Influencing Extent of Co-Curricular Activities on the Level of Social Development and Academic Achievement of Secondary School Students

1. Lecturer, Department of Education, University of Education Lahore, Dera Ghazi Khan Campus, Punjab, Pakistan 2. Assistant Professor, Department of Education, University of Education Lahore, Dera Ghazi Khan Campus, Punjab, Pakistan 3. Assistant Professor, Department of Education, University of Education Lahore, Dera Ghazi Khan Campus, Punjab, Pakistan PAPER INFO ABSTRACT Received: April 17, 2020 Accepted: June 15, 2020 Online: June 30, 2020 This study was intended to find out the effect of different cocurricular activities on the social development and academic achievement of students at secondary level. One thousand two hundred and forty-one (1241) students of session 2012-2014 were taken through simple random sampling technique for this study. This study was descriptive in nature having quantitative design. Two research tools were used; the inventory of the coCurricular activities and the second tool was five points social development Scale (SDS) devised by Sierra, R. A. in (2005) to determine the level of social development in the students. The summative results of 9th grade students were utilized to determine their achievement. The Co-curricular activities (CCA) were categorized into two major parts; sports activities and literary activities. The collected data were analyzed by applying descriptive statistics. The results of the study showed that the students involved too much in sports activities having low academic achievement with high social development, the students involved in literary activities had moderate academic achievement and social development and the students having zero involvement in both types of activities had high academic achievement with low level of social development


Introduction
Co curricular activities (CCAs) may be defined as the activity within or outside the class by the students or a program of learning managed or supervised by any educational institution which focuses on the curriculum related learning and the experiences regarding character building of the students. CCAs are not the part of the school curriculum rather voluntary may be conducted out of the school premises by associations and clubs. Co curricular activities are most often considered significant to enhance students' self confidence, self discipline, social interaction, leadership qualities and healthy recreation. At secondary level of education, most of the educational psychologists have had strong arguments that CCAs may enhance the academic performance of the students (Kumar, 2004). For over 100 years, the presence of co-curricular activities has been in a hot discussion. Camp (1990) quoted that prior to 1900; educational leaders were not in favor of such kinds of activities and called these as extra-curricular activities (ECA) for public school students. The opponents of ECA argue that these activities distract efforts and time from academic and impact negatively on students' achievements (Lewis, 2004).
The proponent of such activities are of the opinion that these activities have been playing an important role in creating social development and socialization in the students at schools for more than 60 years (Kleese, 1994).
The social development and socialization focuses on the development of different aspects of individual's behavior in a social context. In human life, this process goes from birth till death and man learn about values and behavior. Any interest in differential effects of early experiences of the infant, of child-rearing practices, of the peer group influences and any of the factors which may shape configuration of behavior that is considered to the personality, directs us to the subject area of social development (Muzaffar, 2016;David & Macmillan, 2018).
Co-curricular activities are considered an integral part of educational institutions and exist at all levels from schooling to university. These activities are not the part of basic academic curriculum but their importance is widely accepted and acknowledged. Students who remains involved and take interest in CCAs develop different facets of their personalities. They learn social cooperation, leadership skills, self confidence and self esteem. These activities help the students to blend the academic learning into personal actions (Allison, 2009). CCA may serve as one of the most important reasons to help the students to stay at school and competitions and real-world simulations make them capable to enrich and extend the academic skills (Haensly, 2018).
Co-curricular activities help and encourage the learner to develop and accomplish inter personal skills. The students who always remain ambitious to take part in such kind of activities (CCAs) have had excellent opportunities for performing responsible role within the society. From these experiences, students gain sense of efficacy which proves an important protective factor in future (Wagner, 1999. Goal-directed co-curricular activities foster positive character traits and develop skills in young people. These activities can teach the participants the importance of patience, hard work, vigilance and to face setbacks at individual level and group activities encourages personal sacrifice, cooperation and teamwork to become a successful, responsible and productive adult (Zill &Loomis, 2005).
Co curricular activities may enhance and develop the numerous faculties of the mind and personality like intellectual development, social development, personality development and moral development. Such kinds of activities upgrade and promote the vitality, positive thinking, sympathy, tolerance and team spirit which in turn contribute to the personality development of the individuals. The significant contribution of an excellent educational institution may be the excellent teaching and learning helping children to develop confidence, learn about leadership, responsibility, teamwork and successful relationships (Balls, 2008).
The effects of CCAs, in the beginning, were not felt in the educational and school set up. Then, gradually with the passage of time, the educationists and the psychologists started realizing that the co curricular activities have had some influence on the behavior modification as well as the performance of the students. Co curricular activities, in the start, were taken only for the purpose of recreation, therefore discouraged to avoid the wastage of the students' precious time they spent in academic activities (Marsh, 2002).
During this era and as per the new and novel situation, the educational institutions have had firm belief that such activities develop the different personality aspects of the children like social development, moral development as well as the cognitive abilities (Stephen, 2002). The results of the different studies have confirmed that there exists a positive correlation between the adoption of Co curricular activities and the academic achievement of the students (Guest, 2003).
According to a study conducted by Miller in 2005, on the impact of Co curricular activities on students performance, the results reveal that such kind of activities enhance the academic grades as well as develop in the students the traits like higher educational aspiration, more satisfaction with the schools and teachers, higher life satisfaction, less involvement in delinquent behavior and less drug and alcohol use (Crosnoe, 2002). Miller in (2005 confirmed that there is a positive correlation exists between Co curricular activities (Sports) and scholastic achievement of the students.
In order to strengthen the interaction among the students as well as building students communication skills, the role of the co curricular activities is considered pivotal. Azmi in (2000) was agreed upon the notion that the fundamental responsibility of the co curricular activities is to develop communication among the students which further leads to strengthen the social development in the students. A social skill is one aspect of emotional intelligence which will define the excellence of the students in any situation. Intellectual intelligence alone is not enough for a person to be excellent. Co curricular activities can help a person to build up his social skills (Barber, 2010).
The basic idea behind the conduction of Co Curricular activities in the educational institutes is to groom the students' overall personality a part from the specified curricular activities which sometimes exhaust the students. Unluckily, in the Pakistani educational institutions, such kinds of activities have not been given the due significance since a lot of previous years. All the attention is being given to the text book in order to earn the better grades in the examination. This exercise of rote learning is resulting in the form of personality gap in the students with the generation of non social behavior, lack of sympathy, tolerance and morality. This study is conducted to determine the extent of adoption of Co Curricular activities by the students of public secondary schools in Punjab Pakistan and also to determine its impacts on students' academic achievement and social development. The study may prove helpful for all the stakeholders like students, teachers, parents and the school administration for the proper use of such kind of activities in order to develop the personality of the students.

Research Questions
1. Do the students having zero involvement in co-curricular activities have high Academic Achievement?
2. Do the students having no involvement in co-curricular activities have high Social Development?
3. Do the students having sometimes involvement in co-curricular activities have high Achievement in academics?
4. Do the pupils having sometimes involvement in co-curricular activities have high Social Development?
5. Do the students having most involvement in co-curricular activities have had high Academic Achievement?
6. Do the students having mostly involvement in co-curricular activities have high Social Skills?

Material and Methods
This study was conducted to explore the position of CCAs being in progress at different secondary schools situated in the Punjab. One thousand two hundred and forty one students including male and female were selected from secondary schools situated in Layyah district from the target population 6487 students. The sufficient sample size was selected by applying Cochran Formula (Cochran, 1977) and research advisor table in this study to avoid the sampling error. Simple random sampling (SRS) technique was used to select the desired sample. The study was delimited to two main categories of co-curricular activities; activities related to sports and literary activities like debates, seminars and speech contests etc. The extent of adoption was divided into four categories like no participation, low participation, moderate participation and high participation. The information regarding such categories of the students was sought by the concerned teacher and the students. After matching the opinions of the teacher and the taught, the students were included in the respective category. The students against each category on different levels of co-curricular activities were assessed on the standardized social development scale devised by R. A. et al in 2005. The Social Development Scale (SDS) was comprised of four factors having five statements in each factor. In SDS there were only 20 statements having total score 100 on each student questionnaire. The score was categorized as 70 and >70 High, 50-70 Moderate, below 50 as Low.
The academic achievement was taken in term of student summative results in 9 th grade from concerned Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Educations. The score on social development Scale was further classified into three levels as 70 and >70 High, 50-70 Moderate, below 50 as Low. The Academic Achievement of the students was classified as >70% High, 50%-70% Moderate, below 50% as Low. The collected data were arranged, tabulated and statistics like percentage were used to generalize the results. The research questions were developed keeping in view the design of the study. Research questions were properly answered through the analysis of collected data. Table No 1 depicts that 66.26 % of the respondents from study sample never take part in sports activities, 16.66 % of the respondent once or twice take part in any game, 12.56 % study sample sometimes take part in game and only 4.52% respondent continuously take part in sports activities. Similarly, in literary activities79.83% "never" took part, 15.46% of the sample "sometimes" take part in these activities and only 4.99% of the study sample take part "mostly" in these activities. The overall students' level of adoption in co-curricular activities showed that most of them (71.83%) never take part in CCAs, 14.93% participate sometimes and only 8.81% mostly take part in co-curricular activities. Table No 2 shows the participation level of the students in sports and literary activities and their extent of academic achievement. In the first category, those students were shown who never take part in sports and literary activities. Out of these (947) students, 49 % of the study sample got higher academic achievement, 30 % got moderate academic achievement, whereas, only 21 % of the respondents remained at low level of academic Achievement. In the second category, the achievement of those students has been shown who sometimes take part in sports and literary activities. The respondents who "sometimes" take part in sports and literary activities were 185 in number. Out of this study sample, 14 % respondents got higher academic achievement, 48 % respondents stood in moderate level of academic achievement and 38 % were in low level of academic achievement. In the third category 109 students were shown who mostly take part in sports and literary activities. Out of 109 students, the academic achievement of 89 students was at lower level and 14 students showed moderate level of academic achievement. Only six students (09%) in this category touched the higher level of academic achievement.  Table No. 3 depicts the social development of study sample. The results showed that 947 respondents never took part in any game or literary activity out of which 8.48% respondents were at low level of social development, 39.56% respondents were in "moderate" level of social development and 51.96% of respondents were at low level of social development. 185 respondents out of study sample "sometimes" took part in co-curricular activities out of which 26.94 % were at "higher" level of social development, 62.19% respondents were at "moderate" level of social development and 10.87% respondents were at "low" level of social development. In this study sample 109 respondents were those who "mostly" took part in co-curricular activities out of which 49.67% respondents were in "high" level of social development, 27.49 % were in "moderate" level and 22.83% were in "low" level of social development

Answers of Research Questions Question No. 1
Students having zero involvement in CCAs have high academic achievement as the results showed that the study sample who "never" took part in sports activities have 48.29% of "high" academic achievement and similarly in literary activities 49.29% of study sample was in the category of "high" academic achievement. In both categories 48.79 % of the study sample was in "high" level of academic achievement. (Table No 2

Question No. 2
Students having no involvement in co-curricular activities have "low" level of social development as the results showed that the study sample who "never" took part in sports activities have 52.59% of "low" social development and similarly in literary activities 51.33% of study sample was in the category of "low" social development. In both categories 51.96 % of the study sample was in "low" level of social development. (Table No 3

Question No. 3
Students having "sometimes" attachment in co-curricular activities (CCAs) have "moderate" level of academic achievement in sports activities as 26.81% sample of falls in this category and in literary activities 69.27% of respondents have "moderate" level of the overall percentage of 48.04% of both categories depicts that that the students who participate "sometimes" in literary and sports activities have moderate level of academic achievement" (Reference Table No 2)

Question No. 4
Students having "sometimes" involvement in co-curricular activities have "moderate" level of social development in sports activities as 26.81% sample of falls in this category and in literary activities 69.27% of respondents have "moderate" level of the overall percentage of 62.19% of both categories depicts that that the students who participate "sometimes" in sports and literary activities have moderate level of social development" (Table No 3).

Question No. 5
Students having most of the time involvement in co-curricular activities have "low" level of academic achievement in sports activities as 1.92% sample of falls in this category and in literary activities 16.12% of respondents have "low" level, of the overall percentage of 9.02% of both categories depicts that that the students who participate "sometimes" in sports and literary activities have moderate level of academic achievement" (Table No 2).

Question No. 6
Students' "mostly" involvement in co-curricular activities have "high" level of social development in sports activities as 49.35% sample falls in this category and in literary activities 50.04% of respondents have "high" level of the overall percentage of 49.07% of both categories depicts that that the students who participate "mostly" in sports and literary tricks have moderate level of social development" (Table No 3).

Conclusion
In response to objective number one of the study, the overall level of adoption of Co-Curricular activities by the sampled secondary schools was found very low. Only 28% of the sample of the study was participating in the co curricular activities out of which nine percent (09%) were participating mostly while 19% were rarely participating in CCAs. It means that neither Government nor the educational institutions are laying proper emphasis on the conduction of CCAs. The results of this study are in line with the results of the study conducted by Ismat and Rakhsi in Peshawar Pakistan on "Role of Co curricular activities: Survey of the Perceptions of Stake holders" in which they concluded that co curricular activities are given less importance in the Pakistani educational institutions. This shows that in the present scenario, the educational institutions in Pakistan at secondary level are just focusing on the earning of better marks and grades by the students. The other personality indicators of the students are totally ignored that is why the students enter the community with imbalanced personality.
She also added that such kind of wave against Co Curricular activities and towards curricular activities can only been seen from the last two decades. A trend in the Pakistani educational institutions has emerged that the attainment of better grades is the last and final objective of the secondary education. A decisive role of the parents in this race of better grades also diverted the attention of the educational institutions from Co curricular to curricular activities only. The results of this study are also in line with the results of another study conducted by Iqbal Muhammad in Pakistan on "Role of Co curricular activities in school effectiveness", in which he also concludes the less significant level of adoption of CCAs in the Pakistani Schools. Most of the secondary schools in Pakistan particularly in private sector do not have the appropriate infrastructure like sports grounds, lawns and floral orchards. This kind of school environment is considered inevitable for the grooming of the balanced personality of the child.
In response to the objective number two of the study, the results showed that 947 students (n=947) never took part in any kind of CCAs. The academic achievements of these students were counted from the BISE's 9 th class results which depicted that 50% from these got high academic achievement, 30% got moderate and 20% got low academic achievement. The students who sometimes took part in CCAs were 185 in number out of which 14% got high degree of achievement, 48% got moderate and 38% got low degree of achievement. The third category of students who Mostly took part in CCAs were 109 in number, out of which 89 students were at low level of achievement, 14 were at moderate level and only six were at high level of achievement. It means that the extreme position was not suitable for the academic achievement. The students who were mostly involved in CCAs have had low academic achievement as compared to those students who were less involved in CCAs. This result of the study was parallel with the results of the studies conducted by Miller, 2005, Marsh 2002, Wang, 2009and Zhang in 2001 In response to the objective number three, the students mostly involved in CCAs have had high level of Social development while the students who never participates in CCAs have low level of social development while the student who Sometimes took part in CCAs have moderate level of Socialization. The students having much involved in CCAs have had low academic achievement and those who never involved in CCAs have had high academic performance with low socialization. This shows that a balanced must be there in Curricular and Co Curricular activities because both have proved essential for the overall personality development of the child. The results of this study are also the same as the results of the study conducted by Sandra in 2016 on "Co curricular activities and its effects on Social Skills" in which he concluded that CCAs develop socialization among the students. The results of this study also support the results of the studies conducted by Ahmad et al (2016) on "School environment and political awareness at secondary level" and "Role of Pakistan Studies in promoting political socialization in Pakistan" where it was concluded that socialization is an important factor or indicator of some ones personality. This is why to develop socialization among the secondary level students considered inevitable which is possible through the conduction of CCAs at school level. Therefore in the schools, the teachers and school administration and while at home, the parents may utilize the results of this study in developing a balanced personality of the children.

Recommendations
The results of the study suggest the following recommendations to the stakeholders: 1. The Schools should emphasize on the conduction of Co Curricular activities.
2. The School education department should include the co curricular activities in the academic calendar.
3. Participation in Co Curricular activities should be declared compulsory at school level and all the students should me motivated to participate in these activities by the Physical education teachers.
4. There should be a balance between the curricular and co curricular activities.
5. Literary activities should be given more importance than sports activities.
6. Sports activities should not be ignored totally.
7. Suitable and proper timings should be granted to sports activities in schools.