Introduction
In the past three years, this institution has recorded fair student performance in both Mathematics and Reading Skills in grade 8. Though the state of the performance cannot be termed as alarming, it can still not be termed as pleasing. This is because the performance of the last two batches of grade 8 students has tended to remain more stagnant. Mathematics and Reading Skills form the core courses for students who wish to pursue science and technical courses in the future. This has been more evident in the Group summary analysis as shown below;
Scale Scores and Performance Levels Comparative Bar Graph for the Years 2011/1012 in Mathematics and Reading Skills
It has been noticed that student performance in both subjects remains within the same range of the calculated mean for each of the subjects across the two years. The table below shows how the average values compare with the actual values that have been used to attain the mean.
Note: The average values are colored red to distinguish and enable comparison across the two years during which performance has been observed.
The analysis shows that there is little added value among the students across an academic year. This is what finally reflects in the compared performance in the two subjects across the two years. In this perspective the institution will have to adopt some strategy changes in order to eliminate this stagnation in general and individual performances. The following strategies will be used to achieve this.
Providing modern teaching materials in line with national and global standards
These materials will offer the students the required real time learning material s as well as imparting them with the current techniques that are being used in learning reading skills and solving mathematical problems. For instance measurement concepts in mathematics require modern technologies such as computers to enable the learners gain the usable skills that will eventually be reflected in their performance. Current techniques and tool provided by the institution are tending towards becoming obsolete.
Involving all stakeholders in the learning process
This strategy aims at ensuring that the individual students learning process is monitored by all stakeholders right from the teacher, the parent, the administration and students themselves. This, accompanied by proper communication between these stakeholders will ensure that the areas of weakness for the student are identified and addressed early enough. Currently, much of the burden is placed upon the teacher and considering the large number of students that the teacher is handling, it becomes difficult and at times impossible to identify and address the weakness of each student early. This compromises addition of value to the student during their time of learning.
Increasing the workforce to serve the students
