CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CAUSES AND EFFECT OF MASS FAILURE OF MATHEMATICS IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION (CASE STUDY OF UYO LGA OF AKWA IBOM STATE)

ABSTRACT: There has been a problem for some years now, student’s poor academic performance in senior secondary School certificate examination. It is always on the increase, in the light of this significant problem that this study is based to find out the causes and effect of mass failure in senior secondary school certificate examination (SSCE) in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa ibom State, however, the centre of interest is on senior mathematics examination. In the process of the study, three (3) research questions were formulated and tested, to validate these research questions ten (10) schools was randomly selected from the entire population. Research instrument in form of questionnaire was administered to the area involved in the study. On the whole, two hundred and fifty (250) respondents were collected. Based on the findings of this study, some recommendation were made as follows, government and other stakeholders in education should provide adequate facilities and conducive environment to enable teachers functions effectively, and teachers on their part, must assume positive professional attitude, and show more willingness, more moral maturity and more commitment in the conduct of their professional duties. Government should employ more qualified teachers and those with qualification lower than (NCE) should be sponsored for in-service training and distance education programme. Conclusively, more effort should be made to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics in senior secondary schools for positive change in student performances.