GENDER PERFORMANCE GAPS: QUASI‐EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE ON THE ROLE OF

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SLEEP CYCLES

Abstract

Sleep studies suggest that girls go to sleep earlier, are more active in the morning, and cope with sleep
deprivation better than boys. We provide the first causal evidence on how gender differences in sleep cycles
can help explain the gender performance gap. We exploit over 240,000 assignment‐level grades from a quasi‐
experiment where students' schedules alternated between morning and afternoon start times each month.
Relative to girls, we find that boys' achievement benefits from a later start time. For classes taught at the
beginning of the school day, our estimates explain up to 16% of the gender performance gap. (JEL H52, I20,
I21)

The Effect of Long Commuting on Students’ Academic Performance in Day

Community Secondary Schools in Tanzania: A Case of Songea Municipal Council

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted in Songea Municipalityinvolving five day community secondary schools. This
study investigated the effect of long commuting on students’ academic performance in day community
secondary schools in Tanzania.The study specifically investigated the influence of long commuting on
student’s tardiness, truancy,school transfer and drop outs and its effects on teaching and learning processes
and its relationship to poor academic performance.A total of 163 long commuting students, class teachers
and schoolheads participated in this study. A descriptive survey research design was used to obtain data
through questionnaires, interviews, and documentary review. The study findings showed that long
commuting students faceda lot of challenges that affected their academic performance. Factors like lateness,
tiredness, tardiness, truancy, and unfair treatment, incompletion of class work, frequent school transfers and
drop outs were reported to affect them a lot academically. The study recommends that the government
through MoEVT and thePMORALG should introduce the boarding system in day community secondary
schools especially to long commuting students, prepare policy that will guide the location of day secondary
schools, students’ catchment area, MoEVTand PMORALG in collaboration with communitiesshould build
other new day secondary. Furthermore, the government through the MoEVT and PMORALG in
collaboration with NonGovernmentOrganisations to initiate cycling to day community secondary schools
campaign with the aim to encourage parents to buy bikes to their children and the government through the
PMORALG especially at the councils and wards level to improve roads that go to day community secondary
schools.
According to Coady and Parker, (2002) as cited by Kithokoo, (2011)in Mexico, students who walked long
distances to secondary schools had consistently negative effect on students’ attendance and hence affected
their academic performance. The impact in general was much larger for girls than boys. For girls, a reduction
of distance to the nearest secondary school by one kilometer would result in an increase in the probability of
attending by 8.6% whereas for boys the corresponding increase would be approximately 6.3%. In addition,
Malenya, (2008) when presenting a paper at the educational stakeholders’ symposium in Nairobi pointed out
that long distance from homes to schools inmost of African countries is likely to cause under participation in
the learning process among students from rural communities in Africa, which ultimately affect their academic
performance.
1.4 Significance of the Study
This study was geared at enriching education planners and policy makers with knowledge concerning the
effect of long commuting to and from school on the academic performance of students in Tanzania’s
secondary schools. It is expected that the findings will be useful for education officers at regional, district
and school level in the process of allocating students to schools and in the establishment of new schools.
Based on findings of this study, decision makers will be in a better position to plan and implement well new
education programmes.

1.5 The Scope of Study

This study was limited in three areas. Firstly, the study was conducted in Songea municipality. Secondly,
it investigated only day community secondary schools. The third part was concerning the effects of long
distance commuting on students’ academic performance of day community secondary schools. Other factors
which affect students’ academic performance were treated as being constant.

Lateness: A major problem confronting school

administrators in Delta State, Nigeria

Among st other components of any organization, human beings are the most difficult to manage. Folks pose
the most problems to administrators anywhere in the world, not excluding school organizations as learning
factories in Delta State, Nigeria. Many authors have posited as a matter of fact that, it is easier to manage the
financial and material components of any organization than to manage the human component. They
insinuate that “it is easier to manage even animals than to manage human beings” (Nakpodia, 2006;
Peretomode, 1991; Peretomode, 2001; Ubogu, 2004; Emore, 2005; Ukoshi, 2004). Thus, in the school
system, the school head, which is usually the headmaster/headmistress or the principal, is confronted with
numerous problems posed by staff and/or students. These problems include: sleeping on duty, negative
attitude to tasks, lack of motivation to tasks, sexual harassment, theft, quarreling, malice, jealousy, envy,
absenteeism, lateness, etc. But Lauby (2009) stated clearly that: ‘As a Human Resource professional, I have dealt
with a plethora of employee issues: sleeping on the job, theft,sexual harassment… but I have found over the years, that there
is one issue that plagues managers more than all these other issues combined… attendance and punctuality. That is, people
not showing up at all… people not showing up on time.’ It could thus be deduced from the excerpt that in the school system,
which is the focus of this paper, both staff’s and students’/pupils’ lateness to school pose the greatest problems to school
administrators in Delta State.

TRANSPORT PROBLEMS FOR STUDENTS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON ATTENDANCE IN

COMMUNITY SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN DAR ES SALAAM CITY, TANZANIA

ABSTRACT

Regular school attendance is a crucial factor in education success. It is critically important since students
who miss school or skip subject miss out on carefully planned sequences of instructions. This study
investigates transportation problems for students in Dar es Salaam city. It focuses on the distance a student
travels from home to school, students transportation cost and the effects of transportation problems on
student school attendance. The data was collected using survey, in which random and purposive sampling
utilized. Six hundred students and eighteen administrators from community secondary schools in Temeke
Municipality participated in the study. The primary data was collected from students and school
administrators by using questionnaires and face to face interviews respectively. Field survey took place in
February and March 2014. Analysis of data employed triangulation whereby percentages have been used as
statistical technique to analyze the data. The findings indicate that transportation system has significant
effects on students’ school attendance. Some students miss first periods in the morning, escape afternoon
sessions as they try to get transport, skip school day due to lack of bus fare, beg for money and private cars
assistance which put them into temptations and the traps of devils as well as harassment from bus operators.
The study recommends that government should organize more than two wards which are adjacent to apply
central place theory to build comprehensive secondary school to accommodate many students, the LGAs
have to provide shuttle buses for the students to move to and from the students’ residence by appointing
drop and pick points, to use space available in those community schools located in remoteness to build
hostels or boarding schools, to enroll students based on the nearest schools where individual lives and to
encourage good relationship between teachers and parents in order to reveal and report students who hide
outside the school as well as to provide financial aid to students who unable to afford transportation

expenses.
 The Causes of Late Coming among High School Students in Soshanguve, Pretoria, South Africa

ABSTRACT

Late coming to school has become a major problem in many schools, particularly township schools with
serious consequences. Current research has demonstrated that many schools in South Africa are performing
badly due to inefficient use of the teaching and learning time. In this article, we argue that while major
administrative interventions are undertaken to improve the quality of learning and teaching, it seems that
very little attention is paid to late-coming. Late-coming has become a cancer that saps away big
interventions and strays the performance of selected township schools in a different direction. The purpose
of this research is to investigate the causes of late-coming among high school students in selected secondary
schools of Shoshanguve. A qualitative approach was used to draw data from high school students in selected
secondary schools of Shoshanguve. The findings reveal that late-coming is common among learners in
selected secondary schools of Shoshanguve. It happens every day for varying reasons. We recommended
practical solutions ranging from administrative improvement to learner behavioral change.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Several factors have been identified in different literatures as some of the reasons why students come late to
school. Chiu Mochi (1993) identified factors such as age, family commitments, change of jobs on the part of
parents, health problems as some of the factors that may affect late – coming among high school students.
Okwelle (2003) noted among other factors that, learner may develop negative attitude towards school
resulting in late – coming or poor attendance because of non – employment of school leavers, repetition of
class and insecurity. In a separate study, Alio (2003) highlighted social status and educational level of parent
as factors that may influence school attendance and late coming. The study further pointed out that,
geographical location of school, student’s attitude towards the first subject of the day and inadequate
supervision of student’s activities by teachers and parents and poor teaching methods among others may also
affect lateness on the part of students. The report of Okpukpara and Chukkwuone (2007) identified the role
of gender in child schooling. From the study, female headed household have higher attendance in schools
whereas educated fathers are more likely to have strong impact in increasing the probability of child school
attendance than mothers. Emore (2005) reported that lateness is common among female students than male
students. This may be due to their involvement in domestic activities. The study further pointed to school
location as one of the major causes of lateness among high school learners. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
STUDY Coming late to school is a growing concern and it has become increasingly difficult to eradicate.
Academic performance appears to be determined by a combination of internal and external factors in the life
of a learner, the influence of and impact from which fluctuate often and substantially. To date, few studies
have been done to evaluate the causes of late coming among high school learners in South Africa, this study
will assess the complex nature of lateness in high schools located around Shoshanguve with a view to
providing necessary suggestion that may assist in alleviating the menace of late coming in high schools.