Influence of COVID 19 on Class Size and Biology Students' Academic Performance in Secondary Schools in Abia State

Abstract

The focus of this study was to find out the influence of COVID 19 on the class size and students’ academic performance in Biology in Abia State. An ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. Students' records for 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 academic sessions were used as sources of data for the study. The population for the study was 32,617 students from 231 public secondary schools in the three education zones of Abia state. A simple random sampling technique was adopted to select three secondary schools from each education zone. The total sample size from the selected schools was 479 students which form the sample size of the students. The study consisted of two research questions and two null hypotheses. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while t - test was used to test the null hypotheses. The result of the study indicates that the class size of Biology students in Abia state remained almost the same, while their academic performance reduced after the lockdown. This indicates negative influence of the pandemic on students' academic performance. It was recommended that government should provide facilities for virtual presentations in secondary schools to substitute physical classes in case of situations like COVID 19. The researchers also recommended that teachers and students should have adequate training on Information and Communication Technology to update their knowledge on modern technological advancement.