STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF THE FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR DECLINING INTEREST IN SECONDARY SCHOOL MATHEMATICS IN AGUATA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ANAMBRA STATE
The study sought to determine the student’s perception of the factors responsible for declining interest in learning Secondary School mathematics in public secondary schools in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra state. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. To guide the study, three research questions and one hypothesis were formulated. The population of the study was 925 Senior Secondary School (II) students. The sample size of three hundred (300) students were used which comprised of 147 male students and 153 female students. A 19 items structured questionnaire was formulated for the study. The data was analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The findings revealed that some factors are responsible for declining interest in secondary school mathematics, such factors include, teachers personality, their method of teaching and lack of instructional materials for teaching mathematics. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made which include: the teachers should develop the ability of working collaboratively with others and they should use instructional materials and good teaching method while teaching any topic in mathematics. Also best student in mathematics should be rewarded at the end of the year or term to motivate other students to study hard
Keywords: aguata, anambra, area, declining, factors, government, interest, local, mathematics, perception, responsible, school, secondary, state, students’