CHAPTER ONE: ORIENTATION AND OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
7.2 Discussion of results
7.2.2 Non-academic factors that compromise students’ performance
7.2.2.2 Personal factors
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persistence in students. This persistence has two possible outcomes. The first outcome, as suggested by the data, is that students continue to struggle in their academic programme, because they have been encouraged to continue with their studies despite the difficulties the student is experiencing. In this instance, the family support is damaging to the student’s academic progress, largely because of the problems that the student is experiencing and which have not been resolved; however, the student feels compelled to continue. The second possible outcome of this persistence to continue is that of encouragement to overcome hurdles. In this scenario, students persist, with positive results, due to this encouragement, despite the obstacles that the student may experience. This finding is in line with the literature which suggests that the family has a great influence on one’s psychological, emotional, social and economic state since the parents are the first socializing agents in an individual's life (Ajila & Olutola, 2000). Schwanz et al. (2014) maintain that that parental support is considerably and positively interrelated with a variety of academic consequences such as academic adjustment, persistence, and achievement.
Family support usually keeps students motivated, eager to do well and they become resilient despite all odds.
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Self- distraction
It is also noted from this study that students become distracted and lose concentration; they often waste time on surfing the internet, facebook, chatting to friends using their mobile phones and watching television (Edinyang & Ubi, 2013). When students are distracted from their studies the issue of time management and the amount of time lost and valuable information missed becomes a concern. It is the students’ responsibility to prioritise and realign their focus. In practice, students who are distracted tend to run around close to the due dates for tasks or assessment resulting in their performance being compromised.
Unplanned / unwanted pregnancy
Unplanned pregnancy is one of the sub-factors under personal factors to which some participants attributed their failure. Freedom could be one of the factors that some students misuse or abuse in higher education. Most students in higher education experience living on their own for the first time and some engage in intimate relationships for the first time. They engage in intimate relationships without proper guidance or knowledge such as prevention that result in various negative circumstances. Some end up opting for adoption of the child, some become young single parents and some opt for abortion. It is evident that all these choices have an impact on students’ emotional well-being. Another balancing act by students, suggested through this study is that students may find it difficult to deal with both studies as well as parental responsibility.
This non-cognitive feature should also be considered as one of the predictors of academic success or lack of success.
Negative influence
Some students in this study attributed their poor performance to bad relationships they had in higher education. In this case bad relationships meant development of connections inside or outside campus life with both same and /or different genders. These relationships resulted in their shifting of the main focus from their studies and had unintended, undesirable consequences;
for an example: students attend parties with friends and become involved in drugs. Left unchecked, this negatively affects their academic performance. In practice, the consequences are not only students failing and repeating modules but also standing a chance of losing scholarships which are merit based. Ultimately this can result in students dropping out of university, not
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because they fail to engage with epistemological knowledge but because of non-academic factors such as making bad choices regarding friends. It is not unusual in the literature to come across challenges such as the above in other modern institutions. This finding is in-line with literature in that first year students are faced with the challenge of handling choices in relationships and social engagement (Hartley, James & McInnis, 2005). Hartley et al., (2005) further explains that making choices goes hand in hand with consequences and failure to make appropriate choices invariably compromises academic performance.
Mishandling of scholarship funds
Mishandling of scholarship funds seems to be one of the elements putting students ‘at-risk’ when it comes to personal factors that compromise academic success in this study. Mishandling of scholarship funds in this case mean the usage of scholarship funds for non-academic purposes;
often students compromise their benefits and use the money to support their families. As much as supporting families is a good cause, when it impedes academic success expedient and there is no long term gain. Another concern is that there is lack a of financial literacy in higher education and as a result students tend to conform and want to fit in, resulting in them focusing on material things which ultimately compromise their studies. The majority of students especially from disadvantaged backgrounds become exposed to money handling when they start higher learning education. This implies that there is a need for higher education institutions to incorporate financial literacy into the orientation to cater for personal development needs.
From the findings above, it is evident that factors that affect students are interlinked; for example, students being awarded funding and having to manage these scholarship funds. All factors at play should therefore be considered when factors that affect their learning are addressed. While all the above factors are known to have implications on students’ academic progress within higher education, how students deal with these issues is of concern this relates to their academic progress.
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