Dilemma of Basic School Pupils in Northern Ghana with respect to Their Learning Context

Hakim Abdallah,Moses Naiim Fuseini,Amadu Musah Abudu,Yusif Nuhu

doi:10.1155/2014/140737

Abstract

Lately, basic school pupils have performed poorly in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) as well as in their end of term examinations and this necessitated an enquiry into the phenomenon. The study used the cross-sectional study design. The sample size was 195. The study collected data using a questionnaire. Data analysis involved using descriptive statistics. The study found that largely pupils from academically performing and nonacademically performing schools have similar perceptions about causes of poor academic performance. Again, the combined effect of home and school environmental factors emerged as the major contributor to poor academic performance. The study recommends that providing a conducive home environment for the pupils, tackling pupil and teacher related factors, would help to ensure that poor academic performance is a thing of the past.

Highlights

For students to achieve high academic laurels, they need to believe that they can learn and that what they are learning is useful, relevant, and meaningful for them and for the society at large [1]
In terms of the top five school learning environmental factors that account for poor academic performance, the results show that teachers rushing to complete topics, lack of adequate preparation of teachers before coming to teach, lack of commitment of teachers to their work, teacher absenteeism, and lack of competent teachers fall within that category
In terms of the top five school learning environmental factors that contribute to poor academic performance, the results show that students’ absenteeism, lack of seriousness of the pupil in class, lack of commitment of teachers to their work, poor motivation of teachers, and lack of teaching and learning materials emerged as the most significant causes of poor academic performance of pupils

Summary

Introduction

For students to achieve high academic laurels, they need to believe that they can learn and that what they are learning is useful, relevant, and meaningful for them and for the society at large [1]. The learning environment must be conducive for students to be able to achieve this goal. The learning environment is twofold, home and school. The parents or guardians of these pupils are responsible for providing the right home environment that will facilitate effective learning for their wards [2], so are the school authorities. This, might not continue as most pupils are unable to pass their exams with distinction. This is attributable to certain hindrances they meet as they learn

Methods

Results

Conclusion