Abstract

Poor scholastic performance is a common problem faced by children, and is a challenge to students, their teachers, and parents. While the professional literature abounds with investigations of the various factors that cause poor scholastic performance in school-going children, the nature of academic or basic skill difficulties seen in such children have not been appraised. Of all the factors that are affected in a child who is experiencing poor scholastic performance, it can be safely assumed that quite a large number among them would have difficulties in basic arithmetic skills and operations. What arithmetic skill and operational deficits would these children pose as a challenge to both learn and teach? This study was conceived to see if we can identify the nature of academic skill deficits in these children and what specific implications emerge for their teachers. A purposive sample (n=72) limited to students with poor scholastic performance attending a city-based school from class 8 to 12, following the National Open School Curriculum, was selected for this study. Their performance on a criterion-referenced assessment tool was analyzed using statistical methods and it was found that there existed a significant difference in the mean marks of students in class 8 to class12.

Keywords :  Scholastic backwardness, arithmetic difficulties, open school, learning disability, statistical data processing.