Impact of Post-COVID-19 Lockdown on School Engagement of Secondary School Students in Idemili North, Anambra State

Abstract

The study was carried out to investigate the impact of post-Covid-19 lockdown on school engagement of secondary school students in Idemili North, Anambra State. Three research questions guided the study. The study employed a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprised all 1,774 Senior Secondary School students (SSS2) in the 16 public secondary schools in Idemili North, Anambra State. The sample of the study was 570 Secondary School students (SSS2) selected through a multi-stage sampling procedure. The instrument for data collection was a 15-item questionnaire titled "Impact of Post Covid-19 Lockdown on School Engagement of Students" which was validated by two experts in the Department of Educational Foundations, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha statistics which yielded alpha coefficients of 0.74, 0.70 and 0.76 respectively for the three clusters, while the overall co-efficient value was 0.73. This was considered high enough to confirm the instrument as reliable. The data were presented in Tables and analyzed with arithmetic mean. The findings of the study revealed that post-Covid-19 lockdown has a positive impact on the behavioural, cognitive engagement and emotional engagement of students. It was summarily concluded that post-Covid-19 lockdown has a positive impact on the academic engagement of secondary school students. It was recommended that school authorities should make their school environment enriching to help the students reignite their passion for learning.