TREND ANALYSIS OF MATHEMATICS PERFORMANCE OF COLLEGES OF EDUCATION SUDENTS IN BAUCHI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study conducted a trend analysis of students’ mathematics performance in Colleges of Education in Bauchi State, Nigeria. The main aim of the study was to determine the trend and compare the pattern of male and female students’ mathematics performance in Colleges of Education Bauchi State, from the years 2014 to 2018 and to examine the expected rate of students’ mathematics performance at credit level within the period of five years. Three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. An ex post-facto research design was used for the study. The population of the study comprised all the 11,335 Nigeria Certificate of Education (NCE) graduates within the period specified. No sampling was done since the entire population constituted the sample for the study. The data collected were analyzed with the use of simple percentage and time series analysis for the research questions while t-test and z-test were employed for testing the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Data collected revealed that the percentage of students with credits in mathematics would likely increase dramatically for the next five years. Both male and female students that obtained credit passes would continue to rise. The observed and predicted trends of students’ performance would increase as the years go on. There was no significant mean difference in students’ performance in mathematics but there was a significant mean difference in the performance of male and female students. It was recommended thatproper orientation should be given to students admitted to study mathematics in the various Colleges of Education, stakeholders should take urgent steps to reverse the trend of poor performance in mathematics through effective monitoring, implementing and evaluating mathematics programmes and there should be investigation into the factors responsible for the unsteady and persistent poor performance in mathematics among students from Colleges of Education