ABSTRACT

The study focused on the factors that affect the academic performance in secondary schools in Ilala district. The study was guided by the following research objectives: to relate how English capacity among the students affects the student academic performance, to relate the how the teaching and learning facilities such as (text books, chemicals facilities) and the students’ academic performance in secondary schools in Ilala District, and to establish how guidance and counseling affect academic performance of students in secondary schools. The study employed qualitative research design. Interview, focused group discussion and documentary were employed in data collection. The findings revealed that many learners could not master the English as (LOI), and they had very poor knowledge of vocabularies used in various subjects, they had weak English capacity to the extent of failing to make good and logical sentence in English. Altogether poor capability in English limited their ability to understand concepts in various discipline like Geography, Physics and Chemistry. Further, the results showed that with exception of arts textbooks, Science textbooks were not enough in Ilala Secondary Schools. This limited effective learning of various discipline like Physics. The funding further indicated that the schools were experiencing problems of science on one side and interaction during learning of the other side. Schools were observed to skip formative evaluation because of high costs of stationeries. Lastly, the results showed that many schools had no counselors to counsel teens. The finding further indicated that even if teens were pretending learning, they lost in between many hours for non academic activities like charting on email, smart phones and they had poor concentration in their studies. Recommendations to improve the academic performance are attached.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE

Table: 1.1:       Poor Academic Performances of Four Secondary Schools

2013-Ilala District................................................................................. 3

FIGURE

Figure 1.1:      Conceptual Framework for Studying Factors Affecting Students’ Academic Performances in Secondary Schools..................................................... 8

LIST OF ABBRREVIATIONS

CHAPTER ONE

1.0  INTRODUCTION

1.1         Introduction

Schools, colleges and universities have no worth without students. Students are most essential asset for any educational institute. The social and economic development of the country is directly linked with students’ performance. The students’ performance (academic achievement) plays an important role in producing the best quality graduates who will become great leader and manpower for the country thus responsible for the country’s economic and social development (Ali et al, 2009). Academic achievement is an apparent phenomenon in many developing countries like Tanzania since is measured in final examination (Form Four National Examination), whereby success is measured by academic performance or how well students meet standards set out by the National Examination Council (NECTA) and the institute itself. Students’ performance at the level of secondary has the strong impact on other levels of higher and tertiary education. The chapter includes an explanation on why this topic will be important, research problem, the purpose and significance and the specific research questions along with the delimitations of the study.

1.1.1   Background of the Study

Mosha, (2014) said that, students’ performance was affected by shortage of English teachers and absence of teaching and learning materials. However, her findings showed that, the presence of untrained, under-qualified and trained teachers who are

incompetent resulted to skip teaching some difficult topics in the syllabus and students’ infrequent use of English language at school and home, large class size, teachers’ responsibilities, poor conducive teaching and learning environment in the classrooms, limited home support environment and poverty are among the factors that affecting students’ academic performance in English Language. Students’ effort, previous schooling (Siegfried &Fels, 1976; Anderson & Benjamin, 1994), parents’ education, family income (Devadoss& Foltz, 1996), self motivation, age of student, learning preferences (Aripin, Mahmood, Rohaizad, Yeop, & Anuar, 2008), class attendance (Romer, 1993), and entry qualifications as factors that have a significant effect on the students’ academic performance in various settings. Ali Shoukat at el, said that the factors affecting academic performance are gender, age, schooling, father/guardian social economic status, residential area, medium of schooling, tuition trend, daily study hours and accommodation trend are the factors affecting academic performance.

Graetz   (1995) conducted a study on study on socio- economic status of the parents of students and concluded that the socio economic background has a great impact on student’s academic performance. Pedrosa et. al (2006) in their study on social and educational background pointed out those students who mostly come from deprived socio-economic and educational background performed relatively better than others coming from higher social-economic and educational area. Eamon (2005) “Those students usually come out from low socio-economic status or area show low performance in studies and obtained low scores as compared to the other students or their counter parts”.

1.2         Statement of the Problem

Performance in public schools is something which everyone expects to be of higher quality because of the roles the sector plays to provide service to the community, on the other hand those who failed to perform better cannot contribute well to the human resources because they don’t have skill needed. Despite of its importance, this has not been implemented effectively thus, many public schools still lack improved performance. See table 1.1 that for the four schools the students who sat for the form four examinations in 2013, more than 81.3% scored poor grades (division four and zero). This is alarming and it indicates that school performance in schools is poor. The poor achievements in examinations among public secondary students in Tanzania reflect superficial and temporary knowledge. In last decade achievements in examinations in public secondary schools in Tanzania, Ilala district inclusive have been poor. The low achievements are related to the challenges listed.

Table: 1.1    Poor Academic Performances of Four Secondary Schools 2013-Ilala District

Source: National Examination Council of Tanzania CSEE results (NECTA) 2013

1.3         Purpose of the Study

The general purpose of the study was to assess the factors affecting students’ academic performance in Ilala district.

1.3.1   Objectives of the Study

The study intended to achieve the following specific objectives:

i)            To access how LoI affect the student’s academic performance in Ilala district secondary schools

ii)            To examine if teaching and learning facilities such as (text books, laboratory equipments) affect students’ academic performance in secondary schools in Ilala district, and

iii)            To establish how guidance and counseling affect academic performance of students in secondary schools in Ilala district.

1.4         Research Questions

The study is guided by the following research questions:

i)            What is the influence of LoI on students’ academic performance in selected secondary schools in Ilala district?

ii)            How status of learning and learning farcicalities affect students’ academic performance in Ilala secondary schools?

iii)            Is there any relationship between guidance and counseling services and students’ academic performance in Ilala district secondary schools?

1.5         Significance of the Study

The study intends to investigate on the factors cause poor academic performance such as students’ low ability to use English in communication in the lessons. This is very useful feedback to curriculum planners to review the proper use of language in teaching in secondary schools. The study may provide feedback on the status of

teaching and learning facilities such as, chemicals, textbooks, chalks, laboratory equipments. The feedback may guide the Ministry to improve its resources allocation in secondary schools aiming at improving the quality of education in schools. The study may provide feedback on the status of guidance and counseling as a component needed to support students growth through effective use of time, decision making and hence good performance among secondary schools students. The study expects to bring useful insights on which to build, modify or improve the ways of teaching/learning in Tanzania context.

On other hand, the study is important for educational stakeholders including :- Researchers, Politicians, Heads of Schools , Teachers, Parents of the Students as well as, Educational Planners in planning for improving the quality of education in secondary schools.

1.6         Scope and Delimitations of the Study

The study was confined to public secondary schools in Ilala District. The private schools were not included because they would not be free to share confidential information. However, every effort was made to ensure that sampling used was adequate to collect information required for drawing conclusions. Head of schools, Teachers, and form four students preferred by the researcher as the main respondents because they were the direct consumers of the researcher’s concern.

1.7         Operational Definition of Terms

Student: Is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution.

Students’ academic performance: The outcomes of the teaching and learning process in terms of knowledge and skills in students acquires from schools as measures by scores obtained in Certificate for Secondary Examinations (CSEE).

Academic performance: Refers to achievement in standardized tests or examinations shown by a student. According to Niebuhr (1995) Academic performance of students is typically assessed by the use of teacher’s ratings, tests, and examinations.

Counseling: This refers to a process that uses the safety of a special relationship between the counselor and the counselee together explore the thoughts, feelings and counselor attitudes of the counselee with the objective of tapping the resources within the counselee to effect healing and change.

Guidance: Refers to all activities rendered by educational institutions, which are primarily concerned with assisting individual students understand themselves, thus their needs, interest abilities and potentials.

Teaching and learning materials: In this study teaching and learning materials mean all materials that facilitate the teaching and learning in secondary schools. They include laboratories with its chemical and equipment, text books used for teaching by the teachers and those used by the students for reference. Other materials are projectors, classrooms, desks, libraries as well as syllabus. Big charts, wall maps, photographs are also teaching and learning materials (Mbunda, 2006).