Relationship between Attention Power and Secondary School Students' Academic Performance in Ilorin Metropolis

This study examined the relationship between attention power and secondary school students’ academic performance in Ilorin metropolis. The study was necessitated by the fact that attention is connected to both the process and product of learning. This study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population for this study consisted of all the secondary school students in Ilorin Metropolis. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select 10 secondary schools out of the 246 secondary schools in the three Local Government Areas in Ilorin metropolis. While systematic random sampling technique was used to select 30 students from each school selected. In all, 300 secondary school students were selected for this study. A researcher designed questionnaire titled Attention Power Questionnaire (APQ) was used to elicit information on the attention power of the students. Cronbach Alpha was used to obtain a reliability index of 0.74 for the instrument. While English Language Performance Test was adapted and used to measure students’ academic performance. Cumulative mean rating was used to answer the research questions. Research Hypotheses were tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and the t-test Statistics at 0.05 level of significance. Finding revealed that the attention power and academic performance of secondary school students in Ilorin metropolis is high. Finding also revealed that there is a direct positive relationship between attention power and academic performance of secondary school students in Ilorin metropolis. It was recommended that Government and school managements should ensure that students learn in favourable environmental conditions free from any form of mental, environmental and emotional disturbance. Government should ensure that only trained teachers who have the knowledge and skills on how to develop and sustain students’ attention power are permitted to practice in secondary schools