Al-Hikmah University Journal

The deplorable in the rate of performance among the junior school students in Mathematics has raised concern among the stakeholders in Nigeria. This study thereby aimed to investigate the determinant of performance and failure rate among mathematics students in Junior Secondary Schools Certificate Examination in Kwara State. The specific objectives sought to find out: the attitude of students towards mathematics in junior secondary school certificate examination; performance of students in mathematics in junior secondary school certificate examination; the rate of failure in mathematics in junior secondary school certificate examination; and the determinants of students’ performance in mathematics in junior secondary school certificate examination. The method adopted to accomplish the objectives involved the use of a structured questionnaire and a proforma containing the Basic Education Certificate Result from 2015-2019. The population consist of junior secondary school students from three (3) private and public secondary school in Ilorin West LGA of Kwara State. A two-stage sampling was used to select a sample of 25 students across six(6) schools. The findings revealed that there is an upward trend in performance of students in mathematics based on pass rate from 2015 to 2019. Highest rate of failure in mathematics was recorded in 2015 while the lowest rate was recorded in year 2017. Findings also indicated that the greatest determinant of students’ performance in mathematics in Junior Secondary School were student factor with mean score of 16.37 while there was a significant difference in the attitude of students towards mathematics in junior secondary school based on gender (t=9.19; ρ< 0.05). Based on the findings, it was recommended that government at all levels (Federal, State and Local) should ensure that basic educational facilities such as learning materials, libraries, standard classroom blocks and laboratories are provided for schools so as to enhance teaching and learning. Also, Mathematics teachers should encourage students on how to learn mathematics by reinforcing them when necessary.