CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1     Background of the Study
Education is the best legacy a nation can give to her citizens. It is generally believed that the basis for any true development must start with the development of human resources. Much then is said that formal education remains the vehicle for social-economic development and social mobilization in any society.
Education therefore, plays an important role in the development of a total person for communication and effective transaction and makes the individual to fit properly into the schemes of life of a society. Parents are aware of these needs, hence the importance of monitoring the standard of education in Kaduna metropolis because it is paramount for the development of the area.
Education as the key to development has the capacity to upgrade teaching effectiveness as well as learning efficiency among learners. Efforts have been made by school administrators to improve the performance of Public secondary school students. The school environment, which include the classrooms, libraries, technical workshops, laboratories, teachers’ quality, school management, teaching methods, peers, etc are variables that affect students’ academic achievement (Ajayi, 2011 and Oluchukwu, 2012).  Hence, the school environment remains an important area that has to be studied well and managed to enhance students’ academic performance.
According to Jam (2012) academic performance is the ability to study and remember facts and being able to communicate this knowledge verbally or on paper. In other words, academic performance refers to how students deal with their studies and how they cope with or accomplish different tasks given to them by their teachers.  There are quite a number of factors that determine the level and quality of students' academic performance. (Scottk, 2012).
According to Hussain (2010) secondary school students in public schools often come from economically poor and average income families. These families face various problems causing emotional disturbance among their children. This singular factor has caused serious damage to the achievement status to secondary school students.
Achievement is generally a pedagogical terminology used while determining learners’ success in formal education and which is measured through reports examinations, researches, and ratings with numerous factors of variables exerting influence. Essentially, the National Policy on education (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2014) has identified school achievement contents according to school subjects which are classified as core or elective subjects.