The academic perfomance of learners who have retained a grade for another extra year in mathematics, science and english language.

The study was designed to examine the Academic Performance of learners who had retained a
grade in Mathematics, Science and English Language. The problem under the study was that
there were a lot of Learners who were retaining a grade with the view to improve the academic
performance in the District. Having appreciated the study done by Phiri (2016) concerning grade
retention in Grant-Aided Schools in Central Province, it was observed that even other
government owned Schools were practicing the vise whose effectiveness was not known. Four
objectives guided the study; to identify the measures put in place by government owned
Secondary Schools in order to enhance grade retention, to establish whether these measures were
followed or not, to ascertain the relationship between grade retention and academic performance,
and to establish the views of Teachers, Learners and Parents over grade retention. The
significance of the study was that other Schools, Districts, Provinces and eventually the Policy
makers were availed to a picture of the effects of grade retention in Government owned schools.
The sample consisted of four Government secondary schools of Mpulungu District. Population
sample comprised of 97 respondents: 28 Teachers, 39 Learners and 30 Parents. To obtain data
from these respondents, Questionnaires, Interview guides and Score sheets were used.
Questionnaires were administered to Teachers and learners while Interviews were conducted
with the Parents. Score sheets were used to collect results from the guidance Teachers on marks
obtained in mathematics, English and science before and after retention. Quantitative data was
analyzed using SPSS and Statistical packages embedded in Excel while qualitative data was
analyzed using themes, bar chats and pie charts.
The findings indicated that Government schools had interest in retained learners and that they did
put up measures to enhance grade retention. However, it was found that they did not obey the
measures set. When the scores were sampled to ascertain whether there was positive, negative or
no relationship between the variables, the findings indicated that there was positive correlation.
This means that there was improvement in learner performance. Furthermore, when Teachers,
Learners and Parents were asked to state their perception of grade retention, it was also
established that they had a positive perception. The findings were similar to the ones obtained by
Phiri (2016) whose study focused on Grant-Aided schools.
The study recommended that grade retention be made a fully-fledged educational Policy bucked
by law. The study also recommended that the Ministry of General Education through District
Offices develop interest in grade retained Learners and collect statistics in order to plan on how
to improve educational standards in the Country.