JCARM Journal of Contemporary Academic Research and Methodologies JCARM 3139-7247 Ivory and Finch Publishers 10.5281/zenodo.21300636 JCARM_JUN_26_180 Original Research Article BUDGETARY ALLOCATION, LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY, AND STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIAN PUBLIC SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS: EVIDENCE FROM WASSCE RESULTS (2013–2022) Sharafdeen Atanda LAWAL https://orcid.org/https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3859-4532 Language Arts Social Science Education, Lagos State University atlawsha3@gmail.com 10 07 2026 1 5

This study investigated the three-dimensional connection between budgetary allocation , language proficiency, and students’ academic achievement in public senior secondary schools in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study examined the causes of the continued existence of unequal academic performance despite steady increases in educational funding using data from the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) from 2013 to 2022. The study employed a correlational research approach to investigate the connection between financial inputs and cognitive outputs. The Questionnaire on Educational Budgetary Allocation, Language Proficiency, and Academic Performance (QEBALPAP) was utilized to gather secondary data in addition to WASSCE results and official government budget records. The analysis was conducted using Pearson Product-Moment Correlation and multiple regression analysis.he study's central hypothesis was that students' proficiency in English, the primary language of teaching, determines how well financial investments in educational resources work. The results showed a weak, negative, and non-significant relationship between academic success and overall financial allocation. Importantly, the findings showed that when students' language ability is low, more funding does not improve their performance because linguistic constraints make it difficult for them to effectively engage with the financed instructional resources. The study comes to the conclusion that without equivalent knowledge of the instructional language, financing alone is insufficient for academic performance. In order to guarantee that expenditures directly improve the linguistic and cognitive competencies necessary for WASSCE success, recommendations include the strategic allocation of funds toward language-enhancement programs and state-of-the-art language laboratories, as well as improved accountability mechanisms and school-level budget autonomy.

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