This study examined classroom infrastructure (space and seating adequacy) and teacher workload/attention capacity as correlates of academic performance among students in public secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, against a backdrop in which rapid Universal Basic Education-driven enrolment growth has, in many urban schools, outpaced classroom construction and staffing support. Guided by three objectives, the study examined the relationship between classroom space/seating adequacy and academic performance, examined the relationship between teacher workload/attention capacity and academic performance, and assessed the extent to which infrastructural funding and staffing-related challenges hinder effective management of both classroom space and teacher workload. Anchored on a learning-environment perspective and a resource constrained productivity perspective, the study adopted a descriptive survey design. A population of 220 teaching staff drawn from three education zones (Uyo, Eket and Ikot Ekpene) was reduced to a sample of 140 using the Taro Yamane formula, and data were collected with a structured, validated, four-point Likert-scale questionnaire whose reliability was confirmed through Cronbach's alpha (α = .80 for classroom space; α = .85 for teacher workload). Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests of independence were applied at the .05 level of significance using SPSS version 27. The findings, which are from the primary field data, show statistically significant relationships between both classroom space/seating adequacy (χ² = 12.807, df = 1, p = .0003) and teacher workload/attention capacity (χ² = 7.225, df = 1, p = .0072) and academic performance, with classroom space producing the stronger association of the two, and a further statistically significant relationship between infrastructural funding and staffing-related challenges and effective management of these two dimensions (χ² = 8.404, df = 1, p = .0037). The paper concludes that physical infrastructure adequacy may carry at least as much, and possibly more, weight than staffing-based interventions within Akwa Ibom State's specific resourcing context, and that both dimensions are themselves conditioned by funding constraints, and recommends prioritised classroom construction and furniture provision alongside interim workload-relief measures such as teaching-assistant deployment and peer-marking schemes.

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