CHALLENGES MILLITATING AGAINST EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF MATHEMATICS IN GOVERNMENT JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL IN CHANCHAGA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF NIGER STATE

Abstract

The study was undertaken to investigate challenges militating against effective teaching and learning of mathematics in Chanchaga local government area of Niger state using some selected public and private junior secondary schools within Chanchaga local government area of Niger state. Four research questions were raised to guide the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research approach. The population of the study comprised of 23279 junior secondary students and 107 junior secondary school Mathematics teachers. 100 students and 15 Mathematics teachers were randomly selected and used as sample for the study. The instrument that was used for the study was a set of 18 structured questions for students on a questionnaire while 19 structured question on a questionnaire for teachers which were validated by the supervisor and one other expert. Three hypothesis were formulated and tested which shows, there is significant difference between teachers with bachelor in Mathematics education and those with N.C.E. The copies of the questionnaires were administered personally by the researcher and with the help of research assistants, the questionnaire were collected and analyzed using simple percentage, frequency count, mean and standard deviation. The findings revealed that numerous problems such as students’ attitudes towards learning Mathematics, societal and governmental factors and parent social economic status contributes to the ineffective teaching and learning of Mathematics. The researcher recommended that more qualified teachers should be employed in other to decongest the classroom, students should also be encouraged to learn Mathematics and more instructional aids and media should be provided to schools in other to effect teaching and learning of Mathematics in junior secondary schools.