ASSESSMENT OF STUDENTS WITH COGNITIVE DISABILITY OF EPILEPSY AND THEIR ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NASARAWA STATE

The study adopted cross-sectional survey. The population of the study comprised all 157 Principals and 90 Science students from 157 senior secondary schools in Nasarawa State. Purposive sampling technique was adopted to select 20 Principals and 73 Science students from 20 Secondary Schools in Nasarawa State. The instrument used for data gathering was Proforma for Identifying Epileptic Students (PIES). PIES consist of five columns such as serial number, students’ identification number, and scores of students in Physics, Chemistry and Biology. PPIES was validated for the exercise and enabled the researcher establishes a logical index of 0.73 for rational consensus of experts and reliability of 0.75 using Cronbach coefficient Alpha method of estimating reliability to compute coefficient of internal consistency. Descriptive statistics was used to provide answers to the research questions while t-test statistics was used to test the null hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings indicate that there is significant difference between students’ academic achievement in Physics, Chemistry and Biology as influenced by acute and mild epileptic disorder. It was concluded that students with epilepsy have significantly impaired academic achievement. The study recommended the following among others, that teachers should give special attention to epileptic students in terms of suitability of teaching methods, conducive learning environment and appropriate times in order to enhance their learning ability for better achievement.