Milena Atanasova Feb 28, 2021:

food for thought I agree, Saeed. Personally, I'd always use 'underachiever' with a student, 'underperformer' with an employee/worker. Even the presence of يشجع and بوعي واحترام make me think it's an educational context - because a boss wouldn't bother with any of these :). I've been trying to find some statistical proof online, like the number of results that contain both underachiev* and student* and the other way round. It's time consuming, because the students can be also "schoolchildren", "pupils" and what not. The same goes for underperform* and worker*, employee*, etc. And yes, it's a slight difference, but it's there.

Saeed Najmi Feb 26, 2021:

@Milena
Thanks for your input. I'd like to add that the context, particularly "بوعي و احترام" suggests giving them feedback "withoit blaming them". This is what makes me believe that it is more about not putting in the expected effort than being unable to perform well.