CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Schools all over the world are places where learning is sought after; they are centers for academic pursuits. Regrettably, Nigerian schools especially the secondary schools have fallen short of what these ideals are and they are beset by numerous problems which are affecting their proper functioning and the student in particular. These problems include:
1.   Provision of basic infrastructural facilities such as accommodation, power, water and transportation.
2.   Funding of secondary schools which include payment of teachers’ salaries.
3.   Parents’ economic status, income of parents as it affects students.
According to Awe (2000), the problems of Nigerian secondary schools as it affects students have increased over the years with increasing enrolment and poor funding.
The lack of basic infrastructural facilities and parents’ economic status would in turn directly affect teaching and learning and this would reflect on the grade level in secondary schools. The lack of these necessities can be a source of stress to the students. For effective learning to take place, the right conditions that would be favourable to the memory needs to be set in places.
Learning and memory can be affected by stress. Although an optimal level of stress can enhance learning ability (Kaplan and Sadock, 2000), too much stress can cause physical and mental health problems (Niemo and Vainiomaki, 1999), reduce students self esteem (Lenn and Zeppa, 1984; Silver and Glicken, 1990) and may affect academic achievement.
According to high school psychology textbook, stress is a particular pattern of disturbing psychological and physiological reaction that occurs when an environment event threatens important motives and taxes one’s ability to cope.
The Medical Review Board, also defined stress as the body’s reaction to change that requires a physical, mental or emotional adjustment or response.
The term stress was coined by Han Selye. Hans was born in Vienna in 1901, Early on, in his second year of medical school (1926), he began developing his now famous theory on the influence of stress on people’s ability to cope with and adapt with pressures of injury and diseases. He discovered that patients with a variety of ailments manifested many similar symptoms, which he ultimately attributed to their bodies efforts to respond to stress of being ill. He called this collection of symptoms, this separate stress disease, stress syndrome, or the general adaptation syndrome (GAS).