Academic Competency Test (TKA) is an assessment tool designed to measure the literacy, numeracy, and reasoning abilities of high school students as indicators of academic readiness for higher education. However, TKA results show that student achievement is still relatively low and varies between subjects. This study aims to comprehensively examine the determining factors that influence the low achievement of senior high school students in the Academic Competency Test (TKA). This study uses a qualitative descriptive approach with a literature study method, with data sources in the form of reputable national and international scientific articles and secondary data from TKA results published by the Education Assessment Center, Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. The data were analyzed through the stages of reduction, presentation, and conclusion drawing. The results of the study show that low TKA achievement is influenced by internal factors, including weak higher-order thinking skills (HOTS), low basic literacy and numeracy, high academic anxiety, and low student motivation to learn. In addition, external factors such as the gap between learning practices and national assessment requirements, the phenomenon of learning loss after the pandemic, limitations in teachers' pedagogical competencies, and socio-economic conditions also contribute to low TKA achievement. These findings show that TKA achievement is a reflection of the overall quality of the learning ecosystem and requires the strengthening of literacy, numeracy, and reasoning-based learning on an ongoing basis.
Students with low academic achievement tend to display more maladaptive behaviours in interactions with peers and teachers. Empathy plays a key mediating role in these interactions and is also linked to academic performance. In particular, facial emotion recognition is one component of socioemotional processing that may contribute to empathic responding. To explore the relationship between empathy, emotion recognition, and academic achievement, a comparative study was conducted with 40 students aged 14–17, divided into two groups: one with low academic achievement enrolled in a school support programme, and a control group with adequate academic performance. A multimethod approach was applied, including the Basic Empathy Scale, a facial expression recognition test, and electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings. Results showed significantly lower cognitive empathy in the low-achieving group in the primary between-group analysis. The overall between-group difference in facial emotion recognition accuracy was not statistically significant. EEG analyses identified exploratory between-group differences in source-level oscillatory activity estimates during facial-expression processing. These electrophysiological findings provide complementary information about task-related activity patterns but should not be interpreted as specific neural markers of empathy or as confirmation of a behavioural facial emotion recognition deficit. Overall, the multimethod approach offers complementary perspectives on socioemotional functioning in low-achieving adolescents, although the exploratory EEG findings require cautious interpretation and replication in larger, independent samples.
