The relevance of school library to students’ performance in mathematics: A comparative study of students’ performance in West African School Certificate (WASC) and National Examinations Council (NECO) in public schools in Orlu Education Zone of Imo State,

Abstract

The study sought to ascertain the relevance of School library to students performance in Mathematics in Orlu Educational Zone II of Imo State who were candidates in Mathematics examination of both West African Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) and National Examination Council (NECO) from 2013 – 2015. The researcher adopted the correlation survey for the research design. A sample of three thousand eight hundred and two (3,802) candidates’ results were drawn from a population of six thousand five hundred and seventy-eight using a purposive sampling technique. The instruments for data collection were a researcher’s constructed proforma of SSCE results validated and deemed reliable. Data was collected from Principals of schools and Orlu Secondary Education Management Board (SEMB). Research questions were analyzed using
frequencies and percentages. The hypothesis was tested using the chi-square statistics set at 0.05 alpha level. Results recorded in both pie charts and tables show that the performance of students in mathematics in NECO and WAEC was not encouraging as their performance was poor in
mathematics. It was revealed that the students do not make use of the school library when it concerns to mathematics as a subject, and it is not far from the fact that they are afraid of the subject. They prefer making use of the library in reading subjects like English, History, Government, Biology, Physics, and Chemistry. The issue of poor orientation to students will not be ruled out here as most schools do not have qualified school librarian.

Key Words: Comparative, study, Mathematics, School library, Performance, SSCE/NECO