Trend Analysis of Student’s Performance in Mathematics at Credit Level in West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination From 2011-2018 In View Of Vision 20:2020 and Beyond.

Abstract

This study investigated and analyzed the student’s performance at credit level in mathematics in May/June West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in Kaduna State and across the twelve (12) Zones from 2011-2018. The main objectives were to investigate the pattern of student’s performance at credit level in mathematics within the period of 2011-2018 in the State and to test the level of significance between the Observed (2011-2018) and the predicted performance (2019-2026) and as well as its implication on vision 20:2020. Secondary data was used of the WASSCE mathematics results of 253,681 students who sat for WAEC FROM 2011-2018 were collected from the Education Resource Centre, Ministry of Education Kaduna. Data were analyzed with NCSS and Ms-Excel with XLSTAT ADD-IN software. Comparism between observed percentages of student with credits and the forecasted percentage was carried out with two sample t-test, where significance was determined at the probability of 0.05(p=0.05). The result revealed that on the average, the Observed percentage of Students with credits was 14.5% with a standard deviation of 9.74 for all the Zones from 2011-2018 compared with the predicted percentage of 43.9% with the standard deviation of 8.98 for the next 8 years (2019-2026). The Observed t-value obtained at 14 df was 6.26 and then computed p-value was 0.00 (p< 0.005) which provided enough evidence for the rejecting of null hypothesis. Finally, it was recommended that an immediate step should be taken toward improvement from poor performance in mathematics and investigation into key factors responsible should prioritize.