FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS' ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN CHEMISTRY FOR SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF WEST ARSI ZONE, OROMIA REGIONAL STATE OF ETHIOPIA

Abstract The abstract part of this study included the general objective of the study, methodology employed for the study, the results obtained from the analyzed data with discussion and conclusion. At last stage, the recommendations drawn by the researcher were presented accordingly. In this regard, the major objective of this study was investigating the factors affecting students' academic achievement of Chemistry in selected secondary schools of Western Arsi Zone, Oromia Regional State of Ethiopia. In order to achieve this objective the researcher has designed four basic research questions. In order to answer these research questions the data collection tools (questionnaire, interview, document analysis and observation checklist were employed so that 379 students were selected using simple random sampling technique, 23 Chemistry teachers and 15 principals were taken as a sampled respondents using census method. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis that included the frequency, percentage, Pearson two-tailed correlation and multiple regression models through applying SPSS V.20 software. The results of this study were revealed that; the factors affecting students' academic achievement of Chemistry were community participation, teacher related factors, student related factors, school facilities related factors, curriculum related factors and parents related factors had influenced the academic achievement of the students by 92.7% at significant level of p< 0.05 if other factors are in constant. In general, the cumulative mean of the students’ achievement (m= 2.31) has indicated that their achievement in Chemistry was at lower level in the study area. Therefore, from this data we can conclude that the majority of the students result was at medium level that may not fit with the score of the national exam for future. In this regard the researcher has recommended that, the teachers in collaboration with the school principals need to increase the interest of students to learn Chemistry subject with supported with practical laboratory experiments, the school administration needs to allocate sufficient budget for chemistry laboratory to fulfill the necessary apparatus for practice, the policy makers need to modify the students’ textbook to be minimized to be covered within the allotted period in the year. 1