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Full Project – FACTORS AFFECTING PERFORMANCE OF MATHEMATICS IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS

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ABSTRACT

The study examined “Factors affecting performance of Mathematics in Public secondary schools”. The study objectives are to: Insufficient numbers of qualified teachers affects students’ performance in Mathematics subjects; Unavailability of instructional materials for teaching of Mathematics subject affects students’ performance in Mathematics subjects; The previous socio-economic backgrounds of the students affect them in studying Mathematics subject; and the attitude and interest of students towards the nature of Mathematics subject contribute deeply to their performance in SSCE. The study employed the descriptive survey design. The nature of the problem was duly considered in the study. The research design used for this study is the survey design. The reason why this design was adopted was because the researcher would make use of the primary data obtained through the questionnaire. The area of the study covers students of five selected secondary schools located within Eti-Osa Local Government Area, Lagos, Lagos. The target population consists of public secondary school students in Eti-Osa Local Government Area, Lagos. Simple random sampling technique was adopted for the study. The researcher useD a total of one hundred (100) students from five (5) selected public secondary schools in Eti-Osa Local Government Area, Lagos. The research instrument used was questionnaire. The data collected was analyzed using simple percentage while hypotheses were tested using Chi-Square Statistics. The study recommended that Government both at the federal and state levels should employ more qualified teachers for secondary schools to ensure efficiency and optimal performance in Mathematics subject. The study also recommended that Teachers should develop positive relationship with students and stress classroom activities, that will involve active teaching-learning process and students participation in the class. The study concludes that insufficient numbers of qualified Mathematics teachers and instructional materials for teaching affects Mathematics subject.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Mathematics is one of the subjects in post primary school. It is an important subject taught in the secondary schools. Mathematics is important both to students and the society at large because it cuts across all spheres of human endeavour. Mathematics is the science of numbers and their operations, interrelations, combinations, generalizations, and abstractions and of space configurations and their structure, measurement, transformations, and generalizations. Mathematics as a school subject is needed for the sciences but it also provides access to undergraduate courses in, for example, engineering, psychology, sciences and social sciences (Norris, 2012).

According to the ministry of education and statistics (2004) private schools perform better than government aided schools because teachers in private schools are adequately remunerated. UNESCO (2006) Poor performance in schools has been documented to be the result of poor teacher remuneration. Teacher commitment can be used to measure performance Absenteeism: Robbins (2003) observed that employees who are unsatisfied with their jobs had many absenteeism rates than those with job satisfaction and with many attendance levels. He concluded that employee satisfaction and performance are connected with absenteeism. Report cards. District routinely issue report cards highlighting test score outcomes and other key indicators of educational performance. These have become center pieces of attention among not only educators but many other stakeholders.

Notwithstanding, it has been observed that there are many problems affecting the performance of Mathematics in Post primary schools as enumerated by many writers on problem of Mathematics in Nigeria. They attributed the high level of failures in Mathematics to lack of students concentration in the classroom, their view steamed from observed students performance in Mathematics.

Thus, observed failure could be as a result of inability of the students to understand economic terms, lack of finance to buy relevant textbooks, inadequate teachers, inability of the students’ to interpret Mathematics table and graph, inappropriate and ineffective method of teaching, lack of control over the attitudes of students and teachers and others which have contributed to low level of teaching Mathematics in secondary schools.

Okorie (1979: 152) suggested that for the effective teaching to take place, the skillful teacher needs to use the many effective method and techniques effectively because in them his success and failure depends. He further emphasized that the success in the use of methods depends on the intelligent analysis of educational purposes, pupil in the class and the curriculum content of the moment.

A few moment reflection is sufficient to reveal that every society faces crucial issues and problem in education which have very serious economic angles that cannot be overlooked easily for instance, the production of education as well as the acquisition of education both require the use of large qualities of scare resources (Production of education requires conducive classrooms, administrative blocks, personnel, librarians, laboratories while the acquisition of education requires expenditures on tuition fees, book, travels, uniform, lodging etc. and students time.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Mathematics is been taught in secondary schools in Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State and it has been observed that students in government secondary school Ajah performed poorly in the 2012 May/June Senior Certificate Examination. It has also been observed that there are lots of factors militating against the effective teaching and learning of Mathematics in secondary schools in the study area.

poor performance in Secondary School Certificate Examination (WAEC) is caused by many factors such as; students ineffective study techniques, quality of teachers and method of teaching, the parents inability to provide useful materials like textbooks, exercise books and school fees and problem of inadequate instructional materials for teaching and learning of Mathematics in schools.

However, the pivoting problems of Mathematics is complex and can minimally be solved if the teachers and students change their attitude towards teaching and learning in schools generally and to Mathematics in particular.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

Study has been undertaken with a view to identify the Factors affecting performance of Mathematics in Public secondary schools and Eti-Osa Local Government Area and factors responsible for these problems. Specifically, the study sought to find out if:-

Insufficient numbers of qualified teachers affects students’ performance in Mathematics subjects.
Unavailability of instructional materials for teaching of Mathematics subject affects students’ performance in Mathematics subjects,
The previous socio-economic backgrounds of the students affect them in studying Mathematics subject.
The attitude and interest of students towards the nature of Mathematics subject contribute deeply to their performance in SSCE.

Research Questions

In assessing the purpose of the study, this research project will answer the following questions:

Does insufficient numbers of qualified Mathematics teachers affects students’ performance in Mathematics subject?
Does unavailability of instructional materials for teaching of Mathematics subject affects students’ performance in Mathematics subjects?
Does previous socio-economic background of the students affect them in studying Mathematics subject?
How would interest of students towards the nature of Mathematics subject contribute deeply to their performance in SSCE?

Research Hypotheses

In carrying out this research work the following theoretical statements are buttressed to serve as a direction on which the work will be premised:

H₀: Insufficient numbers of qualified Mathematics teachers does not affects students’ performance of students in Mathematics subject

H₁: Insufficient numbers of qualified Mathematics teachers and instructional materials teaching affects Mathematics subject.

H₀: There is no significant relationship between availability of instructional materials for teaching of Mathematics subject and students’ performance in Mathematics subjects.

H₁: There is significant relationship between availability of instructional materials for teaching of Mathematics subject and students’ performance in Mathematics subjects.

1.6 Scope of the Study

The research work seeks to examine the Factors affecting performance of Mathematics in Public secondary schools. The study will be limited to five selected schools in Eti-Osa Local Government Area, Lagos.

1.7 Significance of the Study

There is need to apply knowledge from Mathematics to many area of our life in other to benefit the society. The achievements of the objective necessitates an understanding of the basic teaching of Mathematics. We cannot attain national objectives in the light of poor or average performances in examinations and lack of application of Mathematics to life students.

Without doubt, improved teaching and learning of Mathematics will spur us into greater heights. This study will help to make our educational administrators to see the need to have qualified Mathematics teachers to handle the subject effectively for the benefit of the students and society at large.

This study will help to sensitize the educational administrators to appreciate the need to make available the necessary materials, example, chalkboard, graphs, audio-visual materials etc. that will enhance effective learning of Mathematics if they are not available.

This study will if need be direct the Mathematics teachers’ attention to the need for them to adopt more appropriate teaching method in order to bring about the above mentioned desirable experience in the learners. This study will have a great significance because it is going to provide information to Mathematics teachers for formation and evaluation of their plans.

It will be useful to learners for through this, they will be able to identify the factors militating against the proper teaching and learning of Mathematics. This study will help to produce sound Mathematics students that will function very well in the economy such as:

(a) Knowing how to use scarce productive resources with alternative uses to meet prescribed ends and be able to apply the principles of Mathematics.

(b) The product of Mathematics that should be able to pick employment within a limited employment opportunity in any economy.

This work will serve as a source of encouragement to students and teachers that will come across it. It is hoped that the findings of this study would also form the basis for further research work by future researchers on this issue.

1.8 Definition of Terms

Mathematics: the abstract science of number, quantity, and space, either as abstract concepts ( pure mathematics ), or as applied to other disciplines such as physics and engineering ( applied mathematics ).

Instructional Materials: These are materials that are used to aid in the transference of information from one student to another in Education arena.

Teaching: the act or profession of a person who teaches.

Job Performance: This is the work related activities expected of an employee and how well those activities were executed.

Remuneration: Reward for employment in the form of pay, salary, or wage, including allowances, benefits (such as medical plan, pension plan), bonuses, cash incentives, and monetary value of the noncash incentives.

Condition of Work: Regulations governing on-the-job standards and conditions of work such as those affecting health and safety of workers.

Project Overview

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