Study of Adjustment Vocational Preferences and Academic Achievement of First Generation and Non First Generation Secondary School Learners

Abstract

First generation learners may be defined as those learners who of their family members have come for education for the first time in schools and their parents have no formal education at all. They are the first in their family lineage to get formal education. First generation learners are the first one in their entire generation to go to school and to receive education. This exceptional nature makes them special need children . Uneducated parents fail to provide any educational, vocational or personal guidance to their children because there is no provision of appropriate educational environment at home. They come to school without any orientation and are less ready and less prepared for the school life. Parents of first generation learners often find the school environment completely alien to them and this poses a big hurdle for them to interact with the school on a regular basis. The attitude of the school towards these parents can further make it difficult for them to approach. They lack guidance and do not have the facilities for better learning as their parents fail to realise the importance of education. Their home environment is discouraging and non-facilitating. This may result into poor academic achievement and less healthy attitudes towards life and society. First generation learners are likely to lack knowledge of time management, school finances, and bureaucratic operations of higher education. They have been found to less likely to encounter a welcoming environment on campus. Entering the school means for them that they are entering into an alien physical and social environment which they, their family and their peers have never experienced. As a result, they become the highest risk students for dropping out. First-generation learners appear to be underprepared, both academically and psychologically, for higher education. (Kuh, 2008) found that first-generation students tend not to be as academically engaged as their non-first generation peers. Compared to their peers, first-generation learners tend