Underachievers are those children who do not work to their full potential set by the standards created by the school, or other means. They simply fail to work as capably as they can. Underachievers don’t seem to be making enough effort to master the concepts taught in class, or do their homework right, or on time; and their grades are always poor. But you would be amazed to know that these children score pretty high in other tests of intelligence and ability. Sachin Tendulkar, the famous cricketer never scored as high in classroom tests as he scores in international cricket test matches. The obvious discrepancy between ability (aptitude) tests and actual performance in school is the main criterion for categorizing children as underachievers. When class-teachers along with the subject teachers identify a pattern of underachievement over several terms, such children are then referred to special classes, or given some type of remedial help.

CASE STUDY
Shyam was eleven-years old and had to repeat his class. He had become a manipulator, and he was using his intelligence to environment. His father thought that responsibility to guide his son in his studies, or discipline him, was the mother’s job. The mother would grumble about the total lack of support from her husband regarding the upbringing of the child. She was at a total loss on how to control the child. To release her tension, she would get on the phone and talk to her friends, discussing (sometimes in front of the child) how badly he did in school, how disobedient he had become, and how bad his teachers were. The child was his father’s pet according to mother. But according to the father, the child was scared of the mother who was constantly breathing down his back, and the poor kid only had him whom he could relate to. The father denied Shyam nothing and the eleven-year-old knew in his bones, he would never starve nor would he need to seek a job in his lifetime since his father owned three huge factories from where the money kept rolling in. The father proudly said that he didn’t care much for degrees since he didn’t have one himself. The parents were upset and angry with the school people for giving them an ultimatum to withdraw their child from school. They felt no remorse for the child, but ashamed on how to tell their friends about the impending dismissal.

It was obvious that the home environment was absolutely vitiated with misplaced values. In this case the child had become a master manipulator, and he was using his intelligence to control his environment. The child could grow up to be an achiever, provided he was cut off entirely from the home environment. It was better for Shyam to repeat a year in a new environment than to repeat a year in his current class. After all, repeaters and failures, whose self-esteem has been shredded, rarely top the class.

Situations, circumstances etc can make your child underachiever. Once the cause is recognized, one can work on the process of bringing achievers from the under achiever child.