August and December

The measure allocated for education and learning is a factor influencing pupils academic exertion. There are three school terms every form with holidays in between in the months of April, August and December.Research has shown that majority of schools start learning after the first week of the school term. This indicates that there is a lot of time wastage before learning begins. Besides,most schools loose numerous teaching/ learning hours at the beginning of the term. This wastage leads to slight seduce being covered and syllabus non being completed on time hence contributing to poor exertion in KCPE examinations. b. Adequacy of Learning Resources The adequacy and use of teaching and learning materials affects the dominance of a teachers lesson.Teaching and learning esources enhances understanding of abstract ideas and improves performance. Adequate learning resources like text books,improvised weather instruments,relevant child friendly library books, wall maps and the exercise books are of paramount importance. This makes learning easier of subjects like Social Studies very abstract to the pupils. Further still,it has been proven that school facilities have a direct effect on teaching and learning. Text books enable the pupils to follow the teachers sequence of presentation and aids in understanding of lessons. . School Administration The quality of school administration plays a critical role in academic performance as it is concerned with pupils, teachers, rules, regulations and policies that govern the school system. In analyzing the efficiency of school administration, the following aspects ought to be considered Frequency of cater meetings Frequency of checking teachers schemes of work and lesson plans Adequacy of teachers prior formulation Frequency of break up observation by the conduce teacher. Few staff meetings may lead to less co-ordination of political program implementation.This an lead to less monitoring and reporting of the pr ogress of the schools activities to the teachers . Frequency of Checking Teachers Schemes of work The responsibility of checking the professional documents like teachers schemes of work and lesson plans lies in the hands of the channelize teacher. This may be done in person or he may delegate to the deputy head teacher or the senior teacher. dressing and use of schemes of work by the teachers enhances sequential teaching and results to improved achievement.Checking of teachers schemes of work should be done frequently to allow the head teacher monitor curriculum implementation. Frequency ot Checking the Teachers Lessons Plans Teacners lesson plan is a protessional document prepared by teachers for the purpose of presentation of a lesson. The teacher indicates whether the lesson has been taught and objectives achieved if the lesson is not taught, then the teacher indicates the reason why and when he intends to cover it if the lesson objectives are not achieved, the teacher plans fo r remedial lesson in order to make the concept understood by the pupils. take teachers should monitor lesson plan preparation frequently otherwise it may lead to poor erformance. Adequacy of Teachers Prior Preparation Adequate prior preparation before a teacher goes to class leads to good performance by the pupils. This promotes sequential presentation of concepts by the teacher to the learners. Always, prior preparation by the teachers leads to systematic delivery of concepts to pupils and enhances performance. Observation of Classes by Head teachers One of the roles of the head teacher is to carry out internal supervision of curriculum implementation in his/her school.This involves physical observation of teachers lessons in progress. One of the head teachers roles is regular class supervision in order to promote curriculum goals. Failure to do so may lead to poor performance. 2. Teacher-Based Factors These are the factors at bottom the teachers that could hinder or promote acade mic performance of pupils in their schools. The following are some of the aspects of teacher establish factors Teachers commitment Teachers frequency of absenteeism Teachers motivation Teachers work load.Teachers Commitment Level cheeseparing performance is as a result of high commitment levels by the teachers. Studies shows that teachers who lack enthusiasm are unable o teach effectively, making pupils not to learn well. Frequency of Absenteeism among Teachers When teachers absent themselves from school frequently, pupils go unattended and do not do well in examinations. Absenteeism by teachers reduces the amount of instructional time and this result in the syllabus not being completed. This in re subprogram results to lower output of work by the pupils.Teachers needA World Bank Report (1986) acknowledges that teacher satisfaction is generally related to achievement as satisfied teachers would concent send hence enhancing academic performance of their pupils. Teacher Turn-over Ra telf the teacher turn-over rate is high then it can contribute to poor performance in examinations. According to Schneider (2003) high teacher turn over forces schools to devote attention, time and financial resources attracting replacement of teachers. Teachers Workload This is the number of lessons teachers take per week.If teachers are not overloaded their output in terms performance should be good. 3. PUPlLS BASED FACTORS These are the factors within the pupils that could enhance or hinder their academic performance. The following are some aspects under pupil-based factors 1. Pupils language use 2. Pupils rate of absenteeism 3. Pupils lateness to school. Pupils Language Use Pupils who interact using English language tend to understand it better and do well in examinations as all examinations apart from Swahili are written in English language.It is equally true that leaner who as well interact well using Swahili language will pass the Swahili exam. Therefore,both languages mus t(prenominal) be encouraged in equal measure by the teachers,parents and the larger community. Pupils Frequency of Absenteeism These is the aspect of how frequent pupils absent themselves from school. When pupils absent themselves from school, they tend to lose many concepts and definitely may not do well in exams. The effect of absenteeism and irregular school attendance is that materials taught are difficult to understand when studied on ones own.Continued loss of classes results to loss of content and knowledge. Class assignments,exercises,homework and holiday homework would not be properly and correctly done leading to poor performance. 4. Community-Based Factors Community based factors are factors within the community that impede or enhance pupils academic performance. In analyzing the community based factors, the following aspects can be looked into a) Parents Consultation with TeachersGood performance is realized when parents work in consultation with the teachers in order to understand their children better.Studies shows that most often parents do not consult teachers and that most parents were not so much concerned about education of the children. Bogus (2004) indicated that parents interaction with teachers enables them to know what their children are encountering in school and what could be done to deal with the problems. It would also put pupils on alert and tudy in school as they would know that their parents would inquire about their performance.