A Comparison of Students’ Attitudinal Variables towards Mathematics between Private and Public Senior Secondary Schools

Abstract

The study investigated a comparison of students’ attitudinal variables towards Mathematics between Private and Public Senior Secondary Schools Two (SS II) in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria. Four hundred students were randomly selected and twenty (20) students were purposively selected from twenty (20) schools which comprised of Ten (10) schools each from Private and Public schools. Two general questions were formulated and answered descriptively while four hypotheses in the study were tested using t-test statistic. The results showed that, most teachers in the sampled schools were teaching Mathematics without audio-visual materials that could arose the interest and attitude of students towards Mathematics. There was no significant difference in the interest and attitude of students towards mathematics in private and public school while significant difference existed between the attitude of male and female students and also between the attitude of teachers in private and public schools at p<0.05. The study recommended that female students’ interest and attitude should be geared towards mathematics through regular advise by the Mathematics teachers while public schools teachers should be motivated through the State Ministry of Education to the State Government by increasing the Mathematics teachers’ allowance. This may improve the morale towards the teaching of Mathematics in Public schools in the State and Nigeria as a whole. Keywords: Attitude, Interest, Students, Teachers, Private and Public Schools