Factors affecting the scholastic achievement of Prince of Songkla University students from private schools with Islam instruction in the three southern border provinces

Abstract

The objective of this research was to study the factors affecting the scholastic achievement of Prince of Songkla University (PSU) students who came from private schools with Islam instruction in the three southern border provinces as well as an approach for quality development for the students of the above-mentioned schools toward a higher level of university scholastic achievement. The sample consisted of 918 students who had completed upper secondary education from the private schools with Islam instruction and six administrators of the schools as stated who rendered data by interview. From the discriminant analysis, only one discriminant variate best capable of discriminating university scholastic achievement was labeled as “reinforcement teaching”, which bore a high level of correlation to remedial-teaching and O-Net scores variables. From interviews with school administrators, the schools needed the government to render more support in the matter of scholarships and to provide for academic development in the form of academic coaching or participation in academic workshops under the care of teachers with area expertise. The research suggested: the government should subsidize all secular fields as well as the field of religion, and the Ministry of Education should render additional academic support by the provision of expert teachers for extra teaching in the form of reinforcement teaching or academic coaching, particularly for small schools.