4 Righteousness Communication Arts Ms. Lim MACAPAGAL Dayana B. Students of St.

. Scholasticas College Manila should find relevance of any discussion relative to the causes and effects of failure in academics as it is a common experience among a significant number of the students to grapple with the problem of discipline in handling their study habits and resisting the diversion caused by the advent of modern technologies such as the internet and other media devices. There are a lot of students nowadays who are suffering from failure in their academics. Each of them have different reasons and experience different effects. Halts (2008) study found the following: They fail because they are afraid, bored and confused. They are afraid, above all else, of failing, of disappointing or displeasing the many anxious adults around them, whose limitless hopes and expectations for them hang over their heads like a cloud. On the other hand, Clifford (n.d) stated: Besides the environmental factors, nervousness and mental illnesses, the greatest cause of failure is probably something which prevents the student from studying efficiently, or if he is able to study, he has a poor examination technique which interferes with him presenting what he has learned to the examiners. An effect of these causes could be the feeling of helplessness, which is when one feels like theres no point in trying. This leads to the failure of passing assignments and participating in class (Covington, 1976). The study of Warsham, Emmer and Everston (2000) revealed that lower-achieving students are likely to develop poor attitude toward school. Lower academic level students often fail two or more grade levels below average. Because of the failure in the past, most students are discouraged. 20

Students who have difficulties do not excel in their school works, maintain attention to class and encounter frustrating tasks. In fine, given the understanding generated by the discussion of the foregoing subject, it is easily seen that the problems afore-discussed has contributed to the accumulation of dangerously deficient level of preparation for the imminent examinations for the school year. Considering this realization and the shortness of time available to address the full complexity of the problem, emphasis is herein made of immediate remedies, one of which is the formulation of remedial classes to be handled by competent teachers immersed not only in the mastery of the particular subject they teach but also a fairly deep empathy with affected students. Many researches have been found on how to improve and help those students change their status in class. One of which is establishing a program that will develop a students participation in class and also improve his scores in exams. According to John Holt, during the 20th Century, the increased demand for higher education by students from all backgrounds accelerated the need for remediation in higher education. Majority of students are failing to keep up with their lessons, which is why they needed it. According to a 1996 study by NCES, 80% of public four-year colleges and 100% two-year colleges offered remediation. The increasing number of entering colleges unprepared for college-level material is reflected in the growing numbers required to take remedial courses. Basically, the main objectives of remedial classes is to give more help to slow learners, to pay individual attention to the low achiever in the classes and to develop interest in attending remedial classes for the students. It is a positive environment for them as they are encouraged to ask many questions as necessary to understand a subject, rather than feeling pressured to learn everything immediately by building classroom activity plans and creating academic materials that can suit the low ability students is essential. In remedial classes, teachers are advised to point out the errors of the students, provide a

model, and to practice them. The students are encouraged to transfer the habits they have learned in the drills to everyday situations. One way of measuring the effectiveness of a remedial program is to investigate whether the enrolled students actually complete the remedial courses successfully. Training under supervision gives the student an enormous advantage. The skilled teachers will not only see that he does not repeat mistakes, and so drive out of the mind wrong skills by conditioning, but can often show how to avoid imitating such mistakes.