A Comparative Analysis Of Student Achievement By School Type In Zimbabwe Secondary Schools

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine statistical differences in levels of student performance in ZJC English and Mathematics between six secondary school types in Zimbabwe. 5293 Form 2 students who wrote ZJC examinations in 33 secondary schools in 1989 participated in the study. As predicted, students in high fee paying schools performed better in both English and Mathematics than students in former group A, former group B (urban and rural), mission and rural district council schools.

While students in former group A schools performed better in English than students in mission, former group B (urban and rural), and rural district council schools, the situation in Mathematics was different. Students in mission schools performed significantly better in Mathematics than their counterparts in former group A schools who performed significantly better than students in former group B (urban and rural) and rural district council schools.

Evidence from the study shows that students in former group B urban schools performed significantly better in English than students in former group B urban schools contrary to the postulated prediction. A startling finding was that rural district council schools performed in Mathematics as well as former group B urban schools despite the critical shortages in human, financial and instructional resources constraining them.