Lately, basic school pupils have performed poorly in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) as well as in their end of term examinations and this necessitated an enquiry into the phenomenon. The study used the cross-sectional study design. The sample size was 195. The study collected data using a questionnaire. Data analysis involved using descriptive statistics. The study found that largely pupils from academically performing and nonacademically performing schools have similar perceptions about causes of poor academic performance. Again, the combined effect of home and school environmental factors emerged as the major contributor to poor academic performance. The study recommends that providing a conducive home environment for the pupils, tackling pupil and teacher related factors, would help to ensure that poor academic performance is a thing of the past. 1. Introduction For students to achieve high academic laurels, they need to believe that they can learn and that what they are learning is useful, relevant, and meaningful for them and for the society at large [1]. The learning environment must therefore be conducive for students to be able to achieve this goal. The learning environment is twofold, home and school. The parents or guardians of these pupils are responsible for providing the right home environment that will facilitate effective learning for their wards [2], so are the school authorities. This, however, might not continue as most pupils are unable to pass their exams with distinction. This is attributable to certain hindrances they meet as they learn. In this regard, in Nigeria, both parents and government are in total agreement that their huge investment in education is not yielding the desired results as the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination results have continuously shown that students are performing poorly [3]. For example, the pass rate between 2004 and 2007 has not gone beyond 47% for both Mathematics and English [3]. Similarly, the pupils’ performance at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the Northern Region of Ghana is erratic and has not exceeded 50% pass rate since 2007 to date. For instance, in 2007, the pass rate was 47.6% which declined to 40.1% in 2008 and further to 39.8% in 2009 [4]. The pass rate for the BECE in 2010, however, experienced a slight increase to 46.4%, but the figure consistently dropped to 41.1% in 2012 [4]. The critical issue is what is causing this phenomenon in spite of the efforts put in by the government and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to boost
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