Statement of Problem

The fourth goal of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is
to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality, education and promote life,long
learning opportunities for all"(United Nations Development Program,2017,p.7).This
is one of the most important SDGs because the UN sees it as medium in achieving the
other goals (UNDP,2017).It has there for become necessary that all countries ensure
that their populace get access to quality eeeducation.The Education Sector
Performance (ESP) Strategic plan from 2010-2020 seek to ensure the provision of
equitable good quality universal education (MOE,2016). Although the definition of
quality education is very complex,one of its key components is academic performance
(United Nations Children's Fund,2000).

The academic performance of JHS students have been declining since 2000. Their
general performance after BECE declined from 62.16% in 2009 to 50.21% in 2008.It
decrease again from 49.12% in 2010 to 46.93% in 2011 (West African Examination
Council,2012).The trend is not different from Gomoa Manso Basic School which is the
case study for this research,Out of the 51 candidates for 2010 BECE,no candidate
obtained a grade of 6-10; Only 9 had aggregate 11-30.In 2011,34 candidates were
presented for the BECE,no one had aggregate 6-10,10 obtained aggregate 11-20 and
the other had 21 and above.Apart from 2010,where 2 candidate obtained aggregate 6-
10,the Subsequent yaers have followed the same trend in 2010 and 2011 (Ghana
Education Service,2014).
Previous Studies have found that improvement in the academic performance of
students is dependent on a Combination of a teacher'*tStudents entent, school and
parental factorys,other have also attributed it to environmental,personal,social,
psychological and economics factors.
Most of these studies tend to focus on a single subject or focuses on limited
factors that contributes to academic performance.Focused on only socio economics
status and parent's level education.They recommended that other studies should
explore peer factors, family factors, student and school factors.
Again,Jayanthi,Balakrishnan,Ching,Latif and Nasiruden (2014)emphasized that an
extensive study should be conducted to include more than one school to assess the
academic performance of students.