Teachers’ perceptions on the causes of poor academic performance of grade 12 learners in four selected schools in the Zambezi Region of Namibia

Abstract

Grade 12 leaners in most Senior Secondary Schools in the Zambezi Region of Namibia continue
to perform poorly in both the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE)
and the Higher International General Certificate of Secondary Education (HIGCSE) final
examination. The purpose of this study is to investigate the poor academic performance of the
grade 12 learners in four selected Senior Secondary Schools in two circuits in the Zambezi Region
of Namibia. The main research question is: What are the main causes of the low academic
performance in the selected schools? Qualitative research method was used in this study. The
study involves four Senior Secondary Schools with five teachers from each School including their
principals and one deputy principal or head of department. Two of the four schools were from a
rural area and the other two were from an urban area. The data was collected using interviews
and document review. The analysis consisted of coding and then categorizing data into
manageable themes, identifying and isolating what was important to note, what we learned and
what we could report on in this research. Our findings are that among factors that might have
caused the poor academic performance of grade 12 learners in the four selected schools are: lack
of discipline in schools, learners lack motivation, English as a medium of instruction, poor
learning environment, learners’ admission level coupled with limited support from parents,
unqualified subject teachers and lack of teaching-learning resources among others.