Factors Influencing Students’ Academic Performance in Junior Secondary Schools in Maun, Botswana

Abstract

Students’ academic performance is determined by certain intrinsic and extrinsic attributes, which are shrouded in their stages of development. The focus of this study was, therefore, to analyse factors influencing students’ performance in two randomly selected junior secondary schools in Maun, Botswana. Guided by McClelland’s motivational theory, a multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select a sample of 124 students. Demographic/socioeconomic data were obtained from the students in the study area through the use of questionnaires. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics (including mean and standard deviation) were used to summarise the data while Cramer’s V, Pearson product-moment correlation, multiple linear regression, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were employed to determine the relationships between explanatory variables and students’ academic performance. Results revealed that students’ academic performance is affected by both home background (e.g. family size) as well as the school environment (e.g. class size), including their study habits. The study recommends that teachers’ self-efficacy, more parental involvement, and improved government policies in educational development are critical for the attainment of high-quality education in Botswana.