Some factors influencing the academic performance of junior high school pupils in English Language: The case of Assin North Municipality, Ghana

Academic achievements, like any attainable goal in life, do not come by chance. Men, money and materials (resources) must be combined in an ideal manner to ensure its success. A total number of thirty (30) pupils; eighteen (18) boys and twelve (12) girls, with an average age of 12 years, sampled from the Junior High School two class of Amoakrom, Nyame-bekyere and Ningo basic schools, and eight (8) teachers from Basofi-Ningo circuit in the Assin North Municipality were used for the study. Questionnaires of thirty (30) items each were administered to both teachers and pupils. The study reviewed sex, age and form (class) for the pupils, and sex and age for the teachers. For the pupils, 60% were males; the majority (43.4%), were aged between 11 and 14 with 36.7% recording sibling size of between 7 and 9. Over seventy percent (73.3%) of the pupils responded yes to the availability of textbooks whereas more than half (60%) of the respondents answered yes to the speaking of Pidgin English with peers.  Among the teachers, 50% were aged between 20 and 36 years and a minority 12.5% were aged between 37 and 40 years. 62.5% of the teachers answered no to the use of Teaching Learning Materials. 37.5% of the teachers held Senior Secondary School Certificate and Teachers’ certificate ‘A’ respectively while just about one quarter (25%) held a bachelor’s degree. The results revealed that two-thirds (75%) of the teachers found it difficult to understand and teach some concepts in English Language.     Key words: Academic, certificate, municipality, Pidgin English, pupils, resources, sex ratio, teachers, textbooks, questionnaire.