Bayat, AmienaKohli, Nontandazo2023-08-232024-05-032024-05-032023https://hdl.handle.net/10566/12464Magister Commercii - MComEducation is considered vital not only for personal development but also for community development and the social development and economic prosperity of countries. The quality of basic education in post-apartheid South Africa has become a public concern as South Africa’s learners rank below many other developing countries in internationally benchmarked measures, including its poorer neighbours. Grade repetition and drop-out rates are alarmingly high indicators that, despite many interventions by the national government over the past three decades, the basic education system is not working. Underperformance in South African secondary schools is particularly characteristic of historically and economically disadvantaged areas such as the Amathole District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province. The passes obtained in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination are considered a benchmark of performance in Grade 12, the exiting year of basic schooling. This study investigated the school-level and out-of-school-level factors that influence the underperformance of selected schools in the Amathole West education district that perform poorly in the NSC examinations.enSecondary educationSouth AfricaEconomicsSchool managementTeaching and LearningUniversity of the Western Cape