Influence of personality disorders on the academic performance of grade 12 learners

Abstract

NCLUSIVE Inclusive education aims at ensuring that all children of school-going age who experience barriers to learning, including those who are disabled, can access inclusive, quality, free primary and secondary education on an equal basis with other young people in the communities in which they live. The South African government takes the metric results of the grade 12 learners seriously. Grade 12 is the last in school, and the nation celebrates the results. Learners get a National Senior Certificate (NSC), a high school diploma, and a school-leaving certificate in South Africa. This certificate is commonly known as the matriculation (matric) certificate. Grade 12 learners are required to attend extra classes, and a programme has been set out to help learners improve their results and better understand their scope of work.However, the Department of Education ensured the development and implementation of educational policies considering the increasing pressures for academic achievement among grade 12 learners. The screening, identification, assessment, and support policy is used in school to help learners who experience barriers to learning. Mental health remains one of the issues that is not discussed well enough in academic performance among grade 12 learners. It is essential to consider several issues that could affect poor academic performance among grade 12 learners at schools. Personality disorders are conditions in which an individual differs significantly from an average person in terms of how they think, perceive, feel, or relate to others (Fariba et al., 2022) Consequently, there are theoretical grounds for anticipating relationships among relatively stable individual attributes (personality), a factor based on academic performance (learning style), and a more erratic factor (wellbeing). Hence, understanding these links can help educators and parents understand which learners need more support and in what areas to achieve greater academic performance, in addition to providing information to school policymakers.Statistics show that in 2022 the national pass rate for grade 12 was 80.1% (Patrick, 2023). As much as this is a good percentage, as it is an increase from the 2021 pass rate, which was 76.4 %, it does not fully explain how the matric class of 2022 originally started with 1 177 089 pupils in Grade 1 in 2011, and there were 775 630 matric pupils in 2022 (Patrick, 2023). This says that about 400,000 learners have been lost in the system. Even after matric, a significant number of learners still do not make it in life due to behavioural problems stirred by personality disorders.Borderline Personality Disorder is a mental health disorder that influences the way you think and feel about yourself and others, causing problems functioning in everyday life (Gunderson, Herpertz, Skodol, Torgersen, & Zanarini, 2018). It includes self-image issues, difficulty managing emotions and behaviours, and a pattern of unstable relationships (Mayo Clinic, 2024).According to Emotions Matter (2020), it is difficult for ...