Education

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Browsing Education by Subject "Academic achievement—Zambia"

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    Interventions aimed at improving academic performance of the afternoon classes in grade 12 final examinations in selected schools in Choma District, Southern Province, Zambia
    (University of Zambia, 2016) Chibbandula, Silas
    Due to government's desire to have as many eligible children as possible and inadequate class space in schools, government has allowed a regular afternoon session to run concurrently with the morning session (Kelly, 1999). This has motivated the researcher to investigate the academic performance of the afternoon pupils. The study aimed at investigating the academic performance in grade 12 examination of the afternoon classes by school administrators in Choma District, Zambia. The five schools that participated in the study were pseudo named Kudu, Sable, Eland, Impala and Duiker. The study objectives were; to establish the academic performance of pupils from the afternoon classes, to find out from pupils, teachers, HODs and Head teachers’ factors that influence pupil performance, to find out interventions employed by secondary school administrators aimed at improving academic performance in grade 12 final examinations of the afternoon classes in Choma District. A case study design was used which combined qualitative and quantitative techniques of data collection and analysis. The sample comprised 90 pupils, 45 teachers, 12 HODs and 5 Headteachers of the selected schools. The data were collected through questionnaires, interview schedules, Focus Group Discussions and documents found in schools. Qualitative data were analysed thematically through identification of themes that emerged from the data. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 20.0) was used for quantitative data to generate descriptive statistics such as tables, frequencies and charts. The study revealed that pupils from all the five schools were under performing. The unsatisfactory performance of pupils from all the schools was attributed to inadequate learning and teaching resources, time, poor supervision by school administrators, de-motivated teachers, and low cut off for selection of pupils to grade ten (10), teacher and pupil absenteeism, lack of school academic policies and over enrolment among others. Some possible interventions were suggested by stakeholders to remedy the vice. These include, improving selection criteria to grade ten, reducing over enrolment, intensifying supervision, procurement of teaching and learning materials as well as introduction of government allowances to afternoon session teachers. The study made the following recommendations; the government need to introduce extra duty allowance to teachers of afternoon sessions, absenteeism of pupils and teachers be addressed by school managers, the MOGE should ensure that all secondary schools are well resourced in terms of teaching and learning materials, the government need to raise the cut-off point to grade 10 for afternoon pupils, the government should build weekly boarding houses for afternoon pupils especially girls among others.