Academic performance of Female students in Addis Ababa: The case of kirkos sub city primary schools
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Date
2014
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The primary purpose of this study was to assess the academic performance of female students at
Kirkos Sub-city primary schools and investigate factors affecting academic achievement of female
students. Besides it tried to examine the relationship of academic performance with the major three
independent factors, such as, school environment (facilities, teacher competency, and principal
leadership); socio-economic status of parents, parental education and sex related factors. For data
gathering, both quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed. The techniques used
were questionnaires, focus group discussions, and interviews. A pilot study was conducted to assess
the clarity of the items, the reliability and the feasibility of the instrument by using 30 students from
primary school, who were from similar standard.
The questionnaire was administered for 160 grade eight students at Kirkos Sub-City. The
qualitative instrument constituted of document analysis, student records, and interview. SPSS 20.0
and Statistical techniques such as Percentage, frequency, Spearman's rho and t-test analysis were
used for data analysis. The core results were that female students’ academic performance
particularly at primary level (first Cycle) was better than that of male students. On the other hand,
the same students, i.e., male students’ academic performance particularly at the second Cycle was
better than that of female students.
The research has identified that factors, such as, school environment (facilities, teacher
competency, and principal leadership); socio-economic status of parents, parental education and
sex related factors affected the academic performance of female students. The problems female
students encountered were school environment, gender related factors, parental education, and
socio-economic factors. In conclusion, the majority of problems female students encounter and
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those factors that affect female students’ academic performance are school based factors and home
based factors.
Based on the findings, recommendations were suggested. In this respect school administration is
responsible to facilitate school environment and fulfill learning materials that impede female
students from achieving better results. The school administration is also expected to encourage
parental involvement and work diligently to increase parental interaction at school, attempt to
provide legal protection for sexual harassment that prevails in schools, encourage providing
progressive gender focused tutorial programmes,
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Keywords
kirkos, sub city primary, schools