An Investigative Study on the Causes of Mass Failure in Mathematics in External Examinations (a Case Study of Ijebu North Lga Ogun State)
CHAPTER ONE
Objective of the Study
The main purpose of this study is to find out the causes and effect of mass failure of mathematics in Senior secondary school certificate examination. The interests of the researchers are to examine critically and identify the causes and effects of mass failure of mathematics in Senior secondary school certificate examination specifically, the study sought to find out if:-
- There are sufficient numbers of qualified mathematics teachers and instructional materials for teaching of mathematics.
- The previous socio-economic background of the students affect them in studying mathematics.
- The attitude and interest of students towards the nature of mathematics contribute deeply to their mass failure in SSCE especially in mathematics.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature was reviewed under the following headings:-
- Conceptual framework
- Theoretical framework
- Related topics or ideas on the subject matter
- Summary of literature review.
Conceptual Framework
Concept of causes and effect of mass failure of mathematics in Senior secondary school certificate examination (SSCE) in Ijebu-North Local Government Area of Ogun State is the frame of reference in this work.
Therefore, let us reflect the origin and meaning of the word mathematics. The word mathematics is a Greek word meaning things that are learned.
Majasa (1995), further defined it as the science of counting, measuring and describing of this shape of objects. It deals with logical reasoning and quantitaive calculation and so has involved the science of structure, order and relation.
Mathematics as a school subject is recognized as the foundation of science and technology without a nation will never become prosperous and economically independent. Therefore, we count it as one of the boons of S.T.M. which stands for science, technology and mathematics as the bedrock of development of any nation. This underscores the importance of mathematical competence of all the learners at all levels of education and a reason for making mathematics compulsory and one of the leading core subjects in the secondary schools curriculum.
Secondly, as we have traced the origin and meaning of mathematics, we can now look at the causes of mass failure of this very subject – mathematics, mass failure means when the greater percentage (say 70%) of the students that registered for a particular examination fail that examination, so as a result of this mass failure, we saw it as a social problem in our society, that is how we pick interest to study the causes and effect of this mass failure of mathematics in Senior secondary school certificate examination (SSCE). Anagbogu (1986) quoting Ballogun (1976) and Baya (1983) stated that there is sufficient testimony of educational significance of science by deliberated efforts towards a search for the most adequate and successful method of teaching science subjects. The method has not yielded spectacular result. No nation can therefore survive economically if the future generation is performing lowly in scientific field. In analyzing this problem, several procedures has been adopted. These procedures are as follows:-
- Insufficient number of qualified teachers
- Negative attitude of students towards mathematics.
- Shortage of instructional materials etc.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter is based on the methodology, instrumentation and procedure used in the research work.
Research Design
Research Design adopted in this study is descriptive survey. This descriptive survey is an act of putting up a theoretical explanation of a particular situation under study by carefully examining the content of the situation in order to figure-out useful information for educational and other related purposes. The method is mainly for obtaining information on the causes and effect of mass failure in Mathematics in Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE).
Population of the Study
The population of this study comprised the entire students (totaling 7140) of Senior Secondary School (JSS 3) that sat for Senior Secondary School Certificate Mathematics examination and eighteen (18) tecahers in (26) govenrment owned schools in Ijebu-North Local Government Area of Ogun State.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
The data collected were presented and analyzed in this data using frequency distribution tables. This presentation and analysis are based on the response received on the questionnaire presented to the respondents. For clarity and simplicity purpose, the analysis of data in respect of a particular question is immediately followed by the presentation of the findings includes results. From the findings and discussions, the researchers was able to collect back two hundred (200) completed questionnaire, the questionnaire was manually processed and the data were reported below which shows the number of the respondents top the questionnaire.
Analysis of Research Questions
Research Question One: Are there sufficient number of qualified Mathematics Teachers and instructional materials for teaching Mathematics?
CHAPTER FIVE
Presented in this chapter are: Discussion, Implications, Recommendation, Limitation, Suggestion, Summary and Conclusion of the Study.
Discussion of Findings
The findings revealed that government non provision of enough instructional material for teaching mathematics contributes to students’ mass failure in Senior Secondary School mathematics Examination. It is assumed that students understand the subjects well whenever the teachers uses charts, models, and specimen during teaching and learning. Anike (1980) remarked that instructional materials serve as a double purpose of building up student interest on subjects, since there is shortage of instructional materials, the purpose of helping to catch students attention and generating excitement about the lesson going on will no longer be there. Instructional materials plays a central role in the instructional process. Teachers should always encourage students to be serious in doing constant study in learning mathematics for effective improvement and the findings that proper use of textbooks will improve the students’ performance. The finding also revealed that the students perceive mathematics as difficult subject, which contributed to their failure. The respondents agreed that co-operation, joint effort and group assisting help them to perform better. This is in line with the opinion of Akubue (1991) that, “Classroom which is organized and arranged to appeal to students had to provide opportunities for student-teacher interaction”.
Furthermore, from the findings insufficient number of qualified teachers contributed to a great extent to students failure in Senior Secondary School Certificate Mathematics Examination. This is in line with Adeboyi (1089), Okoche (1999) and others mentioned that lack of qualified teachers in mathematics hinders the performance of students especially in Senior Secondary School. The teachers has a part to play in the teaching and learning of mathematics, by this agrees with M.C. Nicol (1997) when posted that a teachers can only be effective if the students can learn with greater ease and perform well with his help than without his help.
Education Implications
The implication of the above findings is that classroom environment affects the students’ academic performance in Senior Mathematics Examination. When there are adequate instructional materials, the students are encouraged to learn but when there is inadequate instructional materials the academic performance of the student become very poor if the students will be improved, the teacher in-post can affect the students’ performance negatively for not being competent enough. Constant reading will help the students to improve their performance in mathematics, absent of practices leads to failure.
Teachers motivation to students promotes teaching and learning of mathematics in Senior Secondary Schools. Government should provide scholarship and award for students who perform excellently in mathematics.
This study have a great implications for the ministry of Education, parents, government, the school administrators and the society at large, these bodies could use the information and facts provided for improvement in our educational system.
Recommendations
Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made:
- State governments should make available to schools all needed basic educational facilities, learning materials, libraries, standard classroom blocks and laboratories to enhance teaching and learning.
- School principals should see that they carry out effective supervision in their schools regularly.
- Since a free education is a capital intensive project, the state government should prepare to map out adequate financial outlet for the implementation of the programme, if we want the programme to succeed.
- Parents should be able to access their children’s progressive in mathematics and other subjects regularly.
- Mathematics teachers should be given regular training and retraining programmes inform of conference.
- Mathematics teachers should encourage how to learn mathematics by reinforcing them when necessary and teachers should stay till the end of the term.
- A conducive and relax classroom for mathematics teaching should be created.
- Enough qualified and professional teachers should be employed to teach these discipline right from primary to high level and they should be motivated that is to pay their salaries when due and provide them incentive periodically.
Limitation
As a result of short time available, bad roads and other variables, the researchers limited the study to all the government Senior secondary schools in Ijebu-North Local Government Area of Ogun State only.
Suggestions
The researchers suggested the further research work should be carried out to find the causes and effects of mass failure in Senior secondary school certificate mathematics examinations. The researchers suggest also that since only questionnaire were used as the instrument for data collection in this study, other researchers who want to engage in this type of study should in addition, oral interviews as the instrument for data collection.
Conclusion
As earlier stated, this research work was designed to find out the causes and effects of mass failure in Senior secondary school certificate mathematics examination (SSCE) in Ijebu-North Local Government Area of Ogun State. From the analysis of the data obtained, the researchers found out that shortage of instructional materials, poor students motivation in the classroom by the teachers, poor mathematics background from primary school, insufficient number of qualified teachers are the factors that causes the mass failure in Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination.
Also provision of adequate instructional material by the government to schools, teachers should motivate the students, proper use of mathematical textbooks and conducive classroom environment were some strategies that are deducted from the study that can be used to improve student academic performance. It is believed that if the points mentioned above are given urgent attention, then an improved performance of students in mathematics may be insight, teaching and learning mathematics starting from lower level of learning that is from nursery schools to the higher level of learning so that the role of the mathematics as foundation in science and technology development in Nigeria will also be recognized.
Summary of the Study
In summary, we have noted some causes and effects of mass failure in Senior Secondary School Certificates Examination focuses in mathematics.
Some of the causes are:
- Insufficient number of qualified teachers.
- Negative attitude of students towards mathematics.
- Shortage of instructional materials.
- Difficult nature of mathematics as perceived by the students.
- Poor student motivation in the classroom by subject teacher.
- Poor mathematics background from primary school.
- Parents
- School administrators
Furthermore, all these causes have effect towards the study:-
- In this modern world, many are still dropping out from school with unjustified reasons, and lack of self confidence.
- Academic performance and quality of students are declining due to their inferiority compliance.
- Students being lazy and unserious with their studies.
- The ineffective teaching of mathematics places an obstacle to the technological development of Nigeria.
- Failure in mathematics can causes unnecessary diversion in choice of carrier or course selection in higher institutions.
REFERENCES
- Akubue M.A.C. (1991): Class Organization and Management Point, River Hart and Writer INC.
- Ale S.O. (2007): Mathematics not a Difficult Subject. Guardian Newspaper June 14, pg (51).
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- Anagbogu M.A. (1988): Experiential Improvement of Scientific Observation Skills Among the Group of Nigeria Secondary Schools schildren, UNIBADAN Ph.D. Thesis.
- Anike M.A. (1980): An Address to Teachers’ Orientation Course on Mathematics, Oji River.
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- Ebeniobi E.N. (1998): The Impact of Reward System on the Moral of Secondary Schools Teachers in Anambra State.
- Ezeobi I. (2000): Motivation and Dedication in Teaching Profession. The Daily Champion pp. 16.
- Eze John E. (2000): The Relevance of Mathematics to Science and Teachnology. Bobarua Bi-Annual Multi-Disciplinary Journal of Education. Vol. 4 No. 2 July 2003.
- Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004): National Policy on Education. 4th Edition, Abuja, NERDC Press.
