Influences Which are Likely to have a Negative Impact on Student Achievement

Depression

Depression is one of the causes that impact students’ achievement negatively.  It is a mental illness that impacts students thinking, emotions, and behaviors due to which their academic performance is affected negatively.

In Pakistan’s education system, there is no such thing as a mental illness that affects student performance. A person can be physically ill but depression, anxiety, and many more mental issues are not considered necessary. Depression does impact and plays a major role in the performance of students as in Pakistan there is a constant fear of failing students. There can be other reasons for depression as well but mostly her parents, siblings, teachers, and peers pressurize students by comparing them with others which leads them to depression.

Lack of Sleep

Lack of sleep is one of the influences on student performance. Sleep deprivation is a state that occurs due to an insufficient amount of sleep which causes the underachievement of the students as they can’t concentrate attentively in class. Studies have found that children who have more sleep tend to perform better in math and science. As these subjects require an attentive mind and body.

In Pakistan, this can be one of the major causes that lead to low student achievement. Here, families live together and there is no concept of privacy so the students might be living with one or more siblings in a room. It could disturb their sleep schedule as each member of the family has his/her routine.

Summer Vacation Affect

Summer vacation affects student achievement. Summer vacation is a break between the academic years. There is discontinuation in the learning process of a student due to which many concepts that were clear to students before the summer vacations become blurred. Summer breaks can cause students’ performance low once the classes are resumed due to the lack of revision of studies.

In Pakistan, this can be one of the major causes that lead to low student achievement as here the summer breaks are as long as 3-4 months. Since the temperature in Pakistan is mostly hot so the summer breaks are usually long. The students don’t have the practice to read or revise what was taught before and what would be further taught. This makes students lazy and also weakens their concepts due to which they have a hard time recollecting the previous concepts once the classes are resumed.

Suspending/Expelling Students

Suspending students affects student achievement. It is an act of forcing someone to leave a position or place for a short period.

In Pakistan, if a student gets suspended due to any reason, he misses out on the topics taught during that period i.e., for a few days or a week. This impacts the student’s performance as he would require time to cover all the concepts that he missed during his/her suspension period. Her peers don’t help each other much as there is a lot of competition so this can also be the case that he might not guide properly by his/her classmates in that case those students would require extra classes or help from the teacher. This whole process of covering the missed topics is time taking so this could impact student performance.

Moving between Schools

Moving between schools affects student achievement. Moving between schools is the process of transferring or switching schools during the academic year or it may be done during the summer breaks as well. School transfer can also occur due to the parents’ job posting in different cities. Moving between schools can also mean moving from a primary to secondary or secondary school to higher level schools.

In Pakistan, students move between schools very often. Sometimes it is due to their parents and other times they transfer to get bet better education than their previous school. For example, in Pakistan, only a few cities provide a quality education so the students move to other cities to get a good education. Migrates often find it difficult to settle as the environment and people are new to them. Here students get bullied based on their background, class, and ethnicity. E.g., if a student moves from an area like KPK to Lahore then he might get bullied based on his/her background or any other reason. This would impact the students’ achievement as they would get demotivated and not speak up or participate in the class as much as the other students due to social awkwardness.