Students’ Characteristics as Determinants of Academic Performance in Economics among Fatima High School in Irewole Local Government Area, Osun State, Nigeria: Theoretical Approach and Empirical Evidence

The importance of students’ academic performance as a single strongest factor in the determination of the school tone as well as overall success of the school activities in all ramifications cannot be overemphasized. In the light of this, this study aimed at examining the influence of students’ qualities on academic performance in Economics. The ex-post facto research design was adopted. However, one-hundred and eight two (182) out of one-hundred and ninety two (192) Grade 10 (that is Senior Secondary School Students one) who sat for Unified Promotion Examination in Fatima High school for 2017/2018 academic session were used. The empirical findings emanated from Analysis of Co-variance (ANCOVA), Correlation analysis and t-test statistics revealed that there was no interactive influence of attendance rate and gender on academic performance, positive linear but weak association between aggregate attendance and performance in economics was observed, while significant relationship existed between students with high attendance rate that is those having seventy-five percent and above (≥75%) as compared with their counterparts having less than seventy-five percent (<75%) respectively. It was concluded that regularity and punctuality of the students not only in the school but also in the classroom during teaching-learning interaction between the teachers and the students need to be accorded great priority so as to maintain the good tone of any academic institutions. It was recommended that external reinforcement like an award to the most punctual and regular student for the academic session, inclusion of attendance level criterion for students coming on transfer from sister schools, and formulation and implementation of minimum attendance standard for students before he/she would be qualified to seat for the examination among others be given quality attention.