Research evidence indicates that many schools have yielded to the pressure in more recent years to illustrate academic numbers and to address deeply troubling disproportions among students of different races and income levels. Mainly boosting academic achievement instead of building confidence in the students, which should be a top priority. Less obvious is the long-term effect of backing up this goal by focusing more attention and funding from these programs that have supported student health and well-being instead. In the past decade, studies and reviews have consistently recognized that student health and achievement are very connected. Self-esteem refers to an individual’s sense of self-worth, that is, the extent to which the individual values and appreciates himself or herself. This sense of worth results from individuals’ perceptions of how other people evaluate them. Given the influence of others’ evaluations on an individual’s own perception, self-esteem theory has been the basis of substantial research in tertiary institutions. Kwek, Bui, Rynne &Fung So (2013). All of this information has added up to the fact that meeting the basic needs of students, which include making sure that they are safe, drug-free, healthy, and resilient, is essential to promoting their academic performance and growing their resilience also.
So much of the latest hype on improving school performance has founded the execution of new standards and teaching exercises, other practices that focus classroom time on academics and raising scores. Many of these are crucial for improving academic performance, but not all students are able to benefit from these reforms. So many people go to school with an assortment of health problems that make successful learning difficult, if not impossible. All these efforts to improve academic performance have not only overlooked the role of outer school barriers to learning, but at times these efforts have come at the expense of programs that address these obstacles. Evidence suggests that many schools have cut back on useful programs and courses that address the health needs of students in order to concentrate more resources on instruction and test-taking skills. These changes are likely to be short term solutions and unproductive for students to overcome their barriers at home and at school, they will not grow any resilience and surely fall behind. Resilience is a positive psychology concept, focusing on human strengths that enhance mental wellness and optimal functioning rather than weaknesses and malfunctioning, Kotze’ & Kleynhans (2013).
Unfortunately, little attention is being directed toward removing health-related and circumstantially barriers to learning. Similarly, support has decreased for which efforts to create the conditions that promote students with an enthusiasm to succeed at school and a feeling of being connected to the school and other students, that’s essential for student motivation and long term success. Academic performance tends to be regarded as an indicator of the educational efficacy and quality, and poor results can only show that public expenditure in education is not producing the expected results. Ayala & Manzano (2018). Also there is a high rate of students who Resilience is inbuilt and not automatically there, it grows everyday with strength and willingness to succeed. Without it, many students would not complete any studies and allow outside barriers to interfere with their outcome.
Researching several articles and studies on resilience in academic performance, ranging from 2000 onwards. Basically, what was discovered, is what happens in a student’s life has a major effect on how they perform at university. Resilience can be learnt and can be implemented through educators and mentors. Many programs today, have helped form a base for students to lean on, from an educators stand point, more can be done at universities, to help students grow and succeed. From The years that have passed, education providers have learned more about how students cope with encouragement and less through punishment. Examples from a by-gone era, which can show us, capital punishment did not work and majority of those students failed out and most did not continue studying. There are considerable resources and interventions available for students today, with low academic performance and recently, educators have begun to tap into the power of resilience. Resilience, then, can be conceptualized as a process as well as a personal characteristic, Ahmed, (2015).
A growing number of research reveals resilience, is a key ingredient of social emotional learning, as being a crucial part of education. This refers to the capacity to succeed in school despite hostile conditions such as abuse. Academic resilience includes mechanisms such as confidence, well-being, and motivation, ability to achieve goals, have relationships, and manage stress. Research shows that academic resilience can considerably affect school and life outcomes for youth, including academic success, even for students who are faced with great hardship. Moreover, these skills can be learned, measured, and have lasting effects on academic performance. The most effective school-based strategies are those that pull on strengths students already possess, as well as areas where development may be needed. University inductees may be increasingly vulnerable to stressors during transition into higher education (HE), requiring psychological resilience to achieve academic success, Allan (2013).
Equivalently, in his Breaking Barriers study, Toldson, (2008) examined the social, emotional, and cognitive factors contributing to the academic success of African American males (n=6000). Four overarching components empirically linked to academic performance were identified: personal and emotional factors, such as emotional well-being and self-esteem; family factors, including household composition, parent’s education and relationship with their children; social and emotional factors, including economic standing and community involvement; and school factors, relating to their perceptions of school and relationships with teachers. Research has established that resilience can be taught, even students who considerably lack these skills. Researchers have concluded that everyone has a capacity for learning resiliency, and once recognized, these self-protective features can be improved and reinforced over time. Profiling the psychological resilience of inductees, which represents their capacity to adapt to new challenges, may help to distinguish prospective academic achievement and help all the groups interested in enabling new students to become assimilated into higher education, Allan (2013)
Many of the university’s efforts to improve academic performance have not only overlooked the role of outside barriers to learning but many times these efforts have come at the expense of programs that are made to mend these barriers.
Firstly, experiencing violence, abuse, and crime on campus can increase emotional and psychological stress which is experienced by students and which can then reduce academic performance by lessening students’ ability to concentrate and disburse energy on academic-related matters. Secondly, distress linked with exposure to crime, violence, bullying or teasing may unwittingly reduce learning time by causing students to stay home or cut classes, views of danger at school could also reduce student’s psychological commitment with university.
A second theory proposes that students become more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviours, such as drug use, and as a result of the frustration and distancing they experience due to poor school performance. A third explanation is that substance use and poor academic performance may not be uncommon. Instead, each may show that just one side of a more widespread inclination toward nonconformity and irregularity. Today, resilience is measured by “constitutional variables like temperament and personality, in addition to specific skills (e.g., active problem solving).”In today’s demanding college environment, resilience is critical. Consistent evidence suggests that stress impedes the academic performance of approximately a third of the college population, causing problems with sleeping and eating, physical ailments and anxiety and depression. Harley (2011)
It is instinctively obvious that violence, crime, antisocial behaviour, and other types of social inefficiency on a school campus can have opposing effects on student learning. Many studies show that bullying and violent actions in school settings have harmful penalties for students.
Policies and practices focusing mainly on increasing test scores while ignoring the main health needs of student, are most certainly to leave many students behind, and may actually destabilize a student’s learning and academic performance in the long run. Hanson (2003)