AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPACT OF CLASSROOM SIZE ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NIGERIA

BACKGROUND OF STUDY: The foundation for freedom and global progress continues to be high-quality education. In order to create regulations that would improve the quality of education from elementary school to tertiary institution, all hands must be on deck globally. Continuous, effective monitoring must also be effectively developed to check any elements that may thwart this global endeavor. As a result, most nations mandate that kids attend school for a certain period of time or until they reach a specific age. The fact that students acquire new information or abilities that improve their capacity for communication, problem-solving, and decision-making accounts for a large portion of the advantages of education.

Academic success among students, particularly at the secondary school level, not only indicates whether or not schools are successful, but it also plays a significant role in determining the destiny of youth in particular and the country in general. Learning is the means through which the educational objectives of both the person and the country may be met. Learning outcomes have gained widespread attention, which is why academics have been working diligently to identify elements that undermine strong academic achievement (Aremu & Sokan, 2022). Academic accomplishment, scholastic functioning, and other terms have all been used in literature to describe this issue. Academics, parents, policymakers, and planners have all taken notice of students' academic achievements.

Many causes have been blamed for the declining standards of education where it is viewed and established in an effort to provide solid education to all corners of the globe. The problem of "class size" is one of these elements. Hoffman (2019) defined class size as the number of students per instructor in a class, whereas Adeyemi (2018) defined it as an educational tool that may be stated as the average number of students per class in a school. It is a tool that may be used to gauge how well the educational system is doing, according to Kedney (2021). The relationship between class size and performance has been the subject of much debate. Some claim that excessive class size is the primary cause of Nigeria's falling educational standards, particularly at the elementary or secondary levels, while others dismiss this claim as coincidental and point to other causes.

The size of the class has a significant impact on pupils' academic achievement. Researchers and educational experts generally agree that when class sizes grow, student performance declines. There has been much discussion and study about the impact of class size on cognitive success, but the results have been conflicting. The term "class size" refers to educational resources that may be used to identify the typical student enrollment in a class at a certain institution. ALL Nigerian Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) advised a maximum of forty pupils per class for effective and efficient teaching while highlighting the significance of class size to the learning teaching process.