Education
Towards accounting for poor performance in science among Malawian students
Why do Malawian student fare poorly in science?
Authors:
E.N.N. Dzama
Publisher:
National Research Council of Malawi, 2007
In 1942 examiners from Makerere, Uganda, found students at Blantyre Secondary School, Malawi, to be weak in science and mathematics. Since that time performance of Malawian students in these subjects has remained a sad story. The present study sets out to determine what keeps highly selected students in Government and Government-assisted schools from performing at their expected level.
The study concludes by stating that the historical factors and students’ lack of sense of responsibility for their studies are some of factors that account for poor performance in science subjects. Some factors that affect students’ performance include past experience, lack of learning skills and external attribution of success or failure in learning tasks stand out. Colonial administrators and missionaries of then Nyasaland also contributed to poor performance of Malawian students in science subjects. Local colonial policy in Nyasaland was hostile to teaching Africans science. They feared scientifically educated Africans hence did not encourage local students to study science subjects.
