AN INVESTIGATION ON THE FACTORS AFFECTING ACADEMIC

PERFORMANCE AMONG PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL

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 DECLARATION

I declare that this research project proposal is my original work and that it has not been presented

and will not be presented to any other higher learning Institutions for a similar or any other

academic award.

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 ACKNOWLDGEMENT

The task of conducting and writing the research report of the unmodified in nature cannot be

achieved without being assisted by many people. In one or another, they have enriched me with

knowledge that guide to the successful completion of research proposal and final report. I would

like to express my gratitude to my God who gave me strength to accomplish this research work.

I would like also to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the assistance to complete

this research proposal and final report. I want to thank management of Saint Augustine

University for allowing me to conduct my study and my board Members, User Departments,

Suppliers, Contractors and Service Providers for giving up their valuable time to respond to my

questions during data collection. Without their support and cooperation this work of study would

not have been completed. Nevertheless, I have decided to mention few individuals as it is

Cumbersome to remember them all.

First I would like to thank my supervisor who agreed to supervise my proposal despite of having

many official duties my supervisor has read the majority of the thesis from manuscript stage to

the final and has provided considerable technical and administrative assistance throughout its

production.

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 LIST OF ABBRREVIATIONS

BAKITA Baraza la Kiswahili Tanzania

CSEE Certificate of Secondary Education

FGD Focus Group Discussion

LoI Language of Instruction

NECTA National Examination Council of Tanzania

SEDP Secondary Education Development Plan

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 ABSTRACT

The study focused on the factors that affect the academic performance in Public secondary

schools. 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 Public secondary schools, 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 Public 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.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION.............................................................................................................................ii

ACKNOWLDGEMENT................................................................................................................iii

LIST OF ABBRREVIATIONS......................................................................................................iv

ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................v

CHAPTER ONE..............................................................................................................................1

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................1

1.0 Introduction.......................................................................................................................1

1.1 Background of the study...................................................................................................1

1.2 Statement of the Problem..................................................................................................5

1.3 Objectives of the study...........................................................................................................6

1.3.2 General Objective............................................................................................................6

1.3.3 Specific Objectives..........................................................................................................6

1.3 The Research Questions....................................................................................................6

1.4 Conceptual Framework.....................................................................................................6

1.7 Definition of the Key Terms..................................................................................................8

REFERENCE..................................................................................................................................9

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 CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

This chapter presents the background to the problem, statement of the problem, objectives of the

study (general and specific objectives), research questions, scope of the study, and significance

of the study. Moreover, this chapter provides definition of key terms.

1.1 Background of the study

Quality education is what brings forth manifest able development of any country. We all know

that education is a pillar of development of all countries the world over. When we preach

education, we normally mean quality education an education that can provide answers to the

problems that we face in our environment. The quest for quality education has become

imperative in this modern world. The importance gain legitimacy due to the advancement of

technology, which does both, hampering and boosting education, pending to the environmental

setting (Adamson, 2018). Quality education has been the pillar in most parts of the world. The

world has been on emphasis of education, which has made it possible for the resolution that

requires countries to increase budgets to 6% by the year (United Nations Development Program

(UNDP), 2016). East African countries, for instance have been on increase on education budgets

to about 1%, which was offered in some ten years ago (199- 2000), to about 3% to 6% (2005-

2012). While the budgets are on increase in most countries, the query remains on the quality of

education in most of these countries, and especially developing countries such as Tanzania.

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Quality education refers to skills and knowledge that is potentially able to reflect the level of

attainment. It refers to what that level of education can do based on the intent of the same. In this

regard, if standard one pupil, according to the designing of the program must know to read and

write, then quality of education is the ability of the pupils to demonstrate the attainment of

reading and writing ability at that very level. Student academic performance measurement has

received considerable attention in previous research, it is challenging aspects of academic

literature, and science student performance are affected due to social, psychological, economic,

environmental and personal factors. These factors strongly influence on the student performance,

but these factors vary from person to person and country to country. From the last few years in

Pakistan literacy rate and education improved and most of the instituted in Pakistan improving

the educational level and produce well educated, competitive and skilled person, those meet

dynamic growing market requirement. That‟s a reason the researcher find out such factors that

effecting student performance, especially in rural areas where student face lot of problem.

Previously mostly study of student academic performance conducting on such issues like gender

difference, teacher‟s education and teaching style, class environment, socio economic factor and

family education background (Memon, 2017). Tanzania has recently been in demise of education

failures if gauged through the performance of form four secondary leavers. The trends of the

results from 2009 seem to pose serious challenges for the future development of the country. We

appreciate the fact that education is a backbone for development of any country. Hence, the

tendencies on the performance of the students tell a lot in relation to future development of the

country. For instance, while most students could not access education in 2005 and the previous

years, yet from 2006 things changed, the government of the fourth regime decided to work on the

numbers through ensuring that most young people go to schools (Mukyanuzi, 2019). The drive

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was important, in that increment of numbers of student was noted, since about 3000 schools were

built attracting students in the entire county. The schools built are noted to have been on top

record of any regime in Tanzania and has gone beyond the construction of any African country.

In addition, the construction of these schools was done within the national budget with half of

the funding originating from the people. It was a crucial move to revamp education in Tanzania.

For obvious reasons the numbers that increased could be left idle with some small portion

positively been used for productive purposes such as agriculture, fishery, and vocational training

(Mukyanuzi, op.cit. 2019).

The Government of Kenya officially launched the Free Secondary Education (FSE) program at

the beginning of 2018 to address the plight of children from poor households who upon

completion of free primary education could not get access to secondary school, mostly because

of school fees. Through the FSE policy, the government subsidizes Ksh. (Kenyan shillings)

10,625 per child per year in government secondary schools. A study on the impact of FSE on

access to secondary education found that the FSE policy had led to considerable fee reduction in

public day schools (Ohba, 2019). Under FSE parents are only responsible for payment of caution

money (for new entrants), and development fees which are suggested to be a maximum of Ksh.

2,500 and lunch fees; as opposed to the previous amount of a maximum of Ksh. 11,000 per year

as per the national guidelines for school fees. In African studies that use the household

production, function approach usually differentiates between rural and urban households. Rural

household are often portrayed as disadvantaged in terms of having lower income and lower

levels of education and, therefore, being associated with disadvantaged schooling decisions and

outcomes compared with urban areas (McMahon & Oketch, 2019). Public subsidization and

expansion of secondary education in Kenya, as in other developing countries, are taking place

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against a background of inadequate financial and physical resources. A survey conducted in

Kenya by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, shows that

average ratio in 162 sampled schools was 58:1 against the requirement of 40:1 (Musyoka, 2018).

Such class sizes in public secondary school make it difficult for teachers to teach lessons

effectively as compared to their counterparts in private schools who handle a smaller number of

students. Prior to implementation of Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE), Kilifi County rural

public day secondary schools form 4 mean enrolments was 234 while mean academic

performance was 3.83. After the implementation of FDSE, rural public day secondary schools

form 4 mean enrolment increased to 284 while mean academic performance was 3.4 as obtained

from a scan of document analysis in national standardized test scores. This marked an increase in

mean enrolment and a reduction in mean performance. It is against this background that the

study attempted to assess the influence of FDSE policy on the academic performance of rural

public day secondary schools in Kilifi County.

Following the TETP, (1995) report, the Education Sector Development Program (ESDP) was

initiated in 1997 as a strategy to Publics a Sector-Wide Approach (SWAP) to educational

development. The main goals of SWAP was to achieve the long-term human development, to

reduce poverty and to redress the problems of fragmented interventions through Researches, so

as to promote collaboration and partnership among all stakeholders using pooled human,

financial and material resources. Secondary education occupies a pivotal role in the development

of the economy and the education system itself. Experience shows that, the majority of the

people in both the private and public sectors are expected to be secondary education leavers. The

primary education system relies on teachers who are the product of secondary education system.

Candidates of higher and tertiary education training are the products of the secondary education

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system. This is the essence of being pivotal or the lynch pin. During the third phase, Tanzanian

government under the president Benjamin William Mkapa introduced the implementation of the

Tanzania Education Policy, which went together with the campaign of increasing the number of

students‟ enrollment from primary school to secondary school. The government, as one of the

main education stakeholders in the country introduced Public secondary schools, whereas, every

Public is supposed to establish a secondary school. This led to the increasing number of student

who was enrolling from primary school into secondary school education in the country.

However, when all these transformative are taking place, the factors that affect the academic

performance of these Public secondary schools are still not yet studied. It is this situation, which

created interest to the researcher to develop this kind of research inquiry. For the case of this

study, the focus has been on the links between education providers, facilitators, and learning

environments, which includes all the facilities and infrastructure, availability of materials,

teacher’s motivation and how they affect the performance of Public secondary schools as well.

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. 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.

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1.3 Objectives of the study

1.3.2 General Objective

The general purpose of the study was to assess the factors affecting students’ academic

performance in Public secondary school.

1.3.3 Specific Objectives

I. To access how language of instruction affect the student’s academic performance in

Public secondary schools

II. To examine if teaching and learning facilities such as (text books, laboratory equipments)

affect students’ academic performance in Public secondary schools, and

III. To establish how guidance and counseling affect academic performance of students in

Public secondary schools.

1.3 The Research Questions

I. How is language of instruction affecting the student’s academic performance in Public

secondary schools?

II. Is teaching and learning facilities such as (text books, laboratory equipments) affecting

students’ academic performance in Public secondary schools?

III. How guidance and counseling affect academic performance of students in Public

secondary schools?

1.4 Conceptual Framework

The study literature has indicated that students in secondary schools are not perfuming well due

to various reasons. This study further takes steps to investigate on some problem with focus to

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 Public Secondary Schools. The variables to be investigated are English among learners, teaching

and learning materials in schools, and status of guidance and counseling in those schools. This

variables have being identified because the researcher hopes that by analyzing this variables the

deep insides on the factor for student poor performance can be revealed, thus guide towards

improvement of secondary school performance in terms of academic in those schools.

Independent Variable

Poor academic English capacity Teaching and Guidance and

Dependent Variable

Shortage of
National Weak
text book No counselors Improved
Examination vocabularies
No counseling students’
results very Failure to Absence of
programmes academic
poor CSEE comprehend
laboratories Students not performance in
word meaning
Classroom counseled in schools
Poor
academic issues
understanding congestions
7 Poor student’s
of demand of
High cost of discipline
the questions
Poor stationery
Figure 1.1: Conceptual Framework for Studying Factors Affecting Students’ Academic

Performances in Public Secondary Schools

1.7 Definition of the Key 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).

Performance: To perform is to take a complex series of actions that integrate skills and

knowledge to produce a valuable result.

Academic performance: Refers to achievement in standardized tests or examinations shown by

a student. According to Niebuhr (2015) Academic performance of students is typically assessed

by the use of teacher’s ratings, tests, and examinations.

Secondary school: Is a school which provides secondary education after primary school

education.

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 REFERENCE

Bogdan, R. & Biklen, S. (2019). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory

and methods, (2nd ed).

Creswell, J. W. (2018). Five qualitative traditions on inquiry. London Sage Publication.

Evodia, S. (2014). Evaluation of the Guidance and counseling in secondary school is Tanzania.

Unpublished Master dissertation. Open university of Tanzania.

Galabawa, J. & Lwaitama, A. (2018). Community Secondary schools: How long is their Journey

to Quality Education? Paper presented at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Galabawa, J. (2020). Salient policy issues in the choice of language of instruction. Tanzania.

Graetz, J. Y. (2016). Socio-economic status in Education research and policy. Gray, S. (2019).

Doing Research in a real world. Sege Publications

Karemera, D. (2018). The Effects of academic environment and background characteristics on

students. Kombo, D. K. & Tromp, D. L. (2016).

Proposal and thesis writing, An Introduction. Pauline Publication Nairobi, Africa

Mahmood, H. A. (2018). Factors Contributing to Academic Performance of Students in a

Tertiary Institution. Singapore. Malekela, G. (2017).

Performance in the Certificate of Secondary Education Examination. Tanzania.