THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG GENDER, ACADEMIC SELF-CONCEPT AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN AWKA URBAN

Academic achievement of students predicts the quality of graduates anticipated to be produced by various schools. These graduates eventually become the leaders and form the human resource of the society, irrespective of their gender. This study sought to determine the relationship among gender, academic self-concept and academic achievement of secondary school students. A correlational design was utilized in this study which was carried out in Awka Urban. A purposive sample of 80 SS2 students formed the participants for the study. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The instrument for data collection was Academic Self-Concept Questionnaire (ASCQ) adapted from Yan and Yates (2007) which was validated by two experts in the Faculty of Education and Students’ previous term result overall average obtained from the selected schools. The reliability of ASCQ was determined using test retest and analyzed Pearson moment correlation coefficient and a coefficient of 0.72 obtained indicating that the instrument was reliable. The data collected was analyzed using Pearson moment correlation with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 of 2011. It was found that gender was not a significant factor in measuring students’ academic self-concept. It also revealed that gender has no significant relation with students’ academic achievement, while academic self-concept and academic achievement has a strong and positive correlation. The implementing of psycho-educational programmes, seminars and workshops to provide opportunities for students to express themselves and thus develop their self-esteem and self-confidence which will, in turn, positively impact their academic self-concept was recommended.