ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res.

12(08), 1616-1620

Journal Homepage: -www.journalijar.com

Article DOI:10.21474/IJAR01/19409
DOI URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/19409

RESEARCH ARTICLE
SCHOOL CULTURAL PRACTICES AND LEARNERS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, IN PUBLIC
PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN RWANDA: A CASE OF GASABO DISTRICT

Nyandwi Aphrodis and Dr. Hesbon Opiyo Andala PhD

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Manuscript Info Abstract
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Manuscript History This study investigates the impact of positive cultural practices in
Received: 30 June 2024 schools on the academic performance of learners in public primary
Final Accepted: 31 July 2024 schools in Gasabo District, Rwanda. It focuses on three key objectives:
Published: August 2024 identifying the cultural practices upheld by school leaders, assessing
the correlation between these practices and learners' academic
Key words:-
School Culture, Academic Achievement, outcomes, and determining the overall influence of these practices on
Promotion Rate, Repetition Rate academic achievement. The research adopts both descriptive and
correlational research designs, with data collected from a sample of 168
respondents through questionnaires and interviews. The data was
analyzed using IBM SPSS Version 24, employing descriptive,
correlational, and regression analyses to address the research questions.
The findings reveal that 48.6% of schools do not prioritize cultural
practices as a mean to enhance academic performance. However,
78.8% of respondents indicated that academic outcomes, including
promotion, graduation rates, repetition rates, and test scores, are
significantly influenced by the daily operations of schools.
Additionally, 56.3% of respondents agreed that school norms, vision,
goals, teacher-learner relationships, and assessment methods play a
crucial role in academic success. Regression analysis demonstrated that
school cultural practices account for 79.3% of the variance in academic
performance (R-square), with a strong positive correlation (Pearson's
coefficient = 0.916, p-value < 0.01) between these practices and
academic outcomes. The study concludes that the implementation of
shared goals, school symbols, norms, and positive teacher-learner
relationships can significantly enhance academic performance. It
recommends that the Rwandan Ministry of Education and educational
planners provide training on cultural practices to school leaders to
further improve learner outcomes.

Copyright, IJAR, 2024,. All rights reserved.

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Introduction:-
Education is a pillar of human development, acting as a critical tool for personal improvement and societal
advancement. Numerous factors influence educational quality, with school culture emerging as a crucial regulator of
students' academic achievement. The common values, beliefs, traditions, and practices that create the learning
environment inside an educational institution are referred to as school culture (Deal & Peterson, 2019).Globally, the
relevance of school culture has been recognized as a critical aspect of educational system success. Several studies in

Corresponding Author:- Nyandwi Aphrodis 1616

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the United States of America (Hoy & Hoy, 2018), the nation of England (Bolam et al., 2018), and Australia
(Duignan, 2020) have indicated that educational culture has a major impact on students' academic outcomes.

The impact of school culture on academic attainment in Africa is gaining attention. Research from South Africa
(Mncube&Harber, 2017), Nigeria (Adeyemi, 2019), and Kenya (Mutisya, 2018) highlight the crucial importance of
school culture in determining students' learning experiences and outcomes. These studies show that a supportive and
culturally responsive school culture corresponds with greater academic achievement, giving important insights into
African education policy and practice.

General Objective:-
The overall goal of the study is to gain insight into the impact of school cultural practices on students' academic
progress in public primary schools in Gasabo district, Rwanda.

Literature Review:-
In the perspective of Fullan (2007), school culture entails administrative philosophies and standards that are
manifested on the performance of a school. The term school culture tackles all the assumed and expected beliefs,
patterns of behavior, and norms that dictate the efficiency of a school.David Garrick (2019) articulated that whereas
Consideration of culture is all over, the supporting environment with tall desires, Locked staff, locked-in
understudies, a folio to long-lasting learning, and a Holistic sense of duty defines school culture success. Building a
strong culture, requires addressing these aspects in a way that reflects the group's goal and standards, both inside and
outside of the classroom.Concisely, UNESCO-IBE (2022) describes school cultural practices as a fundamental
system of beliefs or shared assumptions that shapes a school’s character, govern mode of operations, and prescribe
behaviors conceived by head teachers, teachers, support staff, and learners. Written and unwritten laws that shape
and influence all aspects of how a school works.

Conceptual Framework
Independent variable Dependent variable

School cultural practices. Student academic achievement.

 Shared goals and vision  Increased Promotion rate

 School symbols  Reduced repetition rate.
 School's norms and values  Increased Graduation rate.
 Teacher - learner relationship  Standardized tests scores.
 Learning Assessment
methods.

Intervening variables

 National education
policy
 School internal rules
and regulations.
 Social economic factors

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Methodology:-
Research Design
Betensky (2017) defines research design as a logical technique that connects numerous aspects of an examination to
address the study's issue effectively. The plan guides data collection, evaluation, and analysis. In this study, The
researcher utilized a descriptive survey because it included both qualitative and quantitative data. A correlational
research design was used to assess the effect of school cultural practices on student academic performance.

Target Population
Mugenda (2016) defined the target population as the group to which the researcher aims to generalise the study's
findings.The researcher conducted this study in Gasabo District. However, Remera, Kimihurura, Kinyinya and
Ndera do not have full elementary schools, they only have private and semi-public ones. Therefore, the research was
carried out in precisely 11 selected schools, demonstrating those 11 sectors that have fully-fledged public
elementary schools. Therefore, the target population of the study consisted of 278 teachers and leaders in these 11
schools.

To determine the sample size Slovin’s formula as used in Yamane (1967) was used as:The formula employed is.

𝑵
𝒏 = 𝟏+𝑵(𝒆)𝟐Therefore, the determined sample size of the research was:
289
𝒏 = 1+ 289 (0.05)2 = 167.7 = 168 Respondents.

Population elements and sample size

No Participant Population Sample size Sampling technique
1 Teachers 278 157 Simple Random
2 Headteachers 11 11 Purposive sampling
3 Total 289 168 Simple random
Source: Primary data, (2024)

The researcher used questionnaires and interview guides to conduct this study. To augment quantitative data from
public elementary school teachers, questionnaires were employed, and interview guidelines were used to acquire
qualitative data from head teachers. Questionnaires consisted of closed-ended questions which were completed in a
short amount of time, since respondents were reluctant to answer the questions if they take a long time to
complete.Questions were like this because they allow respondents to express their views on the subject under study
and also help researchers collect data easily with anonymity (Gay, 1992).

Results and Discussion:-

Considering the research objectives, the presentation of findings was done referring to specific research objectives
of this study which were: To evaluate the level at which public primary schools head teachers maintain school
cultural practices in Gasabo district-Rwanda, to evaluate the level of learners’ performance in full public primary
schools in Gasabo district-Rwanda and to examine the influence of school cultural practices on learners’ academic
performance in public primary schools in Gasabo district-Rwanda.

Coefficients of school cultural practices and learners’ academic performance

Model Unstandardized Standardized T Sig. 95.0% Confidence
Coefficients Coefficients Interval for B
B Std. Beta Lower Upper
Error Bound Bound
1 (Constant) .650 .537 1.296 .187 -.341 .491
Shared goals and vision .232 .081 .163 2.535 .014 .048 .373
School norms and values .637 .063 .596 7.682 .000 .192 .784
School symbols. -.153 .076 -.047 -1.497 .176 -.283 .027
Teacher - learner relationship .235 .079 .120 1.737 .006 .018 .280
Learning assessment methods -.007 .073 -.001 -.039 .743 -.153 .137
Source: Field data(2024),a. Dependent Variable: Effective learners’ academic performance

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It is showing the contribution of each indicator in the influence of school culture on learners’ academic performance.
It was found that school norms and values contribute much in the influence of learners’ academic performance while
school symbols contributes less. This shows that public primary schools do not put more efforts in school symbols.
Respondents found that school norms and values had a significant impact on students' academic achievement (p =
0.000 < 0.05), supporting the regression equation. Conclusion was drawn that there is greater influence of school
cultural practices on students’ academic performance. Thus, we have 95% confidence that the slope of the real
regression line is between percentage of 19.2 and 78.4. It is followed by the influence of shared goals and vision on
learners’ academic performance with significance level of P = 0.014 < 0.05 and the regression line is somewhere
between 4.8 percent and 37.3 percent as shown in the table 4.11. The table 4.11 also revealed that the influence of
effective teacher - learner relationship on students' performance is significant too as p value is equal to 0.006 < 0.05
and the regression line is somewhere between 1.8 percent and 28 percent. It is also revealed that the influence of
learning assessment methods and on students' academic performance is not significant as p value is equal to 0.743 >
0.05 and the regression line is somewhere between -15.3 percent and 13.7 percent. Finally, there is an influence
schools symbols on academic performance of the learners as the table above indicates that is not significant with
p=0.176>0.05 and the regression line is somewhere between -28.3 percent and 2.7 percent.

Public primary school leaders chosen from Gasabo district, also argued that, positive school cultural practices play a
vital role in the students’ high academic performance once it is maintained and practiced constantly within the
school and outside in the school community. According to Hürriyet A. Karaduman (2021), school culture
encompasses the school, its history and current successes, circle of friends, school uniforms, and social activities.
School culture has an impact on students' academic progress in terms of motivation, a sense of competition, and
overall social and physical development.

Conclusion:-
To address the research questions raised based on the three particular research objectives, conclusions were formed
from the analysis of the findings. The first research question provided for this study was: “At which level are school
cultural practices maintained in public primary schools in Gasabo district-Rwanda?” Checking shared goals and
vision, school symbols, school norms and values, teacher learner relationship and learning assessment methods as
school cultural practices indicators. It was revealed at the level of 48.6% that public primary schools in Gasabodon’t
maintain the school culture as a routine, the need to improve on the school cultural practices was found.

Regarding question number two which stated “what are the school’s academic achievements influenced by school
culture? “Increased promotion rate, reduced repetition rate, increased graduation rate and standardized tests scores
are the indicators of learners’ academic performance where the respondents, having confirmed it at 55.7% that there
is low learners’ academic performance, have shown that school cultural practices affect learners’ academic
performance when executed successfully.

Basing on the third research question of this study which was “How far do school cultural practices contribute to
students' academic performance?” “Therefore, it was determined that the successful integration of school cultural
practices has a significant impact on learners' academic performance, estimated to range from 19.2 percent to 78.4
percent.”

Acknowledgement/Any Declaration:-
I also want to thank God for sparing my life and for all his mercies, assistance, refinement, and defense in my life as
well as throughout my studying time at Mount Kenya University Rwanda. I also praised God for the good purpose
of my further generation life. Secondly, I would like to appreciate my supervisor Dr. HesbonOpiyoAndala (PhD) for
kindly granting me this opportunity to submit this research and for his support, prompt advice and encouragement
throughout the completion of this research. I would also extend my gratitude to the MKUR board, staffs and
employees in their various capacities especially to those who directly assisted me: lecturers and the post-graduate
school staffs, education school staffs. Finally, I would ponder to appreciate my classmates from the Masters of
Education for being good sports during the time of study that will not fade away.

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