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Recent trends in mathematics results from the National Examination Council (NECO) and West African Examination Council (WAEC) have shown unimpressive performance by candidates.
Available records of WAEC results have shown that in 2017; of 1.56 million candidates that sat for WAEC’s Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE), 52 percent had credit pass in Mathematics and English. Similarly, the 2017 NECO result analysis shows that out of the 1,051,472 who sat for the examinations, only 745,053 of the candidates got at least five credits including Mathematics and English Language.
Udonsa Effiok, a Mathematics lecturer at the Federal College of Education, Yola, Adamawa State in a paper titled: Trends in students’ performance in Mathematics, published in the Journal of Research in Education and Society, Volume 6, Number 2, August 2015 identified a number of factors that impede students’ achievement in Mathematics in the Senior Secondary School’s Examinations.
Some of the observed factors include; shortage of qualified Mathematics teachers, poor facilities, inadequate equipment and instructional materials.
Others according to him are method of teaching, large class size, Mathematics phobia/fright, parental factors and undue distraction from unproductive use of social network like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Youtube.
This calls for national action because mathematics has been foundational to the growth of civilisations from Mesopotamia to ancient Egypt, through the Indus Valley (northwest India and Pakistan) to ancient China.
Understood as the study of quantity, structure, space, and change, mathematics is part of everyday life of all professions, from cooking, farming, to shop keeping, medical practice, science and engineering.
Some mental qualities attributed to the study of mathematics include the power of clear reasoning, creativity, abstract or spatial thinking, critical thinking, problem-solving ability and even effective communication skills.
However, mathematics is a subject that makes students either leap for joy or cringe on their seats. Either way, it is inescapable that as young students become adults they begin to realise how much of mathematics is needed to make sense of the world around them.
Stephen Onah, the Chief Executive Officer at the National Mathematical Centre (NMC), has blamed dismal performance of students in WAEC and NECO examinations in successive years on unqualified teachers in Mathematics.
“The other factor is that because there are not enough hands to train students in this discipline and persons from different areas of study even outside science-based areas are brought to teach the subject,” Onah said.
This has drawn attention from the Mathematical Association of Nigeria (MAN), which attributed the causes of poor performance to student-related, teacher-related and government-related factors and observed that quite a number of Mathematics teachers, especially at the secondary school level, were weak in knowledge content and pedagogy.
Until some few years ago, a pass in Mathematics was just required to study courses in Arts, Law and Humanity in Nigeria. Today, a credit pass in Mathematics and English is a compulsory Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) requirement for admission into all courses.
What then is the way out? Mohammed Ibrahim, a former president of MAN, maintained that the mass failure in Mathematics can be eradicated if the following measures amongst others can be taken – updating the teacher on new teaching techniques of the subject; equipping the library with recent and updated textbooks; making the learning environment conducive for both the teacher and the students; and making the learning of the subject practicable for the students.
Some organised private sector players have also waded into the the mix to help provide solution to the problem, such as Promasidor Nigeria Limited, through the Cowbellpedia initiative.
This has, for many years, provided a platform to stimulate interest and reward excellence in Mathematics among students in Nigeria’s secondary school. The initiatives in this direction include Cowbellpedia Secondary Schools Mathematics TV Quiz Show, Cowbellpedia Radio (a Mathematics class on radio) and Cowbellpedia Mobile App (Mathematics Q&A mobile application).
Through these platforms, the company has been able to arouse and re-awaken the interest of students in Mathematics at the secondary school level and further reinforced the importance of the subject
The National Examination Council (NECO) has commended it for stimulating the interest of Nigerian students in Mathematics through the Cowbellpedia Secondary Schools Mathematics TV Quiz Show, sponsored by Cowbell, the company’s flagship brand.
Speaking to newsmen at the finals of the 2017 Cowbellpedia Secondary Schools Mathematics Television Quiz Show in Lagos recently, Charles Uwakwe, the Registrar of NECO said that the competition has considerably reduced the phobia for Mathematics among students across the country
Uwakwe maintained that the Cowbellpedia initiative has demystified the terror of Mathematics that has been killing the dreams of many students.
Winners (in both junior and senior categories) of the past two editions of Cowbellpedia Secondary Mathematics Television TV Quiz were rewarded with N1 million each and an all-expense paid education excursion outside the country. Their teachers and schools were equally rewarded.
Anders Einarsson, Managing Director of Promasidor Nigeria, at the flag off of the 2018 edition in Lagos and to mark 20 years of relation of Cowbell and Mathematics, recently, stated it is going to be bigger and better. The prize money has been doubled as winners in both categories would receive Two million naira with an all-expense paid educational excursion outside the country.
STEPHEN ONYEKWELU
