Why Secondary School Geography Students Perform Poorly in External Examinations

Abstract

The perpetual decline of students’ performance in external geography examinations necessitated this enquiry to identify causes of failure reported by examiners. This study, therefore, adopted a qualitative approach to analyze West African Examination Council (WAEC) chief examiners’ reports from 2008 to 2018 to extract vital information on why Nigerian students perform poorly in geography, using the grounded theory methodology and RQDA for data analyses. Poor map work, inadequate preparation and scanty explanation of points were identified. Ideal geography teachers ought to be multiplied in schools, with the utilization of relevant instructional resources and student-centered teaching strategies for improvements.

Keywords:

• Grounded theory methodology
• RQDA
• WAEC chief examiners reports
• poor achievement
• geography education

Acknowledgments

The author hereby acknowledges the West African Examination Council (Nigeria’s office) for the free provision of the raw reports on their website, which motivated this study. Chinazaekpere Peace provided assistance during the data collection/collation phase of this study. I thank the two anonymous reviewers and the editors for their insightful comments.