Browsing by Author "Nkanzela, Degrena Nokuzola"

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    Factors contributing to low academic performance of grade twelve learners in Mbizana District
    (University of Zululand, 2015) Nkanzela, Degrena Nokuzola; Imenda, S.N.; Shezi, N.H.
    Low academic performance of grade twelve learners is one of the major concerns in South Africa. Mbizana district is one of the areas where grade twelve results have remained relatively low over the years. The Eastern Cape National School Certificate (NSC) provincial pass rate in 2007 was 56.9% and the pass rate for Mbizana district was 42.7%. In 2008 the provincial pass rate was 50.6%, while the pass rate for Mbizana slumped down to 29.3%. Thus, it is clear that Mbizana grade twelve learners were under-achieving in the NSC examinations. Although the situation has since shown some notable improvements, the district still remains one of the worst performing, both provincially and nationally – standing at the NSC pass rate of 58.7% in 2013, against 64.9% and 78.2% provincial and national pass rates, respectively. It was against this background that the researcher felt that the case of Mbizana warranted a systematic investigation. This study focused on the environmental and socio-economic factors that were presumed to affect learner academic achievement in the Mbizana district. More specifically, the this study sought to find out what learners, educators, school management team (SMT) members, and school governing body (SGB) members considered to be the major contributory factors to the relatively low academic performance of Mbizana district school learners in the NSC examinations. It was also of interest to the study, to establish the major similarities and differences in the factors that the various stakeholders considered to be the major contributory factors to the reported low learner academic achievement. To give the study a theoretical base, three theoretical perspectives that focus on various factors affecting learner performance were presented and discussed, namely Caroll’s Model of School Learning, Slamin’s QAIT Model of Effective Classroom Practice and Huitt’s Model of Teaching/Learning Process. The researcher chose Huitt’s Model of Teaching/Learning Process as the most appropriate to guide and direct her study. In addition to this, the researcher also II undertook a review of literature focusing on previous empirical studies related to factors considered to affect learner performance, in line with the research questions. The study used a mixed-methods research paradigm, involving both qualitative and quantitative research data. The chosen research design was Descriptive Survey, and the data gathering techniques were questionnaires and interview schedules for face to face interviews with the respective respondent groups. The research sample comprised ninety randomly selected respondents, broken down as follows: forty grade twelve learners, fifteen SMT members, twenty five subject educators and ten SGB members. All the participants were drawn from the Mbizana district, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. With regard to the major findings, the factors considered by grade twelve learners to be the major contributors to their low academic performance included a lack of parental support, road poor infrastructure, and a shortage of physical (laboratories, libraries) and qualified educators. On their part, SMT members considered learners’ socio-economic statuses, a shortage of qualified educators and a lack of physical and material learning/teaching resources. For the educators, there was a view that owing to a number of factors, teacher morale and motivation were low – and that this adversely affected learner academic performance in Mbizana schools. The educators further contended that some among them experienced difficulties in adequately implementing the new curriculum; and also that many were either unqualified or under-qualified for the classes that they With regard to SGB members, the cited major contributors to low learner academic performance were the absence of supportive infrastructure (laboratories, libraries), a shortage of qualified educators, lack of parental support, a non-supportive socio-economic background of learners, and the unstable education system, occasioned by never-ending curricular changes. The similarities and differences in the responses of the various stakeholders were noted.