An assessment of the challenges faced by ordinary level students in science subjects; case study: selected rural and urban secondary schools in Mukono district

Abstract

The study was done to examine the challenges faced by ordinary level students in science subjects, how the challenges affect students’ performance and suggest possible solutions to the challenges. It was carried out in 04 secondary schools and involved a total of 286 respondents. These included 264 students of whom 132 were from urban while 132 were from rural secondary schools who were selected systematically. 16 science teachers; 04 head teachers; 01 District Inspector of Schools and 01 District Education Officer were selected purposively. This study employed qualitative and quantitative, cross-sectional and comparative study designs.. Qualitative data was analyzed by developing themes and quantitative data by using statistical package for social scientists (SPSS) 13.0 model. The findings revealed that Learning materials, Teacher capacity, and Students’ negative attitudes brought about by misconceptions from parents, students, community members and teachers held on science subjects were challenges which affected students’ performance and they were more in rural than in urban secondary schools. The challenges impacted on students’ performance in the way that in schools where learning materials were not enough, practical lessons and students’ revision could not be effectively done compared with schools which had them in plenty. Teacher capacity affected students’ performance in science subjects in the way that in schools with class size of 80 and 100 teachers could not supervise, monitor students well especially when the salaries are low. This automatically leads to negative impacts in form of poor performance. Students’ attitudes affected performance of students in the way that with negative attitudes students performed poorly while those with positive attitudes performed better. The key solutions included government, community members and donors joining hands to put up physical structures like classrooms, increasing laboratory space, providing textbooks, increasing science teachers’ salaries and more teachers should be enrolled in all secondary schools. The attitudes were suggested to be improved through sensitisation of parents, teachers and students to develop positive attitudes. From these findings it was concluded that learning materials, teacher capacity and students’ attitudes were still challenges affecting students’ performance and they are more in rural secondary schools than in urban secondary schools. It was recommended that for students’ performance to be improved in science subjects at ordinary level in Mukono district, government should reduce taxes on building materials so that donors, directors or private proprietors of secondary schools can be in position to build and equip laboratories and classrooms with chemicals, apparatus and furniture to match with students’ science subjects learning needs. More classrooms should be constructed to enable students be divided into streams, pay teachers well and enroll more teachers in both categories of secondary schools. Sensitize parents, students and community members through guidance and counselling to develop positive attitudes towards science subjects.