School Culture as a Determinant of Students’ Academic Performance in Public Examinations in Mezam Division, North West Region of Cameroon

Abstract

This paper is on ―School Culture as a determinant of Students’ Academic Performance in Public Examinations in Mezam Division, North West, Region Cameroon‖ was designed to find out the extent to which school culture influences students’ academic performance in public secondary grammar schools within Mezam Division. The study had one specific objective, one research question and one hypothesis. Related literature was reviewed, conceptually, theoretically and empirically. This paper adopted a cross-sectional survey research design with mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative approaches) in the collection and analysis of data. The instruments of questionnaire (for quantitative data) and focus group discussions (for qualitative data) were used in gathering information. The purposive sampling technique, simple random sampling technique and the accidental sampling technique were used to determine the area of study, the area for data collection and the respondents for the study respectively. The sample consists of 48 schools, 48 principals, 313 teachers both male and female, from government secondary grammar schools. Analysis of statistical data was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20.0 with results presented on tables and figures. The technique of content analysis was used to analyze the focus group discussions. The findings revealed that, all the indicators of school culture (Distributive leadership, principal’s effective communication, professional staff development, supportive learning environment, teacher collegiality and teacher commitment) significantly affect students‘ academic performance. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends that there is need for the government to provide organized and systemic training in educational leadership and management for school principals, in order to enable them effectively handle their ―roles as instructional leaders within schools, builders of learning communities among teachers, and developers of strong community participation in schools.