Prevalence of Acceleration among Male and Female Pupils in Selected Private Primary Schools in Sokoto Metropolis and its Implication on the Academic Performance of the Girl-child

Abstract

Acceleration of children particularly at primary and secondary schools has become a common and acceptable practice to many parents and teachers. This research focused on ascertaining the prevalence of acceleration among male and female pupils in private primary schools in Sokoto metropolis. A total of two hundred and thirty-six (236) pupils comprising of 141 males and 95 females were involved in the research. A simple questionnaire to identify pupils who skipped class and an academic performance test in English language and Mathematics were used for data collection. Frequency and percentages were used to ascertain the prevalence of skipping class among the male and female pupils while the mean, standard deviation and t-test were used to compare the performance of males who skipped class and females who skipped class. It was noted that males who skipped class performance better than females who skipped class though the general performance of females was better than that of males. This indicates that the criteria for accelerating the females were not strictly academic excellence. It was recommended that acceleration of pupils should be strictly based on academic performance and girls should not be accelerated for any other reasons.