The causes of poor academic
performance in secondary school in almost
every part of the country vary according to the area and the prevailing
situation. The reviewed literature pointed out few causes of poor academic
performance, to include;
1. Lack of qualified teachers.
2. Poor teaching
attitude of the subject by the
teacher
3. The parental problem
(socio-economic status of the family)
4. School factor.
1. Lack of
Qualified Teacher: It is very
obvious that the problem of lack of qualified and competent teachers
is so rampant in many secondary schools. The
above absorption implies that professional trained teachers are not enough to
handled the subjects. Babayo
(1977) emphasizing on the importance
of qualified teachers in secondary schools stated that
“for all school there must be a good
supply of qualified teachers”. A
qualified teacher is no doubt
very muct important in the education
system in the sense that he is the pivot
of the education process\. This is
because is any teacher- learning
process, there always stand a teacher,
in front or at the back, at the
center or at the side, what he
knows and does can make great
differences and what he does not know
can be an irreparable loss to students. Parental care due to divorce or death or absconding of
one of the parents. The
children may be affected as the mother or father alone has to pay school
fees, purchase books and school uniforms. Such students may
become truants which leads to
their performance in school being adversely
affected.
2.Teachers Poor
Attitude To Teaching: Since
teachers no longer receive proper incentives from the government they no
longer commit themselves fully to their duties.
Many teachers do not remember to prepare their lessons before teaching it to students.
Moreover,
in some of the schools, it has been
observed that teachers are fond of using
their vernacular in teaching students which will make their academic
performance low. In view of this, teachers should know that student learn by
imitation as Ocho (1994) in his philosophy
of education for Nigeria noted that student learn more
through dramatizing imitation than through lecture or talks. The
behaviour and relationship of staff among themselves will determine to a great
extent what students can lern
from them.
3.The Home
and Parental Problems: The
socio –economic status of the parents and home background of, the students go a long way to
predict the quality and regularity of satisfaction and provision of the
children’s functional survival and academic needs. Poor parental care with gross deprivation of
social and economic needs of children, usually yield poor
academic performance of the children. Many families are so poor that they purposely send their
children out as maids in order to get
money which they use in training others.
Due to financial hand-cap some send their children to school without any
writing or reading materials, on the other hand
some students were suffering because there is no parental care due to divorce or death or absconding of one
of the parents. The children
may be affected as the mother or father alone has to pay school fees,
purchase books and school uniforms. Such
students may become truants whicfh leads to their performance in school being
adversely affected.
4. School
Factor: A situation where there is
no conducive environment, it will affect students and when the class is so
noisy it will make learning very difficult. In other words where students in
each class are so many it will also lead to poor academic performance in
secondary school. A student
relationship with peers in school can also affected his academic work
and so leads to poor academic performance