Senior high school students’ usage of time and its impact on their academic achievement in Northern Ghana

Abstract

Research studies have investigated the influence of institutional characteristics on student academic achievement. However, relatively little research focuses on time utilisation and its impact on student academic achievement. The current study investigated students’ utilisation of time in public senior high schools in the Northern Region of Ghana. The study aimed to determine how students utilisation of time on self-study, group study, religious activities, and classroom instructional activities predicted their academic achievements. A total of 500 students sampled from 7 public senior high schools in the Northern Region of Ghana participated in the study. The research design employed was the cross-sectional survey research design. The instrument used to collect the data was a questionnaire. Analysis was done using multiple regression analysis with the aid of the SPSS (Version 16) software. The results suggest that the time students spent attending classes positively and significantly influences their academic achievement. Class attendance, group studies and self-studies times were found to be positively related. The study recommends that students group study and self-study activities should be made compulsory and that adequate time should be allotted within study hours for students to engage in meaningful self-study and group study activities.