Stakeholders' perceptions about causes of students' poor performance in secondary schools in the Lower Gweru Circuit in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine stakeholders’ perceptions about causes of students’ poor performance in the secondary schools of the Lower Gweru Circuit in Zimbabwe. The major question that guided the research was how stakeholders perceived causes of students’ poor performance in the secondary schools of the Lower Gweru circuit in Zimbabwe. Consistent with the post modern research paradigm that underlined this study, both qualitative and quantitative designs were used. Schools were randomly selected and respondents were purposively sampled. Questionnaires and interviews were the main tools for data collection. The study found out that all odds in the Lower Gweru circuit were against students’ achievement. As a consequence of low remuneration and lack of incentives, teachers had given up attending fully to their classes. Teachers’ motivation was at its lowest ebb. Students were, as a result, left to their own devices. Strained relationships between students and teachers as well as between teachers and community left the students at an academic disadvantage. Poor parental support in terms of material and financial resources galvanized the students’ disadvantage and further eroded their academic achievement. On instructional supervision, data gathered pointed to a laissez-faire approach that started from the region and cascaded down to school heads and to teachers. In the light of these findings it was suggested that improving the nation’s lowest performing schools should be a national priority. There is need for schools with a track record of chronic failure to be transformed and turned around.