Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to assess the challenging factors of student’s academic achievement in
secondary schools of North Showa Administrative Zone,Oromia Regional State.To address this
purpose, three basic research questions:Does economic background of the family has any effect
on the academic achievement of secondary school students in the study area? To what extent
home environment influences the academic achievement of secondary school students in the
area? Does school location affected the academic achievement of secondary school students in
the area?,were raised in order to achieve the intended objective of the study. A descriptive
survey research method was used in order to investigate the currently existing factors
challenging student’sacademic achievement in secondary schools of North Showa Zone. The
study was carried out using the responses from 469 students that were selected through simple
random sampling, 84 teachers, and 14 principals of the selected secondary schoolsthat were
selected through purposive sampling techniques. Questionnaires’, interviews and document
analysis were employed for data collection. Reliability of the instrument was computed by using
reliability statistics. The results of the data analysis were presented using frequency, percentage,
mean, weight mean. The study revealed that even if there is much emphasis on improving
students’ academic achievement, still no considerable progress has been observed in the study
area. According to the key finding of this study, economic condition of the parents, home
environment and the location of the schools, and gender disparity between male and female were
found to be a contributing factor for these patterns as well as low achievement levels in
secondary schools in the study area. To alleviate the prevailing problems, there is a need to
improve economic condition of the parents, home environment and the location of the schools,
and gender disparity between male and female. Therefore, it was suggested that Parents, North
Showa Zone Education office and Oromia Education Bureau should be more practical in this
area of improvement.The study outcomes are anticipated to make a significant contribution to
increase our understanding of the problems. It also seeks to add some knowledge to all
responsible body about the proposed issues.
