Factors Leading to Students’ Poor Performance In Mathematics Subject In Secondary Schools In Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Abstract

It is the wish of every right thinking teacher to have his/her students to excel in every of their academic test especially as it concern major subject like mathematics. This spirit is the driving this study titled, ‘Factors Leading to Students’ Poor Performance in Mathematics Subjecti in Secondary Schools in Ebonyi State’. The study is a descriptive survey research design made up of 1,300 (650 Junior and 650 Senior) students respondents drawn out of the  228 mathematics teachers and 161,969 secondary school students in 222 public or government owned secondary schools in Ebonyi State. This study three research question and three research hypotheses. Thirty-one items questionnaire were developed from research questions. The questionnaire pass through both validation and reliability test all showed high scores. Data generated was analyzed using weighed mean and standard deviation and t-test statistics for hypotheses.  Results of the study showed that among other things that  Non-availability mathematics teaching and learning materials, Poor reading, learning and teaching environment, Lack of motivation by government to both mathematics teachers and students, No job opportunity of mathematics graduate, Bad classroom situation and noisy atmosphere for learning and teaching mathematics and Poor remuneration to mathematics teachers and students are the major causes of poor performance of students in mathematics in the state. Other factors implicated to contributing the poor performance of students in secondary school mathematics include; Lack of qualified mathematics of teachers, Poor or no proper preparation of mathematics teacher to class, Students not liking their mathematics teacher, Students hating to studying mathematics because my friend hate it and Student believing that mathematics is not useful to their life. The results showed no significant difference on the three research hypothesis of this that compared the opinion of junior and senior secondary school students on the three research questions. 

Key Words: Students,  Poor Performance, Mathematics, Secondary Schools.