Volume 8, Issue 1, September 2014, Pages 158–167
Tichaona Mapolisa1 and Thembinkosi Tshabalala2
1 Faculty of Arts and Education at the Zimbabwe Open University, Zimbabwe
2 Faculty of Arts and Education at the Zimbabwe Open University, Zimbabwe
Original language: English
Copyright © 2014 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Zimbabwe gained its independence in 1980, after almost 100 years of British colonial rule. The colonial era was built on white supremacy, racial segregation and oppression of the majority African population by the white minority. The first ten years of independence were committed to rectifying the social inequities brought by the former colonial regimes. The new government was committed to the creation of a socialist state, which was guided by the principles of social justice and equality. Education was declared a fundamental human right. It was regarded as a potent tool for social and economic transformation. As a result, the formal sector of the education system was expanded to unprecedented levels. Secondary schools increased from a paltry 197 in 1980 to 1502 by 1989, a sharp increase of 662%. Enrolments increased by over 200% across the whole system. The majority of the new secondary schools were built in the rural areas first as upper-tops, that is using nearby primary schools infrastructure to do their business and later constructed in independent sites. In spite of the noble idea of availing secondary school education to the majority of rural students who needed it, there is a widespread out cry across the country about the low performance of pupils from these schools at Ordinary Level Examinations. The majority of these schools produce 0% pass rates year-in year-out. In view of the above, this study set out to investigate the major causes of high failure rate in Nkayi Rural District Secondary Schools. The population constituted of the 650 secondary school teachers in the district. A total of 100 respondents selected using random sampling was used for the study. These were made up of 55 females and 45 male teachers. The research instrument used was the questionnaire which had both close-ended and open-ended questions. Descriptive statistical analysis was used to interpret data. The study revealed that teachers attributed pupils' high failure rate to lack of materials and equipment for teaching, inadequate supervision, teacher incompetency among others. The study recommends that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education should embark on a massive infrastructural development to provide adequate classrooms and specialist rooms for rural secondary schools. Teachers should be adequately motivated so as to boost their moral and parents should be encouraged to support the learning of their children.
Author Keywords: Pupils, Ordinary Level, rural secondary schools, teachers, public examinations, poor performance.
Tichaona Mapolisa1 and Thembinkosi Tshabalala2
1 Faculty of Arts and Education at the Zimbabwe Open University, Zimbabwe
2 Faculty of Arts and Education at the Zimbabwe Open University, Zimbabwe
Original language: English
Copyright © 2014 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Zimbabwe gained its independence in 1980, after almost 100 years of British colonial rule. The colonial era was built on white supremacy, racial segregation and oppression of the majority African population by the white minority. The first ten years of independence were committed to rectifying the social inequities brought by the former colonial regimes. The new government was committed to the creation of a socialist state, which was guided by the principles of social justice and equality. Education was declared a fundamental human right. It was regarded as a potent tool for social and economic transformation. As a result, the formal sector of the education system was expanded to unprecedented levels. Secondary schools increased from a paltry 197 in 1980 to 1502 by 1989, a sharp increase of 662%. Enrolments increased by over 200% across the whole system. The majority of the new secondary schools were built in the rural areas first as upper-tops, that is using nearby primary schools infrastructure to do their business and later constructed in independent sites. In spite of the noble idea of availing secondary school education to the majority of rural students who needed it, there is a widespread out cry across the country about the low performance of pupils from these schools at Ordinary Level Examinations. The majority of these schools produce 0% pass rates year-in year-out. In view of the above, this study set out to investigate the major causes of high failure rate in Nkayi Rural District Secondary Schools. The population constituted of the 650 secondary school teachers in the district. A total of 100 respondents selected using random sampling was used for the study. These were made up of 55 females and 45 male teachers. The research instrument used was the questionnaire which had both close-ended and open-ended questions. Descriptive statistical analysis was used to interpret data. The study revealed that teachers attributed pupils' high failure rate to lack of materials and equipment for teaching, inadequate supervision, teacher incompetency among others. The study recommends that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education should embark on a massive infrastructural development to provide adequate classrooms and specialist rooms for rural secondary schools. Teachers should be adequately motivated so as to boost their moral and parents should be encouraged to support the learning of their children.
Author Keywords: Pupils, Ordinary Level, rural secondary schools, teachers, public examinations, poor performance.
How to Cite this Article
Tichaona Mapolisa and Thembinkosi Tshabalala, “PERCEPTIONS OF TEACHERS ON CAUSES OF POOR PERFORMANCE OF PUPILS AT ORDINARY LEVEL PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS IN ZIMBABWEAN RURAL SECONDARY SCHOOLS: A CASE STUDY OF NKAYI DISTRICT,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 158–167, September 2014.
