Influence of Quality Assurance Practices on Students' Academic Achievement in Public Secondary Schools in North Central Geopolitical Zone, Nigeria

Quality assurance (QA) practices are the systematic processes by which schools monitor, evaluate and improve teaching, curriculum and resource standards that shape students' academic achievement. This article, extracted from a larger doctoral study on QA practices (independent variable) and students' academic achievement (dependent variable) in public secondary schools in North Central Geopolitical Zone, Nigeria, examines instructional materials and standardized test scores, two key indices of QA. The study aimed to determine the extent to which instructional materials influence academic achievement, and to assess students' standardized test scores in relation to their achievement. A descriptive survey design was adopted. The population comprised 104,581 principals and teachers from 3,521 public secondary schools, from which 4,016 respondents were sampled using the Krejcie, Morgan and Daryle technique. A 30-item questionnaire (validity = 0.85; reliability = 0.78) was used for data collection. Research questions were analyzed using mean and standard deviation (cut-off = 2.50), while hypotheses were tested using chi-square (χ2) at 0.05 significance. Findings showed instructional materials strongly influenced academic achievement (mean = 3.79, SD = 1.95), as did standardized test scores (mean = 3.76, SD = 1.94). Both null hypotheses were rejected: instructional materials (χ2 = 255.61, df = 7, p = 0.03) and standardized test scores (χ2 = 225.40, df = 7, p = 0.03) significantly influenced achievement. The study concludes that strengthening these QA indices, through adequate instructional materials and systematic use of test data, is essential for improving academic achievement. It recommends that government and administrators regularly supply and update instructional materials, and routinely analyze test results to guide targeted instructional interventions within broader QA practice.