THE INFLUENCE OF LEARNING DISABILITIES ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SOUTHERN EDUCATION ZONE OF CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA.

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION 
1.1    Background to the Study
Schools are established to equip the youths with essential skills needed for functionality as useful and knowledgeable citizens of the country. However, examination of school records shows that students’ academic performances have remained for long very unimpressive. Obviously, this is not healthy for the growth of the country. In a study, Polom (2011) analyzed West African Examination Council (WAEC), examination in Mathematics and English Language administered in 2010, and discovered that only 27.40% of the students made at least a pass and above in the two core subjects. He equally reported that the number of those who had credit and above in a foreign Language like French Language declined from 21.34% to 17.22% (WAEC Office Data base, Calabar, February, 2012).
Poor student’s performance in WAEC Examination has for some time now been a matter of great concern to education stakeholders. Concrete evidence of students’ poor performance in   examinations could be seen in the results obtained each year in externally administered examinations like the WAEC examinations. As presented in Table 1, for example, students’ results in English Language and Mathematics provide a disturbing trend. In Mathematics only about 25% of those who attempted the examination in 2006 had credit passes and above. About 41% and 31% had passes and failing grades respectively.