Endeavours towards Academic Success: An Investigation of Underprivileged Student’s Life Experience

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study is to examine underprivileged students’ endeavours towards achieving academic success. It specifically aims to understand how poverty affects the students' performance in school, students' way to fight poverty in pursuing education; and motivation to achieve their goals. Approach/Methodology/Design: The study is qualitative and utilized a descriptive research design. A semi-structured questionnaire was used and was composed of three focus questions. The respondents’ answers were transcribed and categorized using analytical coding to explore the students’ experience in coping with hardships towards achieving academic success despite poverty. This study was conducted in Dagohoy National High School, Poblacion, Dagohoy, Bohol, Philippines, for the school year 2019-2020. Homogeneous-Convenience sampling was utilized to select respondents for the study. Findings: Poverty has made a significant impact on students who belong to the low-class families. This affects the emotional part of the students while studying. Failure to comply with School Requirements and increasing rates of absenteeism are also among the problems poverty causes. However, students have perseverance, determination, and self-motivation to win over poverty. They are so eager to strive harder and achieve their goals because they want to pay off their families' struggles to raise them and send them to school. They also perceived poverty as their motivation as they were challenged by it in achieving their dreams. Practical Implications: The study will contribute positively to understanding unprivileged students' endeavours towards achieving academic success. The results of the study will give better explanation to the unprivileged students’ source of motivation and inspiration towards success. Originality/value: This study addresses one of the crucial problems in the society-the unprivileged. It examines the situation of the underprivileged students, describing their difficult experiences while continuing education, reflecting the effects of poverty on their school performance and their motivation to move forward despite the challenges