Why do students fail?

TO STUDY THE REASONS WHY SOME STUDENTS ARE NOT ABLE TO FINISH THEIR DEGREE WITHIN THE STIPULATED TIME

Failure as an inability to reach desired goals

The school success or failure refers to the level or

degree the student has fulfilled (fully or partially) the teaching goals (Kalogridi, 1995; Dimou, 1997). Success is believed to be the lack of problems and the students achievement of high standards, while failure is characterized by difficulties and an inability to reach the desired goals. It is also accompanied by a variety of other problems (behavioural etc.) which often associated with school failure. (Kupersmidt & Coie,1990).

Criteria of evaluation a determinant of failure

Esland (1971) believes that success and failure depend on

the evaluation system applied by an educator, and the criteria are thus subjective. If the criteria were shifted, success and failure would also differ, as it would not go against children of a low socio-economic status, since it would not depend on cultural inadequacy but on cultural differences. The definition of school failure can be ambiguous, since it not only entails the students failure, but also that of the educational system as it has not successfully met the student needs (Papadopoulos, 1990)

 But we can consider it as the demonstrated inability

or failure of a student to fit in within his or her home school environment.

Method
Data collected through Questionnaires Samples of students works(if available) Interviews of : a. Failed Students: A profile of each student's life,

literacy, and academic history. b. Faculty c. Parents d. Other students

Identification

Data from 20 batches(1993-2012) to be collected to

identify the students who have failed and designate them as the sample group for the study. For analysis through comparison, select a student with high performance and collect their data too.( optional)

Reasons for Failure

There are three known approaches

Cognitive : struggle as grounded in early failure to

decode print text fluently Socio-cultural: language and literacy are acquired through social interaction embedded in functional, everyday contexts whose parameters and practices vary across time and across economic and environmental condition Macro-structural: work to alter history through policy making and the judicial and legislative systems

 Kinds of stress-

Race/Class related II. Academic stress III. Psychological/Interpersonal

I.

We cannot arrive at a single factor, each student faces different kinds of stress factors and they are correlated

Family
Parents involvement

Parents education and background

Parents expectations Siblings/friends education and influence

Financial troubles
Family struggle-economic, death of member etc

Psychological
General stress

Neuroticism(emotional stability)
Inability to adjust to hostel/different city Adjusting to predominant upper class culture

Establishing friendships
Academic adjustment-top to bottom Faculty-Student Relations

Performance in School and its influence through College

Note-taking

Poor study skills

Inability to write project papers Language barrier at vivas

Academic load
Type of high school Where do they end up? Job-wise, area wise etc

Suggestions
Language classes Remedial classes Improve consultation with faculty Group them together, make them work together More activities for them, cultural and otherwise Reducing suspensions and disciplinary actions to reduce hostility Mentoring/Counselling Programs Through intensive and very carefully planned direct instruction in basic cognitive strategies and study skills Caste/Class Sensitisation classes from the administration student level Academic Support Programmes Improve representation in student bodies/committees, if excluded.