WHY SOME STUDENTS STRUGGLE IN HIGH SCHOOL. By Mr Sam VIDAMBU. 1.Demotivation due to the ranking. Imagine in primary school, a pupil used to be position 1 out of 90. In the first exam of high school, the same student is now position 841 out of 973. The student is mentally disturbed and psychologically tortured and this leads to depression. 2.Too much expectation. Because the child got 395 marks in KCPE and joined a national school, daddy expects an A in KCSE, mommy expects him to do medicine/engineering/law or computer science and the siblings expect him to go and study in Harvard, Oxford or Cambridge. As the saying goes 'expectations lead to dissapointments'. Now, don't get me wrong, am not saying that parents shouldn't expect their kids to do well. Am emphasising on the importance of expecting cautiously because high expectations puts pressure on the child and pressure might lead to anxiety. We all know the consequences of anxiety. 3.Weak foundational knowledge. Some primary schools, mostly private schools, leave students half baked. They focus more on the end and not the means. As a mentor who has spoken in over 5,000 high schools in Kenya and beyond, most students who scored 390s and 400s from private primary schools are mostly beaten by those who scored 360s from public primary schools. The difference is foundational knowledge. 4.Adaptation to high school life. This affects students who studied in private boarding primary schools. The mom used to visit the girl every weekend in boarding primary school but now the girl sees the mom after 7 weeks. In some private boarding primary schools, the students used to wake up at 6AM and sleep at 8PM but now in high school they are waking up at 4AM and sleeping at 10:30PM. Charles Darwin said 'It is not the strongest of species that survives nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change'. The students who adapted early to high school life are the ones who excel. 5.Home economic situation. A famous spanish quote says 'Sin motivacion no hay sacrificio, sin sacrificio no hay disciplina y sin disciplina no hay exito'. It means without motivation there is no sacrifice, without sacrifice there is no discipline and without discipline there is no success. Mom earns 2.5 million shillings a month, dad makes over 3 million shillings from his business in a month. Dad has three cars: a BMW X6 Competition, Mercedes Benz GLE Coupe and Prado V8 with a beautiful body kit. Mom doesn't even know which car to drive to work. They have a mansion at Karen and a bungalow at Migaa. They have invested in multiple sectors, from real estate to government stocks. The boy doesn't see the need to work so hard because he believes they already have achieved everything in life, little does he know that 'wealth without brains is always dangerous', a quote by Napoleon Hill. 6.Too much attention on the bright students and neglecting the weak ones. Some teachers teach too fast and so long as the bright ones have understood then God will help the others. To be honest, day schools have bright students and national schools also have weak students. I have had cases where a parent has to 'motivate' the individual subject teacher so that when he teaches he focuses on a particular child by asking if he has understood before continuing teaching. 7.Government affirmative action. The government has a program called '100% transion'. It means noone should stop education at class 8 just because they got 160 marks in KCPE. Some pupils who got 290 marks find themselves in national schools. Without loss of meaning, KCPE marks doesn't affect KCSE grade, but honestly the student with 290 marks will not fit well in a national school. 8.Sitting position in class. This might look so petty but your girl who got 396 marks in KCPE might be failing in academics because she sits at the far corner of the class. At the back, they easily make noise. At the back, they don't concentrate when mwalimu teaches. As a concerned parent, it is good to ask the class teacher where your child sits in class. 9.Bad company. 1st Corinthians 15:33, 'Don't be misled, because bad company corrupts good character'. Jim Rohn, a famous American motivational spaker said 'You are the average of five people you spend the most time with'. When a student spends most time with lazy students, he becomes lazy. When the student spends most of his time with jokers, he becomes a joker. 10.Lack of content retention techniques. In primary school, we had multiple choices of A, B, C or D where a student could use elimination method and arrive at the correct choice hence getting 400 marks. On the other side, in high school there are no multiple choices hence if you know you know and if you don’t know you don’t know. High school academic success is pegged on content retention. For students to retain the content they need to have study habits, revision techniques and reading cultures. {You can forward this information to others but without editing and putting your name. This information has been copy righted under Sam Vidambu, any form of plagiarism or data manipulation will be regarded as an offence}. To God Be The Glory. By Mr Sam VIDAMBU (0743480435). Vidambu is a professional academic mentor with over 5,500 high schools in Kenya running his academic programs. His Academic Mentorship Programs are about content mastery skills, content retention techniques, content delivery approaches, proper revision strategies, proven reading cultures, practical study habits, instensive revision tactics, sustainable academic systemes, among other great topics. He is a Trainer of Principals during KESSHA conferences and teachers. He is the President of Global Student Mentorship Center, He is an author, and a Tutor. To Have Vidambu launch the Candidates Academic Mentorship Programs in your school and be a Class Mentor kindly call/text/whatsapp 0743480435 (Sam Vidambu). He has physical individualised holiday programs. To mentor your child on academic excellence whatsapp him 0743 480435. Kindly Forward This Article To Whatsapp Groups of the Teachers, Parents and All The Principals you know. To Be Added To His Whatsapp Group Full of Principals and Teachers To Receive His Mentorship First Before Anyone Else Kindly Whatsapp His Number (0743480435). You Are Blessed.