Exploring the levels of motivation in opportunity centres

Abstract

It is a general belief that students attending such schools lack motivation. We would like to explore terms like labelling, self-esteem, learning difficulties and provide possible solutions to address them. It is our intent to bring awareness of the problems that these students have to face. The study aims to explore the levels of motivation of teachers and students in Opportunity Centres. One boys and one girls Opportunity Centre will be studied. The research methodology will entail questionnaire surveys and interviews with a student and teacher sample. A comparison will be made even between boys and girls Opportunity Centres and how teachers deal with the students. A representative sample of the student population in both schools will be taken - approximately 100 boys and 100 girls. All teachers in both school will be given a questionnaire. This will be followed by interviews to about twenty students and ten teachers. The survey will explore the extent to which the respective school curriculum helps to motivate the students and teachers. The study concludes that if students are to be helped, there needs to be a team effort, which includes the school, parents, the student and other concerned persons. However, even this will prove futile if those concerned do not realise that each boy and girl are a unique case and that these students cannot be bunched together as one problematic group.