Factors contributing to disparities in school certificate results in English : a study of some selected schools in Zambia

Abstract

This study tested the hypothesis that performance in the school certificate English examination is better in grant-aided schools than it is in government schools. The sample consisted of eighteen boarding schools of which sixteen were located in the Southern Province and two were located one each in the Northern and Luapula Provinces. The instrument used to collect data was an interview schedule end the following variables were studied: the age of the school, the size of the school, teacher quality, pupil quality, school resources, location of the school, time spent on teaching English and examination preparation. Data analysis consisted of a simple break-down by percentages as well as crosstabulation procedures. The statistics used were the chi-square to show statistical significance, Cramer's V to show the strength of the relationship between the variables and gamma to show the direction of the relationship. The overall analysis showed that grant-aided schools performed better than government schools in the school certificate English examinations for the period under study. The findings also showed that the variables size, distance, age, time spent and examination preparation had significant relationships with the performance of the pupils. These variables could, therefore, be used to show relationships between them and pupil performance.