<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD JATS (Z39.96) Journal Publishing DTD v1.2 20190208//EN"
  "https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/1.2/JATS-journalpublishing1.dtd">
<article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
         article-type="original-research-article">

  <front>
    <journal-meta>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">JCARM</journal-id>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title>Journal of Contemporary Academic Research and Methodologies</journal-title>
        <abbrev-journal-title>JCARM</abbrev-journal-title>
      </journal-title-group>
            <issn pub-type="epub">3139-7247</issn>
            <publisher>
        <publisher-name>Ivory and Finch Publishers</publisher-name>
      </publisher>
    </journal-meta>

    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5281/zenodo.22683714</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">JCARM_AUG_26_018</article-id>

      <article-categories>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
          <subject>Original Research Article</subject>
        </subj-group>
      </article-categories>

      <title-group>
        <article-title>WEST AFRICAN SCHOOL CERTIFICATE PHYSICS EXAMINATION ACHIEVEMENT AS PREDICTOR OF PHYSICS EDUCATION STUDENTS’ GENDER CLASS OF DEGREE IN NORTH CENTRAL, NIGERIA</article-title>
      </title-group>

      <contrib-group>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
                        <surname>ABUBAKAR AHMED</surname>
            <given-names>NA&#039;ALLAH</given-names>
          </name>
                    <contrib-id contrib-id-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4421-9635</contrib-id>
                    <aff>Physics Department, School Of Science, College Of Education, Akwanga, Nigeria.</aff>
          <email>bukarni12@gmail.com</email>
        </contrib>
              </contrib-group>

            <pub-date pub-type="epub">
        <day>10</day>
        <month>09</month>
        <year>2026</year>
      </pub-date>
      <volume>1</volume>
      <issue>7</issue>
      
      
            <self-uri xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22683714"/>
      
      <abstract>
        <p>This study investigates the West African School Certificate Physics examination achievement as a predictor of Physics Education students’ gender and class of degree in North Central, Nigeria. Ex-post facto design was adopted for the study. The study population comprised 989 Physics Education graduates from universities who completed their programme from 2014/2015 to 2018/2019 sessions. Multistage sampling techniques were employed to sample 694 (442 Males and 252 Females) students. The Physics Entry Qualifications and Universities Degree Proforma (PEQUDP) was employed as an instrument for data collection, whose reliability index was 0.84, obtained using Cronbach&#039;s Alpha. The research questions were answered with Pearson Product-Moment Correlation, while the null hypotheses were tested with Regression analysis. The findings reveal that Male students&#039; WASSCE Physics grades significantly predicted their class of degrees in Physics Education (t=9.968; p=0.000 α=0.05); Female students&#039; WASSCE Physics grades significantly predicted their class of degrees in Physics Education (t=4.588; p=0.000 α=0.05). The study recommends that WASSCE Physics grades should serve as a criterion for admitting students into university programmes because they predict gender achievement; gender equality should be considered in students’ enrolment to increase the number of female students to serve as role models.</p>
      </abstract>

            <kwd-group kwd-group-type="author-keywords">
                <kwd>Achievement</kwd>
                <kwd>Class of Degree</kwd>
                <kwd>Gender</kwd>
                <kwd>Predictor</kwd>
                <kwd>Physics Education.Introduction</kwd>
              </kwd-group>
      
      <history>
        <date date-type="received">
          <day>06</day>
          <month>08</month>
          <year>2026</year>
        </date>
                <date date-type="accepted">
          <day>11</day>
          <month>08</month>
          <year>2026</year>
        </date>
              </history>

      <permissions>
        <copyright-statement>Copyright &copy; 2026 by the authors</copyright-statement>
        <license license-type="open-access">
          <license-p>This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.</license-p>
        </license>
      </permissions>

    </article-meta>
  </front>

    <back>
    <ref-list>
      <title>References</title>
                      <ref id="ref-1">
          <mixed-citation>Arencibia Alemán, J. M., Sandsør, A. M. J., Zachrisson, H. D., &amp;amp; Blömeke, S. (2024). Teacher-assigned grades and external exams: Sources of discrepancy. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy &amp;amp; Practice, 31(2), 94–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594X.2024.2338764⁠</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-2">
          <mixed-citation>Chabrier, G. (2025). From the cradle: Applying basic physics to astrophysical fundamental questions. Bulletin of the AAS, 57(2). https://doi.org/10.3847/25c2cfeb.c924491d</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-3">
          <mixed-citation>Diamond, B. (2021). Measurement validity. In J. C. Barnes &amp;amp; D. R. Forde (Eds.), The encyclopedia of research methods in criminology and criminal justice. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119111931.ch16</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-4">
          <mixed-citation>Egolum, E. O., &amp;amp; Ndubueze, J. C. (2026). External examination results as predictors of degree performance among Physics Education students in universities in South-East Nigeria. UNIZIK Journal of Educational Research, Science and Vocational Studies (UJERSVOCS), 4(1), 66–79.</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-5">
          <mixed-citation>El-Moussa, O. J. (2023). The challenge of predicting college success in male and female Saudi Arabian students: An examination of whether high school GPA, Qudrat, and Tahsili are effective predictors (Publication No. 30815747) [Doctoral dissertation, The University of North Dakota]. ProQuest Dissertations &amp;amp; Theses Global.</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-6">
          <mixed-citation>Florenzano Hernández, V., Alarcón-Bustamante, E., Varas, I. M., &amp;amp; Godoy, M. I. (2026). Beyond a single coefficient: A model-based framework for local predictive validity along the score scale. Journal of Educational Measurement, 63(3), e70052. https://doi.org/10.1111/jedm.70052</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-7">
          <mixed-citation>Gong, R., Guo, H., An, J., Peng, Y., Qiao, G., Sun, N., Shao, P., Ye, J., Zhou, Y., &amp;amp; Lu, H. (2025). Electric field modulation and hot-electron suppression in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on Si using a hybrid p-NiO RESURF-FP termination. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 58(35), 355104. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/adfc7a[reference:2]</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-8">
          <mixed-citation>Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board. (2024). 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and Direct Entry (DE) information brochure and general entry requirements. https://jamb.gov.ng/PDFs/2024/ADVERT_2024_UTME.pdf⁠</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-9">
          <mixed-citation>Kim, S. (2025). Monte Carlo simulation for the radiation dose enhancement effect of gold nanoparticles in brachytherapy. Progress in Medical Physics, 36(1), 8–13.</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-10">
          <mixed-citation>Muhammad, A. A., &amp;amp; Isaac, H. (2022). Predictive validity of SSCE grades and UTME points on final CGPA of students of Bauchi State University Gadau, Bauchi State. Gadau Journal of Pure and Allied Sciences, 1(1), 1–10.</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-11">
          <mixed-citation>Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council (2020). Senior secondary education curriculum: Physics. NERDC Press</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-12">
          <mixed-citation>Okebukola, P. (2018). Science education for sustainable development in Africa: The journey so far. In A.S. Ifamuyiwa (Ed.), Proceedings of the 59th Annual Conference of the Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN): Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Economic Growth (pp. 28-39). Science Teachers Association of Nigeria.</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-13">
          <mixed-citation>Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2023). Education at a Glance 2023: OECD indicators. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/e13bef63-en⁠</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-14">
          <mixed-citation>Orji, F. O., Okeke, E. R., Ilo, U. C., Nwosu, J. A., &amp;amp; Esomnofu, C. (2026). Gender disparity in STEM participation: Classroom-level evidence on girls&#039; engagement in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics in public secondary schools in Abuja, Nigeria. International Journal of Education and Evaluation, 12(1), 268–282.</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-15">
          <mixed-citation>Russo, F., &amp;amp; Cirelli, C. (2025). Energy sustainability of urban areas by green systems: Applied thermodynamic entropy and strategic modeling means. Atmosphere, 16(8), 975. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos16080975[reference:0]</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-16">
          <mixed-citation>Serway, R. A., &amp;amp; Jewett, J. W., Jr. (2025). Physics for scientists and engineers (11th ed.). Cengage</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-17">
          <mixed-citation>Tapela, B., &amp;amp; Simon, N. (2025). Evaluating gender gaps in STEM achievement in African secondary schools: A quantile regression and mediation analysis approach. Frontiers in Education, 10, Article 1607412. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1607412</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-18">
          <mixed-citation>Ugochukwu, K. O., Osuala, R. C., &amp;amp; Felista, U. I. (2024). Senior school certificate examination (SSCE) mathematics grade as a predictor of students&#039; first year grade point average (GPA) in three science courses of South-East universities in Nigeria. African Journal of Science, Technology and Mathematics Education, 10(2), 178–184.</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-19">
          <mixed-citation>UNESCO. (2024). Changing the equation: Securing STEM futures for women. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391384⁠</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                              <ref id="ref-20">
          <mixed-citation>United Nation Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2026, February 6). Advancing gender equality in STEM education: Inspiring girls to pursue science. UNESCO. https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/advancing-gender-equality-stem-education-inspiring-girls-pursue-science</mixed-citation>
        </ref>
                  </ref-list>
  </back>
  
</article>
