Modelling scholastic underachievement as a contagious disease

Some factors related to students behaviour are perceived to be important for academic failure. Such of these factors and some other factors contribute immensely to the problem of scholastic underachievement that is spreading among students of Kano University of Science and Technology, Wudil‐Nigeria. Considering such a problem as a contagious disease, we propose a mathematical model to study how this problem is spread in Kano University of Science and Technology, Wudil campus. The model analysis reveals that the reproduction numbers are sufficient to predict whether the problem can persist in the campus environment. Indeed, endemic persistence occurs if the pattern of recruiting new members is through both transition and progression. The sensitivity analysis of the parameters of the model threshold quantities shows that reducing the rates of recruiting new students to weak class through both transition and progression is an effective measure of containing the problem.