An Investigation on Students Academic Performance for Junior Secondary Schools in Botswana

Abstract

The major purpose of the study was to investigate factors which contribute to the decline in students' academic performance in junior secondary schools in Botswana since 2010. The study was mainly quantitative and used the positivist inquiry paradigm. The study employed critical theory for its theoretical framework. Questionnaires were used to gather data from two hundred participants. Some documents were analyzed to supplement the information collected through the questionnaire. Data were analysed using the computer package known as Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 15. The findings of the study showed that there were several factors that can contribute toward students' low academic performance ranging from low staff morale to students unpreparedness for the examinations. The study, therefore, recommends that high teacher's morale, availability of resources and parental involvement are critical for the attainment of high quality education in Botswana secondary schools. Furthermore, the findings of the study have implications for research and practice.

Poor Academic Performance of Students in Agriculture at Primary Schools in Botswana: Analysis of Causes and Ways to ImproveSom Pal Baliyan

“…Increasing the practical content may expose students to the real life experiences in learning agriculture as a subject and may generate student interest in learning agriculture. Tutoring is another strategy suggested for improving students' achievement (Mphale & Mhlauli, 2014). Some slow learners may need extra help in order to understand the content, which requires extra time and attention.…”

“…Boipono and Margret (2014) reported that teacher pedagogy skills, teacher training in agriculture and availability of teaching and learning materials are the major causes of poor performance of students in Agriculture in Botswana. Mphale and Mhlauli (2014) identified the contributing factors to poor performance as inadequate resources, the low morale of teachers, lack of parental involvement, lack of preparedness among teachers and students for any change, lack of incentives for teachers, lack of seriousness among students about their work, improper assessment and lack of support for homework. Kobote (2014) did not show a clear trend in the performance of students in Tanzania rural and urban schools; performance was poor in the rural schools whereas the performance of girls was poorer than that of boys in urban schools.…”

“…While students have shown poor performance in the other two subjects, the trend has become consistent in agricultural education (Sibanda et al, 2016). This state-of-affairs has seen the Ministry of Education and the teachers' union trading blames, with the former blaming the teachers for their inefficiency and incompetence and the latter blaming the former for not addressing the poor morale resulting from improper teacher-student ratio, the hasty introduction of the new syllabus, inadequate resources and unfavourable working environment for teachers (Mphale & Mhlauli, 2014).…”

“…Students' poor performance in agriculture may have consequences on the socioeconomic development of the country; it may lead to the failures in their entire Primary School Leaving Examination, which may, in turn, result in unemployment, a negative attitude towards agriculture (Baliyan & Nenty, 2015a), an unwillingness to enroll in the subject (Baliyan & Nenty, 2015b), attracting fewer youths to study agriculture and a negative effecting on the economy of the country (Macatta, 2016;Mphale & Mhlauli, 2014). Thus, poor performance of students in agriculture can have implications on Botswana's long term plan to diversify its economy (Solly & Koloi-Keaikitse, 2019) and, thus, poses a threat to the efforts of the Botswana Government to realize the objectives of its Vision 2036.…”

Structuring Determinants to Level Up Students Performance

“…Education is an important prerequisite to human development in the modern knowledge millennium. Previous studies have shown how education promoted human development and was seen by many to be in the center of any society's life and concern (MolokoMphale & Mhlauli, 2014). Similarly, Al-Shuabi (2014) noted that education is an conducted by Yusuf (2012) asserted that success of any educational institution is measured by the performance of its students.…”