CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.2Background to the study
There is no gainsaying the fact that education is very vital to the pace of social, political and economic development of any nation. This is why most nations of the world strive to devote a sizeable proportion of their Gross National Income to develop the educational sector. In Nigeria, between 7.6% and 9.9% of our annual expenditure is devoted to education (Durosaro, 2003). The proportion earmarked in the approved national budget is meant to finance capital and recurrent expenditure of schools. The physical structures which is capital intensive takes the larger part of the cost since the physical environment of a school adds a lot of value to the school (Obong, 2007).
Egim (2003) observed in her study that the physical environment contributes either negatively or positively to the effectiveness of teaching and learning in the school. The school physical environment includes the buildings, classrooms, furniture, equipment, instructional materials, laboratories, libraries, play grounds, and so on. Others are walls, machinery, decorative objects, play fields, skating rinks, swimming pools, audio-visual equipment (Mckay, 1964 in Egim, 2003). Egim (2003) maintained that in a bid to expand the educational enterprise, educational planners are more interested in issues such as the number of schools, teachers, students’ infrastructural facilities like classrooms and school buildings. Little attention is paid to the quality of the environment (Obong. 2010).
Maintaining a sound and healthy environment has always been a challenge to man (Akintola, 2008). For example, the different inputs from anthropogenic activities include energy generating heat, uncontrolled sound turning into noise, and other land-using agencies that causes degradation of the physical environment. Various human activities that require planning and coordination demands comprehensive and deliberate efforts to keep the physical environment fit for the total man to function well. Hence, the management of built environment is determinant to the quality of man at any given time. Where this is undermined, there is bound to be poor physical conditions and the consequence is poor human output. Of particular interest to this study is the school environment.
The physical outlook of the school environment is very important in contributing to a healthy academic exercise. It forms the fulcrum on which other activities revolve. This is because it creates an atmosphere through the mind for studies(Akinsolu,2004). The duties of teaching and learning, if effectiveness is the goal, is a great one; one of such is the school location. Where a school is located can determine to a large extent the stability of the student’s mind for academic readiness.
A school located along air-traffic route, roadside (especially without a fence), in the neighbourhood of industrial activities, markets, and so on will be academically encumbered because such environments will interfere with the students’ learning process. It will generate noise enough to badly affect the study adventure. As indicated by the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI, 2008; Mckay, 1964 in Egim, 2003), these are capable of affecting the quality of learning environment. Equally crucial is the greening of the school environment. Sanitation Connection (2001/2002) maintains that a school management that provides sanitation and planting of flowers, trees and maintaining lawns, well cleared grasses, etc. improves quality of life and study environment. Aesthetics of a school environment is another aspect of managing a school environment. Regular painting and maintaining the quality of buildings, channelling of sewage, well-planned landscape and trimming of flowers, clearing of grasses, proper disposal of refuse, sweeping and removing cub webs among others, provides a relaxed atmosphere for   the moulding of minds. All the issues above constitute school environmental management strategies that could make a school a place to live and not to leave.
In spite of this all-important top burner matter, very little have been done in managing school environments for fruitful academic venture. It becomes necessary to conduct a study on the environmental factors that affect effective teaching and learning
How a school environment is managed in aesthetics, recreation, waste, drainage pattern, and other physical outlook of the environment has a telling effect on the quality of learning. It is opined that regular grass clearing, sweeping of the school compound and painting, landscaping and planting of flowers, good drainage, refuse disposal, provision of fields, playgrounds and sporting facilities are strategies adopted to ensure effective teaching and learning(Akinsolu, 2004). In this study however, the focus is on the effective teaching of Physical Education and Sports at the secondary school level.