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Browsing Education by Subject "Academic performance."

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    Factors affecting pupil academic performance at grade twelve (12) level of selected grant-aided secondary schools in Zambia.
    (Multidisciplinary Journal of Language and Social Sciences Education., 2019) Maluma, P. & Banja, MK
    The purpose of the study was to identify the factors affecting pupil academic performance of the selected high and low performing grant-aided secondary schools in Southern Province of Zambia at Grade 12 level for the five-year period from 2011 – 2015. The objectives of the study were to identify factors accounting for constant high and constant low pupil academic performance among the schools in the sample and to identify the measures that have been put in place to improve performance in low performing grant-aided selected secondary schools. The study used a descriptive survey design and both qualitative and quantitative techniques to collect data. Two (2) high performing and two (2) low performing schools were sampled. The sample size was 135 comprising school proprietors, District Education Standard Officers, head teachers, deputy head teachers, heads of department, classroom teachers and Grade 12 pupils. The data was collected through self-administered questionnaires, interview schedules, FGDs and document review and was analysed thematically. The study revealed that the excellent performance of the two high performing schools could be attributed to factors like the availability of constant proprietor support, competent administrators and availability of adequate infrastructure, while low academic performance of the low performing schools was attributed to inconsistent proprietor support, and incompetent administrators, among others. The study concluded that the variations in the pupil academic performance in the selected grant- aided secondary schools hinged mainly on the instrumentality of the proprietors and competences of the administrators. The study recommended that proprietors should constantly support the schools. They own and thoroughly scrutinize personnel recommended for administrative roles.
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    Students’ social media use and its perceived impact on their social life: a case study of the university of Zambia.
    (The International Journal of Multi-Disciplinary Research, 2018) Akakandelwa, Akakandelwa; Walubita, Gabriel
    Social media has become ubiquitous and almost inescapable, revolutionizing the way students communicate, interact and socialize; and has become an integral part of their social and cultural fabric. Consequently, students are spending a substantial part of their time on social media. University students and youth are considered the largest users of these technologies. Despite a growing corpus of literature on the usage of social media around the world, there is a dearth of research in Zambia on how social media affects the students’ social life. This descriptive, exploratory study examined the types of social media platforms students commonly use, the amount of time students spend on social media, the purposes for which students use the social media and the impact of social media use on students’ social life. Two hundred and fortyfull time students in the School of Education, at the University of Zambia, completed self-administered questionnaires and their responses were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. Results indicated that the most commonly used social media platform was Whatsapp, most of the sampled students reported actively engaging in this social media application between 31 to 60 minutes on a daily basis.The study also found that more than half of the students found themselves saying “just a few more minutes” when using social media, checked their social media sites before doing something else,felt their academic productivity suffered because of social media, failed to to cut down on time spent on social media,recieved negative comments from others about their use of social media and felt stressed out due to social media use.Furthermore, 22.4% of the students felt addicted to social media.Students used social media more for social information than for academic purposes. Social interaction is enhanced by social media use among students. Thus, productive use of social media is recommended while minimizing its negative impact. Furthermore, it is hoped that this study will attract further research in this area with more divergent and larger samples of varying student demographic characteristics.
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    Teacher transfers from primary schools in Chama district of Zambia: causes of the massive teacher exodus and its effects on learner’s academic performance.
    (Multidisciplinary Journal of Language and Social Sciences Education, 2020) Phiri, Donald; Mulenga, Innocent Mutale
    Scholarly research has shown that the availability of enough qualified teachers in schools is key to effective curriculum implementation. In Zambia however, rural schools experience more teacher transfers to urban schools. The purpose of this study was to find out the main causes of teacher transfers from Chama district of Muchinga province. Researchers in this study also sort to analyze the effects that teacher transfers had on the learning process. A descriptive research design was used to explore this phenomenon. 150 teachers were sampled from 25 rural schools and each of these school’s head teachers were also part of the sampled participants. Focus group discussions and interviews were conducted to collect data from teachers and head teachers. Human resource documents and examination performance records from the district education office in Chama were also analyzed. The findings of the study showed that teachers requested for transfers due to a number of factors such as separation from their spouses, conflict with school administrators, poor deployment procedures and social amenities, remoteness of the schools, fear of witchcraft and qualification upgrading. It was further noted that all these factors negatively affected learners’ performance since schools were understaffed, and teachers demotivated and at times left schools for a number of days so as to access social services in town at the expense of teaching and learning. While each of these causes needed immediate attention it was however concluded that the problem of understaffing in schools in rural Chama due to transfers is a big one which required national policy makers to invest in improving the living conditions of teachers in rural schools by providing social services such as hospitals, roads, banks, electricity and modern school structures and staff houses. It was envisaged that if this is done at a national level most of the causes of teachers leaving rural schools would be gradually reduced.
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    Understanding pupil absenteeism and its factor in rural primary schools of Nyimba district of Zambia.
    (2020-02-28) Kabanga, Foster Muyatwa.; Mulauzi, Felesia.
    The study assessed factors that perpetuate pupil absenteeism in rural primary schools in Nyimba district. The objectives of the study were to: establish the causes of pupil absenteeism; identify ways in which pupil absenteeism affected teaching and learning process; ascertain home and school interventions to curb pupil absenteeism in rural primary schools in Nyimba district. A descriptive research design which was supported by qualitative methods of data collection was used in the study. Interview Guides and six Focus Group Discussions were used to collect data from a purposively sampled population of forty two (42) study participants comprising of six (6) guidance and counselling teachers and thirty six (36) pupils. The study used thematic analysis to analyze data, where common themes were identified, grouped for easy interpretation and presented using verbatim based on the research objectives. The study identified ways in which absenteeism affected the teaching and learning processes including poor performance, fostering indiscipline, insufficient comprehension of concepts and the difficulties experienced by teachers. Interventions to curb pupil absenteeism were ascertained calling for parents, teachers and all stakeholders in education to make firm decisions to stop absenteeism among the learners by avoiding early marriages, fostering collaboration and being flexible in time management. The study therefore, recommended that school administrators should take keen interest in providing careers talk to learners through invitation of significant people in society to share experiences with learners. Schools should engage in constructive sensitization of parents on the importance of education to curtail absenteeism in primary schools, parents should utilise Parent Teacher Association (PTA) platforms to sensitize each other on the importance of education, promote traditional ceremonies like chinamwali during the holidays and weekends. The study also recommended that the Ministry of General Education should consider building more schools in rural areas to alleviate the problem of long distances learners cover daily. Harsh punishments should be given to men who marry or impregnant school going children.