Climate Variability and Its Effects on School Attendance in Selected Public Senior Secondary Schools in Urban Areas of Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

Good classrooms, adequate security, school location, incessant strikes have been found to significantly influence school attendance and are baseline factors in determining student success. However, little is known about the influence of climate variability on school attendance in Nigeria. Thus, the focus of this study was to examine the effects of climate variability on school attendance in urban areas of Ibadan, Nigeria. Both primary and secondary data were used. A total of 450 students were sampled randomly from five public senior secondary schools in urban areas of Ibadan. The study revealed that the awareness of climate variability was high and not significantly different among students (x2= 20.465; p>0.05). Rainfall explained 38.9% and had a significant negative correlation with school attendance (r= -0.609; p<0.05), and this was largely due to the perceived threats that come along with high rainfall in the form of violent wind. The reality of climate variability has made students to devise means of coping with its adverse effects such as; sleeping naked and frequent drinking of water. The study concluded that there should be adequate enlightenment on effective environmental interaction to mitigate the adverse effects of climate variability.