ACHIEVEMENT IN ACCOUNTANCY AND
EDUCATIONAL ADJUSTMENT OF HIGHER SECONDARY STUDENTS
R. Babu
K. Kaliamoorthy
INTRODUCTION
Far-reaching changes are
evolving in different walks of life as the people change their profession
especially within a few years after entering into them. This is due to poor
adaptability to the new situations around them. This happens after selecting
subject at higher secondary level. In order to subjugate to the varied complex
situations, one has to appropriately adjust himself/herself. Accountancy being
a skill subject to higher secondary students, a better achievement and well
adjusted personality is essential for learning to be pleasurable. It gives
emphasis on memorization and regurgitates the “trained-monkey” approach. There
is too much emphasis on lecture, reliance on textbooks as course drivers. In
order to improve the situation, there is necessity to develop creative types of
teaching such as team work, assignments with multinational companies, case
analysis, oral presentations, role playing, team teaching, assignments, videos,
writing assignments, exposure to accounting professionals in the classroom,
studying current events and discussion on accounting practices. There is also
necessity for making adequate use of out-of-classroom experiences such as
internship, field studies, foreign business trips, on-line experiences, and
service-learning assignments.
NEED AND IMPORTANCE
The pattern of education is
test-for-content, and is limited to preparing students -for-certifying-examinations.
This educational model is inefficient, but more importantly, it does not
prepare students for the ambiguous business world which they encounter upon
graduation. The pedagogy is not effective to the needs of the business world.
It is bound by class time and does not give emphasis on student contact with
business world. Teaching accounting subject is carried out as if information
processing is still costly. Information processing, which has been an important
part of modern educational model, can now be managed quickly by anyone using
the right software. Accountancy students are not exposed enough to the impact
of technology on accounting and ways in which technology can be leveraged to
make business decisions easily. Hence, one needs to enter explicitly into the
core aspects of accounting education and become conversant with the current
practices. Therefore, the investigators are keen on studying the achievement in
accountancy and educational adjustment which is the panorama of the skill
development.
OBJECTIVES
1. To find out the higher
secondary students’ achievement in accountancy and also
their
educational adjustment;
2. To find out whether any
significant difference exists in higher secondary students’ achievement in
accountancy and their educational adjustment in respect of : a) gender, b) locality of the school, c)
father’s education, and d) mother’s education.
METHOD
Normative survey method was
used in the present investigation. It
sought to obtain precise information concerning the current status of phenomena
and to draw valid conclusions from the facts discovered.
Sample
A sample of 700 higher
secondary students was randomly selected from different schools of Cuddalore, Villupuram, Nagapattinam
and Trichy districts of
Tools
Accountancy Achievement
Test (2006) was prepared and validated by the investigators. A part of
adjustment inventory prepared and validated by Sinha
and Singh (1993) was used to measure the educational adjustment of higher
secondary students.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Data were analysed in terms of mean, standard deviation and ‘t’ ratio. The achievement test in accountancy was
conducted for a maximum score of 39. Hence, having score
of 28 or above was considered to be high achievement in accountancy and
above a score of 19.5 was considered to be average and below 19.5 was
considered to low achievement in accountancy. The mean (22.51) and standard
deviation (6.59) of the higher secondary students’ achievement in accountancy
was average. Similarly educational adjustment inventory was conducted for
maximum marks of 20. Hence, having a score of 10 or above was considered to be
low educational adjustment and a score of 5 or above was considered to have
average educational adjustment and a score of less than 5 was considered to be
of high educational adjustment The mean (4.19) and standard deviation (3.13)
educational adjustment of higher secondary students was high. It was found that
the entire sample showed average achievement in accountancy and high educational
adjustment of higher secondary students. There was significant difference in
mean Accountancy achievement scores of male and female higher secondary
students, urban and rural higher secondary school students and
students’ mothers’ education. Female higher secondary students showed
better achievement than that of their male counterparts. Rural higher secondary
students showed better achievement than that of their urban counterparts. The
results of the study showed that there were significant differences in respect
of students having educated mothers with respect to achievement in accountancy.
There was no significant difference in mean accountancy achievement scores of
students of literate and illiterate fathers. There was no significant difference in the
students in respect of their fathers’
education. There was significant difference in mean educational adjustment
scores of male and female higher secondary students. Female higher secondary
students showed better educational adjustment than that of their male
counterparts; whereas there was no significant difference in mean educational
adjustment scores of urban and rural
higher secondary school students, higher secondary students’ fathers’
education, and higher secondary students’ mothers’ education. Rural higher
secondary school students had better educational adjustment than that of their
urban counterparts. The results of the study show that there are no significant
differences in respect of education level of fathers and mothers of students with
respect to educational adjustment.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Male students must be given
sufficient practices to educational adjustment and female students should be
further encouraged. It is suggested that urban students should be given better
attention to arrive at better achievement in accountancy. Urban students must
be prepared to face the educational challenges by developing educational
adjustment at higher secondary level. Higher secondary students of illiterate
fathers and mothers should be motivated to learn so that it will promote better
achievement in accountancy subject. Accounting education must be given with
apprenticeship placement for students. Employability of accountancy proficient
candidates must be explored. Software packages of accounting should be taught
at higher secondary level.
CONCLUSION
It has become the need of
the hour to focus attention on renovation of accounting education in higher
secondary level by which professionals
of international standards can be produced. Educationists and policy makers
need to realise that accounting education has to be
emphasized from secondary classes onwards so that learning would become more
meaningful and explorative in nature.