Abstract

The goal of this study was to find out the influence of insecurity on the academic achievement of secondary school students within the North-Eastern Geo-political zone of Nigeria. Five research questions and five null hypotheses were formulated in harmony with the objectives of the study. The design of this study is cross- sectional survey. The population of the study was 565,180 which consisted of all students in 1263 Senior Secondary Schools of North Eastern States of Nigeria. The sample size for the study was determined using Glenn (1992) who suggested a sample size of 400 as provided on a table showing appropriate sample sizes for specific populations. Multi-stage stratified sampling procedure was used in sample selection. The researcher adapted an instrument for data collection for the study titled: Academic Achievementsof Students Performance Sheet (AASPS). The instrument in this study was subjected to validation by consulting with two experts in Educational Measurement. The consensus of the experts yielded a logical validity index approximately 0.80. The instrument was further pilot tested which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.80.The instrument was administered personally with the assistance of two research assistants. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize data related to the research questions. T-test and ANOVA were used to test the formulated null hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level. It was found at the end of the study that insecurity has negative influence on the students’ academic achievement (M = 3.16, S.D = 0.96). It was also found that insecurity has negative consequence on academic achievement of students irrespective of gender t(398) = =0.903, P = 0.367 <ttab = 1.96, religion [F(2, 397) = 7.20, P = 0.001 <Ftab = 1.96] or state of origin [F(5, 394) = 0.421, P = 0.834<Ftab= 1.96] It was therefore recommended that reform programmes as well as remedial classes be organized to address the problem faced by academically deprived victims of insurgency.