Exploring Home Factors Influencing Boys' Academic Performance to Join Special Schools for Gifted Students in Zanzibar, Tanzania

This article is about the exploration of home factors that influence boys’ academic performance to join special schools for gifted students using the descriptive cross-sectional design. Specifically, this study focuses on the main question, namely: What home factors influence boys' academic performance to join special schools for gifted students in the seventh-grade national examinations in public primary schools? The study was guided by the Ecological System Theory developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner (1979-2005). The target population of this study involved head teachers, academic teachers, and parents, as well as the boys’ students from selected primary schools. The study adopted a mixed-methods approach in data collection and data analysis to get reliable and accurate data. Purposive sampling procedures were used in this study to select participants. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey and in the four schools. Quantitative data were analysed by descriptive statistics, including frequency and percentage, using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). On the other hand, Qualitative data were analysed by using thematic analysis. The study involved 140 students from selected schools. These were eight (8) teachers, eight (8) parents as key informants.  The findings of the study indicated that the majority of respondents, 72.1%, agreed on the presence of home factors that influence boys’ education performance to join special schools for gifted students, including financial support from parents, and participation in society. Other factors include parental involvement, low support for male parents, friendship with other children in their society, child labour, and unrestricted activities at home. The poor performance of boys in the seventh-grade national examinations in the public primary schools (PPS) has an impact on schools and the community at large. It was concluded that boys' poor performance is influenced by home-related factors that are socially constructed, where child labour and other home activities are part of the problem affecting boys' performance. It was also found that there is a necessity of having effective parents’ meetings, giving motivation for boys, and controlling the school discipline. Moreover over the study recommended that, for good performance, teachers need to encourage parents to be active contributors in school meetings and follow the request from school, and their involvement would make them attentive to the problems affecting the boys’ students academically. On the other hand, parents should give their boys more attention and proper incentives to improve their academic performance. Society engages in the decision-making of the learning boys in order to shape their morality.