones.

CONCLUSION

Conclusively, lateness among students is a major and continuous administrative problem, and there is need for students and parents to help identify and proffer solutions to this quality and disturbing problem that could lead to students’ drop-out from school, and also inefficiency and ineffectiveness on the part of the school administrators, by way of school administration and management; knowing full well that lateness could be reduced by providing free education counseling and discipline among students, in addition to the use of electronic systems, truancy sweep by school heads. It should also be noted that lateness is common among female students, and as such they should be of more concern to the school administrator. Finally, the remedy to any situation is in the situation, thus, the school administrator, should study the peculiar situation and respond as the situation suggests. The fact is no two situations are the same, no matter how similar.

All the time, there are hotly endless debates around the best instructional practices with adamant defense and justifications. Still, Constructivism is one of those important pedagogical philosophies that founded for many effective strategies and techniques in Education. Its fundamentals were derived from the main natural assumption of learning and knowledge acquisition; learners build their knowledge on their own when they are enabled to reformulate the knowledge they previously acquired while guided by the others. Instructional scaffolding is an important concept shaped by constructivism. It provides learners with the guidance they need to construct a clear understanding of their learning and enable them to regulate knowledge without that perpetual reliance on teachers or parents. At the same time, most education systems in the Middle East compete to use technology-supported learning approaches and sometimes the only scaffolding type that is offered to learners is a technical one.

SCAFFOLDING TEACHING METHOD

The term “scaffolding” can be defined as tutoring or other assistance provided in a learning setting to assist students with attaining levels of understanding impossible for them to achieve without assistance. They viewed scaffolds as personal in nature; that is, aid provided by a teacher or peer to help with the learning process. Scaffolding is extremely social form of instruction, with peers and teachers interacting closely with students as she or he attempts a task. To be successful, scaffolding requires convivial atmosphere in which students can let their defenses down and in which teachers make students feel at ease to take individual risks. When these conditions are met, scaffolding helps to create thoughtful environments where both teachers and students are thinking deeply about classroom tasks. It can be implied that scaffolding is derived from the idea of Zone Proximal Development (ZPD) which is the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers. The distance between the child's actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the higher level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance and in collaboration with more capable peers.

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Scaffolding as a teaching strategy depends heavily on the idea that children come to any educational setting with a great deal of preexisting knowledge, some of which may incorrect. It is the process of building on what a student already knows that makes scaffolding an effective instructional technique. “Scaffolding could be seen as the temporary but essential nature of the mentor’s assistance in helping students to do the tasks successfully”. From what experts’ state, scaffolding is teacher’s assistance or support to students in learning in the classroom and it is quite sure that many teachers and instructors have done it to their students. Scaffolding facilitates a learner ability to establish prior knowledge and internalize new information. The activities provided in scaffolding instruction are just beyond the level of what the learner can do alone. An important aspect of scaffolding is that the scaffolds are temporary. As the learners abilities increase the scaffolding provided by the more knowledgeable person is progressively withdrawn. Finally, the learner is able to complete the task or master the concepts independently.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Academic achievement is an issue that deeply concerns students, parents, teachers and authorities not only in our country, but also in many other Latin American countries and continents. The complexity of the Academic achievement starts from its conceptualization. Sometimes it is known as school readiness, academic achievement and school performance, but generally the difference in concepts is only explained by semantics as they are used as synonyms. Conventionally, it has been agreed that Academic achievement should be used in university populations and school performance in regular and alternative basic education populations. We will point out just a few because there is a diversity of definitions. Several authors agree that Academic achievement is the result of learning, prompted by the teaching activity by the teacher and produced by the student. Academic achievement is “the product given by the students and it is usually expressed through school grades”. Academic achievement as a measure of the indicative and responsive abilities that express, in an estimated way, what a person has learned as a result of a process of education or training. Academic achievement involves meeting goals, achievements and objectives set in the program or course that a student attends. These are expressed through grades which are the result of an assessment that involves passing or not certain tests, subjects or courses. Academic achievement also can be seen as the level of knowledge shown in an area or subject compared to the norm, and it is generally measured using the grade point average.

SCAFFOLDING TEACHING METHOD AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

One of the main benefits of scaffold instruction is that it provides for a supportive learning environment. In a scaffold learning environment, students are free to ask questions, provide feedback and support their peers in learning new material, it create room for more knowledgeable learners to assist their fellow students with low level of comprehension or slow learners, it helps in development of communication skills when learners discuss in groups. Instructional scaffolding as a teaching strategy depends heavily on the idea that children come to any educational setting with a great deal of pre-existing knowledge, some of which may be correct or incorrect. It is the process of building on what a student already knows that makes scaffolding an effective instructional technique. In instructional scaffolding, a more knowledgeable other provides scaffolds to facilitate the learner development. The scaffolds facilitate a student ability to build on prior knowledge and internalize new information. The activities provided in scaffolding instruction are just beyond the level of what the learner can do alone. An important aspect of scaffolding is that the scaffolds are temporary. As the learners abilities increase the scaffolding provided. One attraction of the idea of zone of proximal development (scaffold) in relation to educational practices is that it provides a distinctive perspective for conceptualizing the relation between human learning and development a perspective which also has some fundamental differences from many of the currently predominant views about this relation.

SCAFFOLDING STRATEGIES THAT TEACHERS CAN USE FOR THEIR STUDENTS

Some kinds of scaffolding can be taken from some experts as follows; stated that “kinds of scaffolding cover Explanation, inviting students’ participation, clarifying and verifying students’ understanding, modeling of desired behavior, inviting students to contribute clues”. It means that explanation and inviting students’ participation are more significant scaffolding used. Scaffolding is a teaching and learning model. Furthermore, they state that scaffolding proceeded through three recursive stages:
a) Building background knowledge by assisting students to articulate and connect prior knowledge to the activity at hand while affording teachers opportunities to determine the zone in which the child can perform unassisted and/or assist in the others’ performance.
b) Thinking and discoursing through the topic or activity, where teaching ‘awakens and rouses to life those functions … which lie in the zone of proximal development’ to scaffold the learners to interact with task information (both language and content) socially, collaboratively and critically.
c) Reconstructing and realizing knowledge to scaffold students to organize and consolidate new understandings, and to realize them linguistically, beyond simple lexis and grammar, into coherent patterns of subject area appropriate extended discourse. Kinds of scaffolding can be free talk with students before the lesson starts, operating the frequency (FREQ) command, different types of teacher’s initiation and follow-up moves in different kinds of exchanges in Activity Band C were analyzed using the data from the two lessons selected, fulfilled the teacher’s role through the sequencing of the lesson activities, the choice of lessons, and of thematic topics, rather than through comparatively short exchanges, or individual activity

As the internet changes the face of communication journalists are beginning to have a new way of packaging and disseminating news to the public. Though few journalists in Nigeria have access to the internet and most of them do that in their respective places of work (without personal internet access) because internet connection is limited to senior people especially managing editors and senior staff notwithstanding, they are not left out of the global village. So, journalists access internet from cyber cafes, libraries and media resource centers and most of them still use the internet to send e-mail. Beyond sending email to headquarters and receiving instructions from the same internet has created new opportunities for journalists to sell stories not only to other media houses locally but across the globe. The internet has made the world smaller for journalists to explore. This wonderful technology has also made research on various subject matters available via chatting and exchange of messages. This has created new markets and form of journalism where journalists specialize and work as online journalists, content managers or editors for particular websites.

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The internet is pushing journalists to learn new skills on how to add content to a web site, blog and create hyper text links the coming of the internet is also leading journalists to basically know photographic skills such as how to take digital pictures and upload them to a computer or add them to a blog and website. Internet has made it easy for journalists to research on any subject as it is one of the biggest resources – it makes it easy to find out what acronyms stand and also research a certain subject matter. No doubt, the internet is also changing the way we write for newspapers as we now have to learn how to strictly write for online newspapers. However, most of the online newspapers still carry the same material which was produced by the print version without creating hypertext links to help the visitor stay with the page.

INTERNET

The Internet is most appropriately thought of as a network of networks. Its growth in Africa, in recent time, has been incredibly fast and it is rapidly changing the media industry and the practices of mass communication.
Internet is a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities, consisting of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols.
The internet is a globally connected network system facilitating worldwide communication and access to data resources through a vast collection of private, public, business, academic and government networks.

JOURNALISM

Journalism is the collection, preparation, and distribution of news and related commentary and feature materials through such print and electronic media as newspapers, magazines, books, blogs, webcasts, podcasts, social networking and social media sites, and e-mail as well as through radio, motion pictures, and television. The word journalism was originally applied to the reportage of current events in printed form, specifically newspapers, but with the advent of radio, television, and the Internet in the 20th century the use of the term broadened to include all printed and electronic communication dealing with current affairs.
Journalism is also the activity of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information. It is the production and distribution of reports on current events based on facts and supported with proof or evidence. The word journalism applies to the occupation, as well as collaborative media who gather and publish information based on facts and supported with proof or evidence. Journalistic media include print, television, radio, Internet, and in the past, newsreels.

MASS COMMUNICATION

Mass communication is the term used to describe the academic study of various means by which individuals and entities relay information to large segments of the population all at once through mass media.
Mass Communication is defined as ‘any mechanical device that multiples messages and takes it to a large number of people simultaneously’. Face to face conversation is called interpersonal communication, a college lecture or a public speech will be examples of group communication, when we are involved in thinking process it is intra-personal communication. In addition to all these types of communication we also indulge in yet another level of communication when we read newspapers, magazines or books, listen to radio or watch TV. As the message is communicated to a very large number of people or to a mass of people, it is called Mass communication.

THE INTERNET AND JOURNALISM PROFESSION

The internet is the fastest growing medium in history. The digitalizations, convergence of computer and telephony technologies - which are the linchpin of the internet, have greatly influenced the way news and information are produced and disseminated. Times and things have indeed changed, globalization has since become a buzz word, and has brought with it change and competition. People’s lives have been variously affected either for the better or for worse, depending on the side of the divide one finds himself.
The rapid adoption of internet by journalist is a nationwide phenomenon. The process by which computerization or digitalization impacted upon the media of the 21th Century has moved on many fronts and at different speeds. More so, with desktop publishing and word processing packages, particularly the page maker, the production of newspapers, magazines, journals etc has become on interesting business more so with the use of video display terminals.
Looking at the way internet and journalism influence each other it is obvious that the new form of journalism is ubiquitous in structure. Though not everybody in a society has access to the internet to assess the news (because of digital divide), the presence of mobile phones has made it possible for journalist to gather news anywhere especially those who use their phones as mobile internet and send stories which in turn readers have access. The groups in turn have influence on their environment having been opinion leaders to their peers or even those in their vicinity.
The use of computer in lay out and printing enhances accuracy, helping to control newspaper and magazine costs. Electronic editing; proofreading, formatting, spellchecking tools, calculator and other software tools now facilitate the speed and ease news gathering and dissemination. Also, the use of electronic publishing which involves the process through which print media disseminate printed messages using electronic media has closed the wide gap between print and electronic media as a result of convergence in technology. Another landmark in the era of internet journalism has been the ability of the media to harness the potentials of World Wide Web (www) among other services provided by the net. The www which is a system for accessing, manipulating, and downloading a very large set of hypertext- linked documents and other files located on computers connected through the internet has afforded both the source and receiver to send and receive messages as well as advertise goods and services.

CONCLUSION

When people are online they are looking for much more information and that makes journalists provide more information on the subject matter. An online version can provide more information and in some cases provide video clips and a series of pictures unlike the print version which has limited pages. The internet is much more interesting as it provides journalists with multimedia platform where journalism can provides data, video and voice. Online newspaper is meant to capture wider audience internationally. As technology advances more change will continue to occur.

One way to increase the students’ comprehension is by assisting them to understand text structure. The writer often helps readers recognize important details by arranging them in a certain way like a pattern of organization. It helps the students see not only details but also the main idea and the specific pattern of organization. Text structure has a built-in “map” that can give directions to readers and let them know where they are located midst the developing information and ideas. The text structure is used to refer to how the ideas in a text are interrelated to convey a message to a reader. Some of the ideas in the text are of central importance to the authors’ message, while others are of less importance. Thus, text structure specifies the logical connections among ideas as well as subordination of some ideas to others.

STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

Reading comprehension is the application of a skill that evolved for other purposes (listening or oral comprehension) to a new form of input (text). Unlike listening comprehension, reading comprehension is not something for which our brains have evolved. Whereas oral comprehension seems to develop “naturally” with minimal deliberate intervention, reading comprehension is more challenging and requires deliberate instruction.

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Humans have been accomplished in oral comprehension for 100,000 years or more, and virtually all humans do it; reading comprehension has only been practiced for 5,000 years, and for most of that time the majority of humans did not do it. It should not be surprising that reading comprehension is difficult. The application of comprehension to text amplifies our mental capacities. It is fundamental to full participation in society, now and for the foreseeable future.

STUDENTS’ LEVEL OF READING COMPREHENSION

It is important to understand that reading occurs at several different levels, and how these levels interact. The lowest level shown there, Words, sits on top of many even lower levels of processing that are beyond the scope of this paper. Successful word recognition (either pronunciation, or, more rarely, recognition of meaning without being able to pronounce) is a prerequisite for the higher levels of comprehension. If some words cannot be recognized, the higher levels can compensate to some extent. Unknown words can be inferred in some cases; however, this is more difficult than it sounds, it can only work for some kinds of words and only for a small number of words in any text, and it is very processing intensive. Once words have been recognized, the question of word meaning arises; it is possible to make sense of text when the meaning of some words is lacking or hazy, but beyond a modest level of uncertainty, comprehension becomes impossible.

FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS COMPREHENSION

Before learning to read children have to learn how to speak, they have to acquire their own mother tongue. There is a strong link between language acquisition and reading skills. There are two main approaches as to how children acquire or learn language. Skinner declares that all languages must be learned by the child even the mother tongue. This approach in psychology known as behaviorism, which points out that language is a behavior formed by conditioned response, therefore it can be learned. The other famous view is the Universal Grammar hypothesis which supposes that although human languages differ on the surface they share some basic similarities, and that there are innate principles unique to language; in other words, there is only one human language under the surface. Humans possess a special, innate ability for acquiring languages and that complex syntactic feature is "built" in the brain. Children acquire a language owning to some innate mechanism, which help humans develop language ability. The "innate" view cannot be scientifically falsified; in other words it can't be tested. There are certain similarities among certain languages. However, in case of linguistically distant languages, the UG does not seem to be useful for example, Most learners of English experience more differences than similarities between the two languages. There are a number of features, which influence how easy or difficult is for children to learn to read. Reading abilities have different components. Phonemic awareness is the knowledge that words are made up of a combination of individual sounds. It also includes the ability to hold on to those sounds, blend them successfully into words and take them apart again. Phonics is the relationship between a specific letter and its sound, only as it relates to the written word. Phonics has a special significance in opaque orthographies like English where children have to learn the spelling of different words. Reading development is influenced by the orthography of the language. Orthographic depth hypothesis can be applied to both teaching reading for L1 and L2 readers. It emphasizes the importance of connections between orthographies of languages and reading process.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Academic performance is an issue that deeply concerns students, parents, teachers and authorities not only in our country, but also in many other Latin American countries and continents. The complexity of the academic performance starts from its conceptualization. Sometimes it is known as school readiness, academic achievement and school performance, but generally the difference in concepts is only explained by semantics as they are used as synonyms. Conventionally, it has been agreed that academic performance should be used in university populations and school performance in regular and alternative basic education populations. We will point out just a few because there is a diversity of definitions. Several authors agree that academic performance is the result of learning, prompted by the teaching activity by the teacher and produced by the student. Academic performance is “the product given by the students and it is usually expressed through school grades”. Academic performance as a measure of the indicative and responsive abilities that express, in an estimated way, what a person has learned as a result of a process of education or training. Academic performance involves meeting goals, achievements and objectives set in the program or course that a student attends. These are expressed through grades which are the result of an assessment that involves passing or not certain tests, subjects or courses. Academic performance also can be seen as the level of knowledge shown in an area or subject compared to the norm, and it is generally measured using the grade point average.

STUDENTS READING COMPREHENSION AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Reading forms part of entertainment that plays a crucial role in human development and life skills. Students with poor reading comprehension get terrible scores in their examinations, get effortlessly distracted and eventually drop out from school. Students with poor reading comprehension have a higher opportunity of taking part in hostile social practices, such as delinquency, truancy, school violence, tormenting, hacking of computers and examination malpractices. While poor reading comprehension can be instrumental in the destruction of any individual who is tormented with it, good reading comprehension grows consistently and brings together a valuable personality. The acquisition of reading abilities does not just affect or enhance confidence in language expressions, but in different subjects such as: social studies, science, arithmetic etc. A student who lacks reading ability does not do well in class activities and this deficiency is extended throughout his/her academic lifetime. “Reading plays an invaluable role in promoting ideas and ideals, which enhance both individual development and the socio-economic development of the nation. Reading is a lifelong habit, the real wellspring of access to the information. It is taken as an understood practice that backs a person to accomplish unique power and builds up one's critical thinking capability. Reading comprehension, along these lines, is considered as a fundamental means for the advancement of individual characteristics, mental capacities, getting learning, information, and comprehension of a person.

Pregnancy is associated with insulin resistance (IR) and hyperinsulinemia that may predispose some women to develop diabetes. Gestational diabetes has been defined as any degree of glucose intolerance with an onset, or first recognition during pregnancy.1 This definition does not exclude the possibility that unrecognized glucose intolerance may have antedated the pregnancy, and so, the term hyperglycemia in pregnancy emerges to be more appropriate as suggested lately by the Endocrine Society. The International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups (IADPSG) classify hyperglycemia first detected during pregnancy as either ‘overt diabetes’ or ‘gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM)’.
In 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that hyperglycemia first detected during pregnancy be classified as either ‘diabetes mellitus (DM) in pregnancy’ or ‘GDM’. The prevalence of GDM varies from 1-20%, and is rising worldwide, parallel to the increment in the prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The amount of GDM varies in direct proportion to the prevalence of T2DM in a given population, or ethnic group.

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A worldwide rising trend in obesity has been reported from 1975 to 2016, affecting females and males alike. In women, the rising obesity has led to an increase in the incidence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) as well as associated pregnancy and perinatal complications. Known non-modifiable risk factors for predisposition to GDM include advanced maternal age, ethnicity, and family history of type 2 diabetes mellitus . Maternal obesity independently contributes to the development of GDM. The Center of Disease Control (CDC) estimates that the incidence of GDM in the United States (US) is about 10%. It is reported to be higher in some countries with rates as high as 17.8–41.9% when using the International Association of Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Groups (IADPSG) GDM criteria.

GESTATIONAL DIABETES

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) formally classifies GDM as “diabetes first diagnosed in the second or third trimester of pregnancy that is not clearly either preexisting type 1 or type 2 diabetes”. However, the exact threshold for a diagnosis of GDM depends on the criteria used, and so far, there has been a lack of consensus amongst health professionals. It is now advised by the ADA, the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, and the Endocrine Society, that the International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Group (IADPSG) criteria be used in the diagnosis of GDM. The IADPSG criteria were developed based on the results of the Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes (HAPO) Study a large multinational and multicenter study of 23,000 pregnant women. One major finding of the HAPO Study was a continuous risk of adverse maternal and fetal outcomes with increasing maternal glycaemia even below the diagnostic threshold for GDM suggesting that criteria for intervention needed to be adjusted. The IADPSG therefore recommends that all women undergo a fasting plasma glucose (FPG) test at their first prenatal visit (where a reading ≥92 mg/dL is indicative of GDM), and that women with FPG the highest prevalence of GDM at 24.2%, while the lowest prevalence was seen in Africa at 10.5%. Almost 90% of cases of hyperglycemia in pregnancy occurred in low- and middle-income countries, where access to maternal healthcare is limited. Even within-countries, GDM prevalence varies depending on race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Aboriginal Australians, Middle Easterners, and Pacific Islanders are the most at-risk groups for GDM. Within the United States, Native Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and African-American women are at a higher risk of GDM than Caucasian women. There is also some evidence that GDM prevalence varies by season, with more diagnoses of GDM in summer than winter.

CAUSES OF GESTATIONAL DIABETES AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN

Pregnant women who can't make enough insulin during late pregnancy develop gestational diabetes. Being overweight or obese is linked to gestational diabetes. Women who are overweight or obese may already have insulin resistance when they become pregnant. Gaining too much weight during pregnancy may also be a factor.

EFFECT OF GESTATIONAL DIABETES ON PREGNANT WOMEN

Poor control of diabetes during pregnancy increases the chances for birth defects and other problems for the pregnancy. It can also cause serious complications for the woman. Proper health care before and during pregnancy can help prevent birth defects and other health problems.
The importance of aiming to understand and effectively treat or prevent GDM is illustrated by the wide-ranging consequences of GDM for both the mother and the fetus. Mother GDM increases the risk of a number of short-term and long-term maternal health issues. In addition to the stress of normal pregnancy, GDM is associated with antenatal depression. There is also an increased risk of additional pregnancy complications, including preterm birth and preeclampsia, and, in many cases, surgical delivery of the baby is required.

RISK FACTORS AS REGARDS GESTATIONAL DIABETES

Epidemiological studies of risk factors for GDM are limited and are typically afflicted by confounding factors. In addition, inconsistencies in diagnostic criteria for GDM and measurements of risk factors make it difficult to compare findings across studies. Despite these concerns, several risk factors for GDM emerge consistently. These include overweight/obesity, excessive gestational weight gain, westernized diet, ethnicity, genetic polymorphisms, advanced maternal age, intrauterine environment (low or high birthweight), family and personal history of GDM, and other diseases of insulin resistance, such as polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Each of these risk factors are either directly or indirectly associated with impaired β-cell function and/or insulin sensitivity. For example, overweight and obesity are intrinsically linked with prolonged, excessive calorie intake, which overwhelms β-cell insulin production and insulin signaling pathways. Even independently of body mass index (BMI) and overall caloric intake, diet and nutrition are associated with GDM. Diets that are high in saturated fats, refined sugars, and red and processed meats are consistently associated with an increased risk of GDM, while diets high in fiber, micronutrients, and polyunsaturated fats are consistently associated with a reduced risk of GDM. Saturated fats directly interfere with insulin signaling, and they can also induce inflammation and endothelial dysfunction; both pathogenic factors in GDM. On the other hand, n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, including those derived from fish and seafood, have anti-inflammatory properties. The relationship between processed meat and GDM remains strong, even after adjustment for fatty acids, cholesterol, heme iron, and protein content. It has been suggested that by-products related to the processing of meat could be responsible such as nitrates (a common preservative in processed meats), or advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which have both been implicated in β-cell toxicity.

TREATMENT FOR GESTATIONAL DIABETES

Treatment for gestational diabetes aims to keep blood glucose levels equal to those of pregnant women who don't have gestational diabetes. The treatment always includes special meal plans and scheduled physical activity, and it may also include daily blood glucose testing and insulin injections.

Tourism is a relevant domain of knowledge that cuts across several boundaries. It is attached to different human needs and wants outside normal work. It provides job opportunities, small-scale businesses for several people with different cultural background.
Tourism turns culture into displayable objects and visit-able places. Through travel programmes and documentaries on television, advertising, promotional brochures and films, tourism has generated a vast and continual flow of images and discourses about other cultures. Accordingly, tourism is crucial to the population and diffusion of an imaginary that views the world as displayed. That world is composed of a „cultural mosaic‟ of familiar ethnic and cultural differences, all of which are thought of in visit-able terms: they appear to reside „in‟ places, where we come to think of as destinations. In this way, tourism helps to circulate a kind of „National geographic‟ perspective on the world, in which selected, highly demarcated cultural identities are expected to be on display in different places.

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From the above, it has been established that tourism enables millions of people to gaze on their culture and other cultures at first hand. It offers „customized excursions into other cultures and place‟ and tourists leave with merchandizing, snapshots and souvenirs that epitomize and evidence the cultural identity they have visited, rather than „dead‟ culture, in the form of stone monuments and empty palaces, tourists today are seeking „live culture‟, in the form of people and their „colorful, customs. On the other hand, tourism enables millions of people to gaze on other peoples culture at first hand, while tourism delivers visitors to a huge range of different destinations quickly and easily, once often in the form of representations than actualities. It is expedient to note therefore that in tourism enclave, historic city centers, museums, theme parks, festivals, heritage sites, monuments and exhibitions, local cultures is displayed and in most cases turns tourism, which consequently promotes and enhances physical and economic growth especially in the rural areas.

TOURISM
Tourism has grown significantly in both economic and social importance, the fastest growing economic sector of most industrialized countries over the past several years, with overwhelming impact on virtually any economic measure, including gross output, value added, capital investment, employment and tax contribution, when nurtured for sustainable national growth, tourism could be described as prime generator of job in the economy and a great stimulus for foreign investors.
It was also defined as the “science, art and business of attracting and transporting visitors, accommodating them and graciously catering for their needs and wants”. This implies that any activity that voluntarily and temporarily takes a person away from his/her place of residence in order to satisfy a need, either for pleasure, excitement, and experience and or relaxation can be termed tourism. Consequently, the history, culture and the people, the preservation and conservation of wide life are among the basic elements of tourism.
CULTURE
Culture is on the other hand, “that complex whole, which including knowledge, belief, art; aw, custom and other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”. Culture is the way of life of a group of people. It embodies all aspects of life of a group of people including their beliefs, style of life, dress altitudes, and other important attributes, which are unique to, and shared by members of the group.
The importance lies in the fact that it produces the knowledge and the techniques that enable man to survive by physically and socially and to master and control in so far as it is possible the world around him. Unlike other animals, men have few, if any, instinctive skills and instinctive knowledge, which might enable him to sustain himself an in fact the possession of culture, is one of crucial distinction between man and other animals. Also, culture is both learnt and shared. Men do not inherit them during the course of their lives. All aspects of culture are learned from the group into which individual are born and in which they live.

PROMOTION OF CULTURE

Culture, thus, encompasses all man-made parts of the environment and a whole set of implicit, widely shared beliefs, traditions, norms, values and expectations that characterize a particular group of people. It serves several functional purposes in the life of a group, guides social interaction and social relations, the material artifacts and constitutes the basis on which tourism industry is built. It manifests in arts, dance, language, literature, folklore, mores, music, governance, as well as the character of the environment acquired and transmitted through generations. As societies make attempt at cultural preservations, past cultures have survived in contemporary forms and could certainly be observed and used to reconstruct the past.
Therefore, we can admit that cultural heritage comprises the complexity of all those activities of our whether tangible, through, which we express ourselves and our values for other people to appreciate and patronize. The context of promoting these heritages for people to patronize and appreciate their beauty and content is embedded in cultural tourism, and thus an important and sustainable component and strategy for effective rural growth in Nigeria.
The need to preserve these cultural heritages therefore is eminent; not only for protecting and keeping culture for generation to come, but also to enable these cultures contribute to the well-being of the rural communities through tourism. Without mixing words, preservation of culture in Nigeria some part of the world is weak, and thus the need to embrace a more conservative principle and life style in protecting our natural and man-made endowments. Though, the absence of adequate infrastructure and financial backing for large resources of cultural products and personnel may constitute an impediment to cultural heritage preservation. Carelessness, ignorance and illiteracy are also major clog in the wheel of effective cultural heritage preservation in Nigeria rural areas.
TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
Tourism is seen as the best possible and alternative strategy which can be used for promoting many local areas. It is believed that with tourism, there will be tendency for environmental sustainability, more job opportunity, expansion in both public and private investment, provision of infrastructural facilities and economic improvement. The development of tourism in the rural areas is really a great achievement to the local people, in terms of employment opportunity created and avenue for earning additional income. However, the use of local materials and labour in local production is a good illustration of potential for small-scale development of sustainable tourism.
“Tourism is an economic activity of immense global significance”. The tremendous improvement in the global contribution of tourism to the world economy cannot be ignore, no doubt that tourism frequently referred to as the largest industry in the world. However, this tremendous growth in tourism has been anticipated that this growth will continue till foreseeable future.
There is no doubt that many nations has turn out to tapped from the tremendous growth in tourism. Many nations have taking steps to per taking in the sharing of the ever-increasing global tourism market. More so, many developing countries have also joined the race. Foreign exchange earnings, employment opportunity, economic diversification, economic growth, broader economic and social development policy, and other factors are the fundamental justification for the establishment and development of tourism.
PROMOTING CULTURE AND TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
Culture and tourism have a reciprocal beneficial relationship, which can consolidate the impact of attractiveness and competitiveness of the regions and the countries in their development. Culture is a more and more important element of the tourist product, which, also, creates distinctively on an agglomerated market, at a world level, new metamorphoses of the local, regional and national tourist product. At the same time, tourism offers a very important means of consolidation of culture and the creation of incomes which can support and consolidate the cultural heritage, the cultural production and creativeness. The creation of a strong relationship between tourism and culture can help new destinations become themselves more attractive and more competitive as places to live, to visit and to work or to invest in their sustainable development.
The cultural tourism may offer alternative sources of income for the rural localities, cities, areas where the traditional industries have declined and whose economies or local communities have suffered. A flourishing cultural economy may improve the social and economical status of a city and may positively contribute to the life of the local communities.
Though strongly attached to their cultural norms and traditional values, these are special tourist flow gradually embraced contemporary history, the rapid processes of modernization of today's world, globalization and standardization in progress.
Arguably, cultural tourism is a purpose-oriented activity based on individual’s interest and choice. The purpose of visiting any destination depends on the consumption of experiences, services and products available at the site for the tourist. Hence, all tourism and cultural tourism activity involve the consumption of experiences and products. Thus, the purpose of travelling is motivated for learning new cultures, gathering experience as well as exploration. From a more recent perspective, it was observed that there are tourists who travel for cultural tourism purposes and those whom their participation in cultural tourism activities is only but accidental. The accidental participation indicates that their trip to a particular destination was for a different purpose.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, contemporary tourism attractions are typically focused, then, on the experiential destinations in which tourism can sample different socio cultural realities. Tourism offers „customized excursions into other cultures and places‟ and tourists leave with the merchandizing, snapshots and souvenirs that epitomize and evidence the cultural identity they have „visited‟. Rather than dead, in the form of stone monuments and empty places, tourists today are seeking „live‟ culture, in the form of people and their „colorful customs‟. Culture has thus become central to tourism, just as tourism has to culture.

Pleasure reading is very important for any student that wants to improve his/her writing skills. There are various ways to reading and studying. One of reading types that influence writing skills is pleasure reading. In this article we will examine the correlation between pleasure reading and students’ writing skills.

PLEASURE READING

Pleasure reading can be defined as reading that is freely chosen or that readers freely and enthusiastically continue after it is assigned. Reading for pleasure was defined as reading done in anticipation of the satisfaction it would bring or continuing required reading because the reader found the subject matter interesting. Pleasure reading is a personal experience that “typically involves materials that reflect our own choice, at a time and place that suits us”. As such, a natural assumption was that students would be more willing to engage in an activity over which they had full control; however, the reading habits of children indicated that instances of pleasure reading began to decrease around the age of thirteen and fourteen. Dissatisfaction with required reading contributed to student reluctance to read self selected literature. Unfortunately, the decline in pleasure reading was counter-productive to student success. In fact, “Acquiring the habit of turning to books for pleasure or to find out what you want to know does more for reading development than working on decoding words or trying to speed up fluency”.

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Pleasure reading builds reading comprehension, increases background knowledge (which is useful in all content areas), increases student vocabulary skills, and has been shown to increase our understanding of human behavior and help us to empathize with others. Pleasure readers not only experience greater success academically than their non-reading counterparts, pleasure readers go on to experience greater success in the workforce. Many language arts educators are aware of the benefits of pleasure reading and make every effort to immerse students in a wide selection of literature; however, schools, at all levels, fail to establish a culture that values reading.

BENEFITS OF PLEASURE READING

Becoming a lifetime reader is predicated on developing a love of reading. Although reading for pleasure has not been a research priority, studies are accumulating that emphasize the importance of reading for pleasure for both educational as well as personal development5. These studies show that promoting reading can have a major impact on children/young people and adults and their future. For example, research with children has shown that reading for pleasure is positively linked with the following literacy-related benefits:
 reading attainment and writing ability for reading that is done both in school and out of school;
 text comprehension and grammar, even after a variety of health, wealth and school factors were statistically controlled for;
 breadth of vocabulary, even after other relevant abilities such as IQ or text-decoding skills are controlled for;
 positive reading attitudes, which are linked to achievement in reading;
 greater self-confidence as a reader;
 Pleasure reading in later life.
The above relationships hold for first and second language acquisition, and for children and adults. Correlational studies have also consistently shown that those who read more are better readers. Indeed, reading amount and reading achievement are thought to be reciprocally related to each other – as reading amount increases, reading achievement increases, which in turn increases reading amount.

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Academic achievement is an issue that deeply concerns students, parents, teachers and authorities not only in our country, but also in many other Latin American countries and continents. The complexity of the academic achievement starts from its conceptualization. Sometimes it is known as school readiness, academic achievement and school performance, but generally the difference in concepts is only explained by semantics as they are used as synonyms. Conventionally, it has been agreed that academic achievement should be used in university populations and school performance in regular and alternative basic education populations. We will point out just a few because there is a diversity of definitions. Several authors agree that academic achievement is the result of learning, prompted by the teaching activity by the teacher and produced by the student. Academic achievement is “the product given by the students and it is usually expressed through school grades”. Academic achievement as a measure of the indicative and responsive abilities that express, in an estimated way, what a person has learned as a result of a process of education or training. Academic achievement involves meeting goals, achievements and objectives set in the program or course that a student attends. These are expressed through grades which are the result of an assessment that involves passing or not certain tests, subjects or courses. Academic achievement also can be seen as the level of knowledge shown in an area or subject compared to the norm, and it is generally measured using the grade point average.

WRITING ACHIEVEMENT

Writing achievement can be defined as the capability of expressing one's own ideas and thoughts through the written form in either a second or a foreign language while ensuring a level of accuracy and coherence. Writing achievement can also be seen as the outcome of five dimensions, which are: 1) taking a clear stance regarding the issue, 2) supporting that stance with relevant and accurate information taken from the source materials, 3) using information from said source materials, 4) organizing ideas in logically and effictively, and 5) expressing said ideas in one’s own words with both clarity and fluency). In addition, writing achievement can also be the outcomes of one’s learning experience that were obtained during the writing process within a particular field, such as knowledge and skills; these outcomes show the level and status of the person’s learning experience and their ability to apply what they have learned throughout a standard test.

PLEASURE READING AND STUDENTS WRITING SKILLS

The current study attempts to identify what pleasure reading can play positively on enhancing writing achievement and reading comprehension. As per previous studies, and after examining the literature above, the researcher is able to conclude some important points that can enrich the research in the field of this study. Firstly, when it comes to Pleasure reading, it can be concluded that it has a positive impact on enhancing writing achievement and reading comprehension. It helps improve literacy and enhance the thinking skills, as well as clarify and explore future goals and interests. Another interesting point found that Reading skills can be strengthened and improved through employing both reading and writing skills. When it comes to writing achievement and skills, the analyzing of the previous literature has led the researcher to conclude that written texts are usually derived from pleasure reading, where the reading text is self-selected rather than imposed on the reader. Moreover, Pleasure reading provides readers, especially young ones, with historical knowledge and information regarding the current events. Moreover, it helps them develop positive feelings, such as compassion and empathy, which would empower them to act upon their beliefs, and understand the consequences of improper behaviors. Interestingly, Pleasure reading provides readers with entertainment, relaxation, comfort, as it also offers them a creative outlet and means of escape, which, in turn, affect positively writing performance. Lastly, Reading helps learners develop their writing experience by providing them with inspiration, an extensive pool of vocabulary items, and grammatical structure. Furthermore, Pleasure reading increases reading speed and comprehension, motivates the attitudes of the reader toward learning the target language, develops their language competency, and improves their language skills.

Chemistry education is becoming very popular in the education sector of Nigeria. There are series of researches on ways of improving students’ academic performance in chemistry education subject. This article will discuss the significance of the use of instructional materials to improve students’ performance in chemistry education

CHEMISTRY EDUCATION

Chemistry is a popular subject among senior secondary school students in Nigeria due to its nature. It addresses the needs of majority through its relevance and functionality in content, practice and application. What many nations like Nigeria need now is a functional chemistry education that will assist in national development. Chemistry education has been identified to be one of the major bedrock for the transformation of our national economy. Chemistry Education can be seen as the acquisition of knowledge or ideals relevant to chemistry. It is concerned with the impartment of knowledge on properties, components, transformations and interactions of matter. Chemistry Education is therefore the systematic process of acquiring the fundamental knowledge about the universe. With these indispensable knowledge richly acquired, man can shape and reshape his world for his benefit. Hence, the development of the nation is usually measured by the degree and extent of growth brought to it through the enterprise of science education and a gate way to it is chemistry education.

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Chemistry education is the vehicle through which chemical knowledge and skill reach the people who are in need of capacities and potentials for development. In addition, chemical education addresses the social objective of substance development as education is now of the primary means for empowerment, participation, cultural preservation, social mobility and equity. The impact of chemistry on technology involves the process of bringing manufacturing inventories and sculpturing, designing etc. Technology can be seen as the application of scientific knowledge, skills, work, attitudes, tools and equipment in evaluation of new processes and adoption of these processes to the production of goods and services for the benefit of mankind. Chemistry education plays important role in enhancing the quality of teaching and research as well as ensuring that students are equipped with good knowledge to produce intensive goods and services to meet human needs for food, health care products and other materials aimed at improving the quality of life. Every single material thing in the universe is a chemical and the ability to understand and manipulate these chemicals is responsible for everything from modern food and drugs to plastics and computers. Conclusively, the ideas of chemistry are not getting the attention they desire in either formal or informal education provision. It is argued that an improvement in this position requires the further development of the nature and quality of chemical education to chemical industries through intensive and extensive research. Chemistry education is needed in the professional development of chemical industries required in the establishment of modern technology and operation of chemical industries.
The process of chemical transformation involves intra-chemical reactions within the same substances examples, sublimation, radio-active decay like uranium, plutonium etc and other chemical reactions when the substances react with other things which includes the evaporation of volatile substances like fuel, Mentholated spirit and even water when exposed to air. Really, chemistry can be used to find solution to problems of everyday activates in science, industry, technology, government, educational sector and economics. Some of the industries that obviously cannot do without chemistry include; cosmetics industry, brewery industry, chemical industry, textile industry, food processing and technology industry, forestry, Agricultural industry, petroleum, pharmaceutical industry etc. Man’s success in the different realm of chemistry provides ones unquenchable source of hope for success in technology. Whatever technology is, be it monster, man is poised to face it challenges having gained courage, built in confidence in himself as he overcomes the seemingly impenetrable mysteries of chemistry. To be able to operate machinery involved in technology, good dosage of simple experimental concept like observation and recording, theory and principles and measurement to take record of events that are needed. Also market forces succumb to the supremacy of social chemistry which includes simple experiment formulation such as record and observation, profit and loss, minimum and maximum, to the more complex ones like optimization theory and also operation research such experimental expressions.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
Teaching as a concept requires that teachers should not only have knowledge and skills in a subject but also the professional competence in the use of methods and materials to be able to influence the behavior of learners by using instructional materials. Defined instructional materials as ways and means of making the teaching and learning process easy more meaningful and understandable. In a similar definition, explained that instructional materials are designed to promote and encourage effective teaching and learning experiences. In view of the above definitions, instructional materials are therefore, sight tools for teachers at all levels of education process for effective instructional delivery and promote learner’s academic achievement and enable the achievement of the stated objectives of a lesson.
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
Academic performance is an issue that deeply concerns students, parents, teachers and authorities not only in our country, but also in many other Latin American countries and continents. The complexity of the academic performance starts from its conceptualization. Sometimes it is known as school readiness, academic achievement and school performance, but generally the difference in concepts is only explained by semantics as they are used as synonyms. Conventionally, it has been agreed that academic performance should be used in university populations and school performance in regular and alternative basic education populations. We will point out just a few because there is a diversity of definitions. Several authors agree that academic performance is the result of learning, prompted by the teaching activity by the teacher and produced by the student. Academic performance is “the product given by the students and it is usually expressed through school grades”. Academic performance as a measure of the indicative and responsive abilities that express, in an estimated way, what a person has learned as a result of a process of education or training. Academic performance involves meeting goals, achievements and objectives set in the program or course that a student attends. These are expressed through grades which are the result of an assessment that involves passing or not certain tests, subjects or courses. Academic performance also can be seen as the level of knowledge shown in an area or subject compared to the norm, and it is generally measured using the grade point average.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS AND STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN CHEMISTRY
Instructional materials serve as a channel between the teacher and the students in delivering instructions. They may also serve as the motivation on the teaching-learning process. It is use to get the attention of the students and eliminate boredom. Instructional materials are highly important for teaching; especially for inexperienced teachers. Teachers rely on instructional materials in every aspect of teaching. They need material for background information on the subject they are teaching. Young teachers usually have not built upon their expertise whenever they enter into the field. Teachers often use instructional materials for lesson planning. These materials are also needed by the teachers to assess the knowledge of their students. Teachers often assess students by assigning tasks, creating projects, and administering exams. Instructional materials are essential for all of these activities. Chemistry as a science subject is activity oriented and the suggested method for teaching it which is guided discovering method is resource based. This suggests that mastery of chemistry concepts cannot be fully achieved without the use of instructional materials. The teaching of chemistry without instructional materials will certainly result to poor performance in the course. Stressed that a professionally qualified science teacher no matter how well trained would be unable to put his ideas into practice if the school setting lacks the equipments and materials necessary for him or her to translate his competence into reality. Instructional materials media as system component that may be used as part of instructional process which are used to disseminate informative message and ideas or which make possible communication in the teaching-learning process. Experience over the years has shown that teachers have been depending on excessive use of words to express, convey ideas or facts in the teaching-learning process. This process is termed the ‘chalk-talk’ method. Today advances in technology have made it possible to produce materials and devices that could be used to minimize the teachers’ talking and at the same time, make the message clearer, more interesting and easier for the learner to assimilate.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion the students taught with instructional materials perform better and higher than those taught without instructional materials. There is a relationship between the academic performance of chemistry students and the use of instructional materials in Teaching and learning