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QUALITY FACTORS AFFECTING ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Schools, colleges and universities have no worth without students. Students are most essential asset for any educational institute. The social and economic development of the country is directly linked with students’ performance. The students’ performance (academic achievement) plays an important role in producing the best quality graduates who will become great leader and manpower for the country thus responsible for the country’s economic and social development (Ali et al, 2009). Academic achievement is an apparent phenomenon in many developing countries like Tanzania since is measured in final examination (Form  Four National Examination), whereby success is measured by academic performance or how well students meet standards set out by the National Examination Council (NECTA) and the institute itself. Students’ performance at the level of secondary has the strong impact on other levels of higher and tertiary education.  The chapter includes an explanation on why this topic will be important, research problem, the purpose and significance and the specific research questions along with the delimitations of the study.

1.2 Background of the Study 

Mosha, (2014) said that, students’ performance was affected by shortage of English teachers and absence of teaching and learning materials. However, her findings showed that, the presence of untrained, under-qualified and trained teachers who are incompetent resulted to skip teaching some difficult topics in the syllabus and students’ infrequent use of English language at school and home, large class size, teachers’  responsibilities, poor conducive teaching and learning environment in the classrooms, limited home support environment and poverty are among the factors that affecting students’ academic performance in English Language. Students’ effort, previous schooling (Siegfried &Fels, 1976; Anderson & Benjamin, 1994), parents’ education, family income (Devadoss& Foltz, 1996), self  motivation, age of student, learning preferences (Aripin, Mahmood, Rohaizad, Yeop, & Anuar, 2008), class attendance (Romer, 1993), and entry qualifications as factors that have a significant effect on the students’ academic performance in various settings. Ali Shoukat at el, said that the factors affecting academic performance are gender, age, schooling, father/guardian social economic status, residential area, medium of schooling, tuition trend, daily study hours and accommodation trend are the factors affecting academic performance.  

Graetz  (1995) conducted a study on study on socio- economic status of the parents of students and concluded that the socio economic background has a great impact on student’s academic performance. Pedrosa et. al (2006) in their study on social and educational background pointed out those students who mostly come from deprived socio-economic and educational background performed relatively better than others coming from higher social-economic and educational area. Eamon (2005) “Those students usually come out from low socio-economic status or area show low performance in studies and obtained low scores as compared to the other students or their counter parts”.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Performance in public schools is something which everyone expects to be of higher quality because of the roles the sector plays to provide service to the community, on the other hand those who failed to perform better cannot contribute well to the human resources because they don’t have skill needed. Despite of its importance, this has not been implemented effectively thus, many public schools still lack improved performance. See table 1.1 that for the four schools the students who sat for the form four examinations in 2013, more than 81.3% scored poor grades (division four and zero). This is alarming and it indicates that school performance in schools is poor.

The poor achievements in examinations among public secondary students in Tanzania reflect superficial and temporary knowledge. In last decade achievements in examinations in public secondary schools in Tanzania, Ilala district inclusive have been poor. The low achievements are related to the challenges listed. 

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