A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF MASS FAILURE IN MATHEMATICS IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

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A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF MASS FAILURE IN MATHEMATICS IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS (A CASE STUDY OF UYO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA)

 

1.0 INTRODUCTION
In recent years, student academic achievement in senior secondary school certificate examination 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 the shape of objects. It deals with logical reasoning and quantitative calculations. Mathematics as a school subject is recognized as the
foundation of science and technology without which a nation will never become prosperous and economically independent. This underscores the
importance of mathematical competence of all the learners al all levesl of education and a reason for making mathematics compulsory and one of the
leading core subject in the secondary schools curriculum. This importance accorded the recognition of the vital role it plays in contemporary society. Despite the sort
put in by government, and various stakeholders of education, mathematics still remained one of the most difficult subject in schools. There is a general impression that mathematics is difficult by its very nature, and because of this impression, there is poor performance among junior secondary school students who are the focus of this study. This poor performance in mathematics has been attributed to two broad factors which include:
Hereditary and environmental factors which can be subdivided into students, home, teachers, and school factors. Ola (1998).
However, students reason that mathematics is highly structured and is so abstract and required special intellectual attitude. Thus; students see the subject
as something esoteric. Emenalo (1986) in Nwogu (1990) articulated the fact theater inherent notion held by many Africans that mathematics is a very difficult
subject which is capable of making one “mad” is at the centre of the phobia which students exhibits for mathematics and which had claimed many
causalities over the years, Nworgu (1990:123), therefore passes the question “how them would any person in fairness expect our poor and innocent children
to be as courageous as to face something which is capable of making even an adult mad? The students would prefer to so something else no matter how difficult rather than to attend mathematics classes. Most parents do not play a crucial role in preparing their children for school. The child is expected to see the world from the perspective of these archaic values and the goodness of otherwise of his behavior is judged as such. Opposition from the child arises from what appears to him obsolete and defense of
traditionalism by the parents. For example, Whaler (1997) argues that consistent and appropriate parental reactions to the full range of a child’s response
repertoire will establish a family context conducive to positive reinforcement of child compliance. In contrast, inconsistent parental reactions appear to
create a chaotic family context conducive to the negative reinforcement of child opposition. He argues that based on these two forms of contexts, the parent
and children seen to generate distinctive personal rules which outline the functions arrangements of contexts, behavior and reinforcement. Parents on their
part hardly requires their children to explain the problem or joy found in their mathematics classes. And this count as one of the causes of poor performance of students in mathematics.

 

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A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF MASS FAILURE IN MATHEMATICS IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

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