Education is an important part of human life as well as human resource development. Every student is taught the significance of a good academic record, to become a stable, successful individual and to help pick out a fruitful career.
It is important for a student to perform well in academics, especially during higher secondary school, to secure university scholarships, have a choice of subjects to study in college, and to ensure the stability of career and enjoy economic freedom during adulthood.
However, every student faces a phase in their student lives, when their academic performance is deeply affected due to outside factors that may be disturbing for them.
Before discussing the various factors affecting the academic performance of students, it is necessary to understand that these situations have to be handled carefully and with sensitivity.
Albeit the unpopular belief of some families, a student’s academic record can fall due to many factors.
During these times, it is important for parents and teachers to be understanding, and help them overcome their problems, and return to their ultimate goal.
Family background
Internal family conflicts often affect the academic performance of a student in higher secondary school. Oftentimes, returning home to a negative atmosphere affects the will to study, and work towards academics. Students coming from troubled households mostly have issues concentrating in classroom discussions and lessons and are unable to catch up while studying at home. As students, you can approach a counselor that will help prepare you for exams.
Uncomfortable learning environment
The type of surroundings and people a child interacts with during school is partially responsible for the overall performance, including the academic score. If a child is bullied by his peers, does not have a particular liking towards his teachers, or has difficulty in making friends, it may affect the focus he must have during classes or cause shortage of attendance. Interacting in class, talking to fellow students, and taking small steps towards getting involved in the school activities can help the student take a liking for his surroundings, and eventually perform better.
Difficulty in understanding
Many concepts and topics of the curriculum can be difficult to understand and prepare for without expert supervision. Missing classes when such topics are taught may be unfortunate for the child, thus affecting the overall academic score. To combat this, we must approach our teachers for any doubts and they should be open to helping.
Teacher-student ratio
Student-teacher ratio refers to the number of students in a classroom, per teacher.
A teacher’s undivided attention, appreciation, and understanding play a huge role in developing the student’s interest in the subject. If teachers are burdened with immense side responsibilities, and an abnormal number of students to teach, it may affect the teaching style and the quality of education imparted to the students.
Performance pressure
Performance pressure can be caused due to unrealistic expectations from family, set assigned goals, or other outside factors. It has always proven to be harmful to the mental health of the child and thus causing a serious reduction in academic performance.
Foreseeing this, schools should provide full-time counseling to students so that they can unburden and seek professional help whenever required.
Unhealthy lifestyle
A healthy lifestyle is crucial to performing well in academics or any other field. Maintaining a balanced diet, along with adequate hours of sleep, study breaks is very important to sustain or improve an academic record.
Loss of interest
It is not reasonable to expect every child to like all topics, and perform exceptionally well in every subject, all the time. There are instances when children lose interest in a few topics in the curriculum and do not have the will to study and prepare them for exams. It is understandable but detrimental to the academic score of the student. During these situations, it is highly recommended for students to share such problems with their teachers so that they can help them in overcoming such obstacles.
Study habits
Even though everybody has different ways to learn, there are some tips that don't help anyone. To check out some wonderful study habits, visit Rini’s blog! (link in description)
Loss of motivation
Everybody loses their motivation sometime; be it at work, school or even to do daily household tasks. Some tips to fight this are Pomodoro technique, the goldilocks rule, fighting procrastination and making flashcards/mind maps. Let us know in the comments if you'd like more on this ;)
Personal conditions
Feeling sleepy, hungry or having difficulty in seeing, breathing or hearing, etc. can be personal conditions that come in your way. To tackle this, carry some light snacks around with you in your pockets, and sit in the front seats if you have any problems.
( Riza Javed. )
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