Factors influencing poor performance of students of junior high schools in Brosankro Circuit in Tano South Municipality

Abstract

The study was undertaken to investigate home, school, and teacher factors that account for poor academic performance of students in the Junior High Schools in the Brosankro Circuit in the Tano South Municipality. The target population consisted school children, teachers and parents. The study employed a descriptive survey design. Also, simple random sampling technique was used to select students, teachers and parents who participated in the study. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire. Questionnaires were respectively designed for all three categories of participants on factors that were perceived to be affecting academic performance in the schools. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution and percentages. The study found that school factors such as inadequate teaching and learning materials, absence of reference materials such as textbooks, unavailability of libraries were major cause of low academic performance. Again, teachers’ failure to offer remediation exercise for pupils and inaccessibility of in-service training contribute to poor academic achievement of pupils in the circuit. Parents’ inability to provide their wards the needed basic materials and engaging their wards in petty trading after school are contributing factors of pupils’ low performance. Base on the findings and the conclusions of the research work, the researcher recommends that Ghana Education Service in the Tano-South Municipality should help provide adequate teaching and learning materials (Textbooks, reference materials, teaching aids) to facilitate smooth teaching and learning in the Circuit.