Class size as a determining factor in the academic achievement of secondary school students in mathematics in Port Harcourt Metropolis of Rivers State

Abstract

This paper examined class size as a determining factor in the academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Mathematics. It adopted pre test, post test, experimental design. A total of ninety Senior Secondary students were purposively selected from three Secondary Schools in Port Harcourt metropolis of Rivers state Nigeria. The instrument used for data gathering was Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) with multiple choices option which was validated and had a reliability coefficient of 0.72. One research question and three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. T-test analysis was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that there was a significant difference between the achievement of the experimental group over the control groups. Gender had no significant influence on the achievement of the students exposed to the small class and large class in Mathematics achievement test. Recommendations included that the National Policy on education which stipulate that the maximum teacher per student ratio is one teacher to forty students should be enforced in schools. Also, class reduction approach should be adopted by schools and building of more classrooms with provision of adequate facilities for teaching and learning to ensure better achievement of students is advocated.