Academic Facility Availability And Its Influence On Students’ Academic Performance And Enrollment: Moderating Effects Of Facility Maintenance,evidence In Ghana

The constitution of Ghana guarantees the provision of educational facilities at all levels of education and in all regions of Ghana but unfortunately some schools lack the necessary educational facilities and those who have them also are in bad condition.As a result,many studies have been made about the influence of facility availability on students.These studies have assessed the influence of a variety of factors on students’academic performance,but not much can be found on the effects of the availability and functionality of academic structures on performance and enrollment.This study explores the influence of academic facility availability(AFA)on academic performance(AP)and student enrollment(E)and the possible effects of facility maintenance(FM)as a moderating factor in various tertiary institutions in Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions of Ghana respectively.Three hundred(300)respondents comprising of 126 female students and 174male students.These respondents also were made up of undergraduate students(UG)and postgraduate students(PG)and more postgraduate students participated than undergraduates as we had 193 postgraduates and 107 undergraduates.A cross-sectional study was followed and the data was quantitatively evaluated using IBM-SPSS(version 25).Multivariate regression analysis was performed after fitness and collinearity checks were performed on the data.The models were significant(P<0.05)for AP and E with R~2values of 0.8990 and 0.7210,respectively.It was observed that a unit increase in the availability of functional academic structures(AFA)in Ghana’s educational institutions has the potential to improve students’academic performance by69.00%,keeping all other factors constant.In addition,to a significant but lesser extent,maintenance of existing facilities(FM),if improved by a unit,could also improve APs by 41.00%.A further assessment indicated that a unit improvement of the AFA in educational institutions has the potential to increase enrolments(E)by about 70.00%,while the maintenance of such facilities would improve E by only 21.00%,ceteris paribus.A multi-regression hierarchical analysis was performed to test the moderation effect of FM on the relationship between AFA and AP or E.It was found that FM significantly moderated relations between AFA and AP/E(P<0.5).The study emphasizes that tertiary institutions with appropriate facilities,both in terms of quantity and quality,can give students better exposure to practical and theoretical lessons in order to improve student success.