The Factors Affecting Primary School Students’ Performance on National Tests From Teachers Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine primary school teachers’ views on the factors affecting primary school students’ low performance on the National Tests in Qatar in the four major subjects: Arabic, English, mathematics and science. The study utilizes a survey designed to examine the impact of educational policies, curriculum standards and content and assessment on student performance and the benefits from the assessment results for developing students’ performance. The Questionnaires were distributed to 312 randomly selected female Independent primary school teachers )56% of primary school teachers). The findings indicate: First, that policies followed by Qatar’s Supreme Education Council are an important factor behind the students low performance on National Tests. Second, teachers pointed out that they do not have the necessary time to cover all the required curriculum standards and that the learning outcomes assessed on the National Test are not aligned to the curriculum standards. Third, test results are not used to improving students’ school performance despite the efforts exerted by the schools to prepare students for the exams . Finally, results revealed that academic qualifications and specializations did not yield statistically significant differences between teachers. However, there is a statistically significant difference at the 0.05 level in favor of less experienced teachers, whose experience ranges between 1 and 5 years.