Student-Teacher Relationships as a Panacea for Students' Academic Performance in Nigeria Secondary Schools: An Attachment Perspective

This study examines the practices involved in student-teacher relationships vis-à-vis its correlational effect on academic performance of secondary school students in an attempt to suggest solutions to the lingering problems affecting secondary school students' academic performance in Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design was adopted and the population comprised all public secondary schools in Nigeria. Through homogenous sampling, 300 respondents were selected from the sampled schools. Two self-designed instruments, the "Student-Teacher Relationship Questionnaire (STRQ)" and the "Students Academic Performance Questionnaire (SAPQ)" were used to collect relevant data from the respondents. The face and content validity were done and the test-retest method of reliability was adopted to test the reliability of the instruments. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and Inferential Statistics and the three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed a significant correlation between the student-teacher relationships and academic performance of students in secondary schools. It also indicated that classroom engagement and motivation were significantly related to students' academic performance. The study recommends that teachers should be regularly trained and equipped with classroom engagement skills, and that they should furthermore be equipped through development programmes to develop various motivational strategies for better students' academic performance, among others.