T. Bulala ET AL.
OPEN ACCESS
exposed to good study habits, and highly motivated to study
with conducive learning environment; hence these factors en-
courage the students from urban schools to perform better than
those from rural schools. Young (2001) concluded that rural
students perform less well than urban students on standardized
tests of educational achievement. Mkpugbe (1998) noted that
different aspects of school environment influence students’
achievement. She further stated that the individual students’
academic behavior is influenced not only by the motivating
forces of his home, scholastic ability, and academic values, but
also by the social pressure applied by the participants in the
school setting. In Botswana, most rural-based schools which
lack enough qualified teachers, are poorly equipped and lack
basic amenities and all these serve as inhibiting factors of good
academic performance. Combining school location and other
variables on science performance may or may not produce the
desired result. This study therefore seeks to evaluate the effect
of gender, socio-economic status and school location on per-
formance in integrated science. This finding was earlier on
elaborated by Okunrontifa (1973) who observed that most stu-
dents living in rural environments of Nigeria have significantly
lower entry behaviour than their urban centered counterparts. In
his/her study, he exhibited significant differences in the aca-
demic performance and research involvement of students com-
ing from urban and rural backgrounds. Students from highly
urbanized background reported the best academic indicators,
while students from rural and remote backgrounds reported the
poorest. He opined that this could be influenced by the poor class
attendance due to students travelling long distances.
However, Axtel and Bowers (1972) in their findings reported
that students from the rural areas perform significantly better
than their urban counterparts in verbal aptitude, English Lan-
guage and total score using the National Common Entrance as a
baseline. In another development, a research team at University
of Aston recorded that it had received several well-founded re-
ports that secondary schools have found pupils from small rural
schools not only as well prepared academically as pupils from
other schools, but they generally had a better attitude to work.
Having been accustomed to working most of the time on their
own, they could be given more responsibility for the organiza-
tion of their work. Size could not exert significant direct effect
on pupils’ attitude towards science. Similar view was expressed
by Gana (1997) in his study on the effect of using designed
visual teaching models on the learning of mathematics at Junior
Secondary level of Niger Stat e, who found out that there was no
significant difference in mathematics achievement scores of
students in urban and rural locations.
From the various reviews of literature on locational influence
on academic performance, it has been observed that the find-
ings are not the same. While some maintain that urban students
perform better in examinations than their rural counterparts,
other studies have found that rural students (in spite of all odds)
perform better. Some have submitted in their findings and con-
cluded that no particular setup (urban or rural) can claim supe-
riority over the other because their performances are the same.
Alokan (2010) found out that students’ problems are strongly
associated with poor performance and that sex and location do
not affect the negative relationship between student problems
and academic performance. In another development, Considine
and Zappala (2002) studied students in Australia and found out
that geographical location does not significantly predict out-
comes in school performance. Shield and Dockrell (2008) while
looking at the effects of classroom and environmental noise on
children’s academic performance, found out that both chronic
and acute exposure to environmental and classroom noise have
a detrimental effect upon children’s learning and performance.
Statement of the Problem
Morgan (1989) used the term predictive validity to refer to
the extent to which achievement tests can be appropriately used
to draw inferences regarding students' future performance.
There are numerous purposes of assessing students in agricul-
ture education, both in theory and in practical. Continuous as-
sessment can be motivational in that it motivates students to
study and practice hard. Students tend to study and practice
hard when they are told well in advance that they will be as-
sessed in the near future. Results of assessment do not only
help students on how much to prepare themselves, but also
provide useful feedback information on pupils’ strength and
weakness in different practical activities and also in different
areas of the subject. This information is useful to teachers, par-
ents and students themselves.Most students record high CA
scores, but then perform badly in JC examinations. Given that
CA assesses practical skills that are generated from the same
specific objectives as theory it would be expected that it should
enhance learning and as such be reflected with good overall
examination performance.In view of these inconclusive find-
ings, it is necessary to carry out further research to confirm or
annul the otherwise protracted issue on the effect of location
(urban, peri-urban and rural) as a factor in the prediction of
performance in Botswana Junior School Certificate Agriculture
examinations using continuous assessment scores.
Purpose and Objectives
The purpose of the study was to determine whether agricul-
ture CA scores predict academic performance in JSCE and
equally so for urban, peri-urban and rural schools. Some earlier
studies (Thobega & Masole, 2008; Masole & Utlwang, 2005)
have revealed coursework and forecast grades to be good pre-
dictors of BGCSE grades and in agriculture grades, but none
have been found trying to determine location-based predictive
validity. Hence this study aims at investigating the predictive
strength of these two variables on JC agricultural examinations.
Botswana being a developing country has schools spread in
rural and urban locations hence the study specifically aims at
determining the extent to which school location influences the
prediction of students’ performance in JC agricultural examina-
tion by CA.
Hence more specifically the objective of this study is to:
• Determine the extent to which school location has influ-
ence on the ability of CA scores to predict performance in JC
agricultural examinations.
Research Hypothesis
In the null form it states that:
• Location of school does not significantly influence the
ability of CA scores to predict performance in JC agricultural
examinations
Methodology
The study population comprised all presented candidates for
