Factors contributing to school failure among school children in very fast developing Arabian Society.

Objectives: Education is one of the main foundations for the child's development and also for national human resource development. Failure at school and grade retention is a serious concern among children, and their parents. The characteristics of school failure in Qatar have not been studied earlier. The aim of this study is to assess the presence of social, psychological, health and school related factors that cause school failure.

Methods: All students who had failed their grades and had to be retained and repeat the year from 35 randomly selected schools of all grades elementary, intermediate and high school were included in this study for academic years from 2003 to 2008. Each student was individually interviewed by a well-trained school social worker.

Results: The study was performed on a total 699 children who were classified as school failures. Social reasons include living with one parent 26.9%, parental divorce (27%) parents showing no interest in their child's education and school system (41.6%), low income (19.3%), and smoking (19.6%). Frequent absence from school was a result in 33.3%; incomplete homework (45.9%) and teachers identified 63.7% of students to be hyperactive, inattentive and disruptive in classroom. Most frequent psychological disorders include examination phobia (68.8%), anxiety (49.4%), anger (32.5%), fear (43.2%) and learning disability (37.9%). The most prevalent health disorders included visual disorders (23.5%), asthma (14.9%), anemia (15.2%), and hearing deficiency (8.2%).

Conclusion: Psychological and health related factors were found to be more prevalent in students who failed a grade in school. The primary care pediatrician can play a key role by identifying students at high risk and providing early intervention.