CHALLENGING FACTORSOFSTUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN SECONDARY SCHOOLSOFNORTH SHOWA ZONE, OROMIA REGIONAL STATE.

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.