Causes for Underperformance of Students

Education is one of the most important aspects of human resource development. Poor school
performance not only results in the child having a low self-esteem, but also causes significant
stress to the parents. There are many reasons for children to under perform at school, such as,
medical problems, below average intelligence, specific learning disability, attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, emotional problems, poor socio-cultural home environment, psychiatric
disorders and even environmental causes. The information provided by the parents, classroom
teacher and school counselor about the child's academic difficulties guides the pediatrician to
form an initial diagnosis. However, a multidisciplinary evaluation by an ophthalmologist,
otolaryngologist, counselor, clinical psychologist, special educator, and child psychiatrist is
usually necessary before making the final diagnosis. It is important to find the reason(s) for a
child's poor school performance and come up with a treatment plan early so that the child can
perform up to full potential. (Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16391452)

The problem of low academic achievement of students in the examinations is one of the most
challenging problems that students face as well as teachers. This problem has many causes and
it has educational, social, cultural and psychological dimensions. However, the students' low
academic achievement on the exam can be defined as: Low or weakness of the student's mark
under the normal average in a study subject level as a result of a variety of reasons, including
those related to the student himself, or those related to family, social and academic
environment. Consequently, this may lead to frequent repetition of failure, despite their abilities
that qualify them to get the best marks.

There are many reasons for the academic failure:

1) Lack of a Clear Plan: Success does not happen suddenly or by chance, however, if it
happened by chance to some people, it would be an exception. Basically, before starting any
work, there should be developed plans like plans for success and plans to achieve the indicated
goals in a given period, and what is the best strategy that will be followed to implement these
plans. Actually, planning is not a difficult task; it just needs time and commitment. Someone
says," I do not want to put plan for a task because I might change my mind at any stage of
implementating it". This could be ridiculous because you can change and develop your plan at
any time because the basic principle of any plan that it should be adjustable and elastic at any
stage in its implementation. Whether the goal is big or a small but without a plan you will not
reach a complete success of the task. Thus, ideas will remain ideas and unimplemented if the
map of the work (the plan) does not exist. Some people tend to do the same work without a
plan so they always get the negative results. But with a flexible plan, they can develop their
ideas to guarantee their success and be away from failure.

2) Medical and Psychological Reasons: With reference to academic failure there are many
causes related to medical and psychological reasons such as:

a. Major Depression Disorder: It is common that depression as a disease caused by failing in

exams but it is more frequent that depression often precedes the exams' period. Depression can
cause inability and weakness in concentration of the patient. The result of the equation becomes
inverted, any depression can lead to failure.

b. Generalized anxiety disorder that can cause a situation of forgetting and weakness in
concentration.

c. Exam Phobia: It is a case of a sever fear of the exam and the expectation of failure, which
weakens the educational achievement and preparation and is accompanied with less attentive
and not fully prepared for the exam.

d. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: It is the frequent predominant ideas in mind of the students
that prevent them from thinking of anything else. However, they can't overcome them and
cause severe distress and affect their academic performance.

e. Attention Disorder: It is the lack of the ability to focus attention on one thing for a suitable
time. It may be associated with hyperactivity disorder.

f. Learning Disabilities and Slow Learning: It is a functional deficit in the brain leading to a
lack of capacity to acquire new knowledge, as cases in low IQ or or difficulty in reading
(Dyslexia) or difficulty in writing (Dysgraphia) or difficulty in mathematics (Dyscalculia) and
they are investigated by special psychological measurements.

3) Reasons Related to the Learner: The weakness of enthusiasm, lack of experience and
hasty in getting the results are considered causes that often lead to academic failure, along with
lack of abilities, fear of failure and lack of self-confidence. Therefore, academic failure occurs
when someone convinces himself/herself that he/she is unable to succeed because of the
weakness of his/her abilities and lack of experience. The goals should also be clear, specific
and realistic to the learner. Failure to do so will result in missing these goals.
4) Parental and Educational Reasons: The excess pressure on the student in order to get
higher marks in the exams may create a feeling of fear if he is unable to get high marks as
required by parents, and this frequently leading to the academic failure. Moreover, the unstable
families situations make students live in a state of tension, confusion and lack of concentrating
during the exam which will reflect negatively the on academic performance.

5) Exam's Anxiety: It is a state of feeling or an emotional condition that student faces during
the exam, and arise from the fear of failing in the exam or the fear of not getting satisfactory
result for himself and for others. However, this emotional state may affect mental processes
such as paying attention, concentrating, thinking and remembering, as a result of the fact that
any examination or test may decide the fate of its taker and it will affect a particular aspect of
his life, such as success in the study, admission to a particular job and others, causing him fear
and not achieving the requested level.

6) Lack of Motivation for Success: Although most of people may fail at some point or at
some stages in their lives, they have to consider failure is one chain for success and to learn
from failure and know how to deal with it. Still, if anyone was able to know why he /she failed;
definitely this would lead to success. Thus, anyone who suffers from failure he will also enjoy
the sweetness of success, and learn from his mistakes and saying "Good bye to failure." To
sum up, these factors attributed to teachers, students, parents and the school environment were
primarily responsible for the low academic performance of the students. It must be emphasized
that these factors generally do not operate in isolation. Teacher absenteeism and lateness for
example would result in incompletion of the syllabus and would also affect student's
motivation, enthusiasm, zeal and commitment to learn.

(Retrieved from
https://www.academypublication.com/ojs/index.php/tpls/article/viewFile/tpls051122622268/
477)

This link too provides various causes 7et/publication/7380860_Poor_School_Performance

https://www.researchgate.n

Children living in noisy environment can exhibit pooracademic performance.69 Too much
television-viewingamong children has been linked with inadequate studypatterns.70, 71
Inappropriate television-viewing amongadolescents has been linked to erratic
sleep/wakeschedules and poor sleep quality, violent or aggressivebehavior, substance use,
sexual activity resulting indecreased school performance or even school drop-out.70,71 There
is irrefutable evidence that environmental-leadexposure can lead to mild intellectual
impairment,hyperactivity, shortened concentration span, hearingimpairment,

Broken home:

A broken home is a potential factor leading to total failure or poor academic performance of
students in their academic pursuit. Broken home could lead to depression, thus impeding
progress. violent/aggressive behavior all resulting inpoor school performance.

Student-Related Factors

Some reasons for poor performance are specific to the students and not related to external
factors. For example, a learning disability is student-centered and may create an obstacle to
reaching certain academic standards. Motivation also can play a factor in poor performance. A
student may be fully capable of earning high grades but might simply not care enough about
education to exert the effort. Issues of motivation could be placed upon the parents or even the
school, but sometimes a child simply does not enjoy learning.

Teacher-Related Factors

Teachers play a significant role in student performance and also can be responsible for poor
student performance. For example, if a teacher lacks experience or is dispassionate about
teaching, the children might not be able to develop comprehensive understandings of the
subject material. Furthermore, if the teacher suffers from a classroom management problem --
such as extreme authoritarianism -- the classroom environment might hinder fruitful class
discussions and collaborative learning. It also can deter students from applying themselves to
the best of their abilities.

Teachers’ approach to teaching or teaching methodology adopted

The approach teachers use to deliver the subject content to students will determine whether the
students will understand or not. When the content is poorly delivered, it will tell on the
performance of the students. It is common to see teachers teaching while students are not
learning. This calls for re-evaluation by the teachers on his/her approach to teaching.

Family-Related Factors

Finally, family-related factors can play a critical role in a student's academic performance. For
instance, when parents either don't care or are too busy to care about their children's
performance, the kids can lose their academic focus. Furthermore, living in poverty also can
distract a child from academics because survival becomes a more immediate and pressing
priority. Both of these examples include situations in which the parents are not intentionally
harming a child's education, but such cases still can impact the problem. In extreme examples,
if a parent or other family member is abusive, that situation easily can consume a student's
attention and cause his or her academic performance to decline dramatically.

Poor inter-personal relation between teachers and students

Teachers must create an enabling environment where they are accessible by students. Teachers
are not to teach only but also to inspire, motivate, show care, and cause their students to learn.

Broken home experience

This is a problem caused by parents to their children. The effect of a broken home on children
makes them lose concentration at school and even make them lose interest in learning.