The paper focused on the influence of irrational beliefs on academic performance of students in Federal Colleges of Education in the North-West Zone, Nigeria. The design employed for the study was descriptive survey. The sample made up of one thousand two hundred (1200) NCE III students. The sample was randomly selected using multistage random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a self-designed questionnaire which was validated by an expert each from Guidance and Counselling and Psychology Departments of Federal College of Education, Zaria. The instrument was pilot tested, using split half method the results of the two scores were subjected to PPMC analysis which yielded 0.73 as correlation coefficient. The data were analyzed using Frequency count and Mean Statistics to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested using ANOVA and t test statistics. The findings of the study revealed that there is overall prevalence of irrational beliefs among the respondents, that irrational beliefs influence their academic performance and that different types of irrational beliefs held by students. The study further revealed that there were significant differences in the prevalence of irrational beliefs among students based on age, gender and marital status. The paper recommended that interventions to reduce the prevalence of irrational beliefs among students’ population should be developed by teachers, counsellors, mental health professionals and that there should be adequate counselling and orientation periodically by counsellors and other stakeholders to educate on the impacts of irrational beliefs on their academic performance among others.
Keywords: : Academic Performance, Federal Colleges of Education., irrational beliefs
