Influence of School Climate on Students’ Academic Engagement in Federal Government Colleges in South West Nigeria

This study examines the influence of school climate on the academic engagement of students in Federal Government Colleges in South West Nigeria. School climate encompasses the collective perceptions of students, teachers, and administrators about the school's norms, values, safety environment, and interpersonal relationships, all of which shape students' willingness to invest effort in their learning. Federal Government Colleges, as elite national institutions, provide a distinctive context for examining climate-engagement relationships among high-achieving Nigerian adolescents. A descriptive survey design was adopted, with data collected from 450 students in Senior Secondary School One and Two across six Federal Government Colleges in Ogun, Oyo, and Ondo States. School climate was assessed using a Nigerian-adapted version of the School Climate Index covering safety, engagement, environment, and instructional quality dimensions. Academic engagement was measured through behavioural, emotional, and cognitive subscales of a validated engagement instrument. Structural equation modelling was applied. Results establish that safety climate and instructional quality dimensions have the strongest positive effects on academic engagement. Interpersonal relationship quality between teachers and students emerged as a particularly powerful engagement driver. The study concludes that investing in positive school climate, particularly instructional quality and student-teacher relations, is a high-yield strategy for improving engagement in Federal Government Colleges. It recommends that the Federal Ministry of Education incorporate climate assessment into its school quality assurance framework and establish climate improvement action plans as part of school development planning.

Keywords: school climate, academic engagement, Federal Government Colleges, South West Nigeria, student-teacher relations.