CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT AND STUDENTS' HEALTH MANAGEMENT IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN OHAOZARA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF EBONYI STATE, NIGERIA

The study examined the relationship between classroom environment and students' health management in junior secondary schools in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State. Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a correlation research design. The population of the study comprised all the 85 teachers in the 10 junior secondary schools in the three communities of the Local Government Area. Two self designed instruments titled "Classroom Environment Scale" (CES) and "Students' Health Management Scale" (SHMS) were used. The CES had 30 items while SHMS had 15 items respectively. The instruments were face validated by three experts. The reliability coefficients of the instruments were established through test-retest procedure using Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. Thus the coefficient of CES was 0.76 while that of SHMS was 0.71. The Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used to answer the three research questions while the three null hypotheses were tested at a probability level of 0.05. It was found among other things that physical classroom environment has a high positive relationship with students' health management. Recommendations made include among others that the school administrators should provide classrooms that have cross ventilation and good furniture in order to promote good health among students.