The study sought to investigate the factors affecting academic performance in Social Studies among public junior high school students in Hohoe Municipality in the Volta Region of Ghana. It adopted Ecological systems theory by Urie Bronferbrenner (1979). A quantitative (positivist) methodology with a descriptive cross-sectional survey design was used for the study. The three public junior high schools were obtained through the use of a purposeful sampling approach. Additionally, a random sampling procedure was employed to select 180 students from the three chosen schools. Structured questionnaires were used as instrument for data collection. With the aid of the version 25 of the Statistical Product for Service Solution (SPSS), descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) were used to analyse the data. The findings of the study revealed that students’ home characteristics including parents’ great interest in their children’s education and involvement in household tasks had had an impact on their academic performance in Social Studies. Academic performance was also found to be influenced by criteria related to the teachers, such as their professional training, teaching experience, subject-matter expertise, positive relationships with their students, and completion of the Social Studies curriculum. It was recommended that the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service provide guidance and counselling systems in the public junior high schools in the Municipality as well as schedule regular and thorough in-service training and workshops for the headteachers and teachers to enable them advance their knowledge, skills, and experiences in instructional pedagogies.
Keywords: : Academic Performance, Social Studies, home factors, public junior high schools, teacher factors
