THE PERCIEVED INFLUENCE OF A SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME ON THE ACADEMIC PERFOMANCE OF PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PUPILS IN IFELODUN LGA, OSUN STATE

Abstract

Abstract

Poor nutrition of school children has become a critical set-back towards academic performance across the globe. This study investigated the perceived influence of the cooking environment, the nutritional value of food and its quality on the academic performance of public elementary school pupils in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Osun State. Descriptive research design of the survey type was employed for this study. The population comprised of all public elementary schools in Ikirun Town of Ifelodun LGA, Osun State. A Simple random sampling technic was used to select 15 schools while purposive sampling was used to select 10 senior teachers (respondents) from each fifteen elementary schools in Ikirun Town. A reliability co-efficient of 0.82r was obtained through a test re-test method. Chi-Square (ᵡ2) was used to analyze all the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The results of this study revealed that the nutritional value of the food served is significant to pupils’ academic performance in public primary schools in with the Cal.v X2 (84.52)>crit.v (21.03) at 0.05 and its quality is significant to pupils’ academic performance with the Cal.v X2 (32.39)>crit.v (21.03) all at 0.05 alpha level of degree of freedom. It was concluded that nutritional value and the quality of the food served were significant and important if school feeding programme will enhance pupils’ academic performance. Therefore, it was recommended that balanced diet and good nutrition should be implemented by the school authorities, so as to encourage proper academic performance among the school pupils.