A comparative study of senior high school students WASSCE achievement in core and elective mathematics from 2016 to 2018

Abstract

This study compared Senior High School Students’ achievements in core and elective mathematics from 2016 to 2018. The study employed an explanatory sequential mixed method, and used a sample of three hundred and two (302) WASSCE results of past students who studied both Core and Elective Mathematics. Stratified, purposive, simple random and snowball sampling techniques were used for the research. Seventy-eight (78) past students and sixteen (16) teachers were also sampled for the study. The instruments used to collect data were questionnaire, semi-structured interview guide, and WASSCE results. The results indicated that students who offered both subjects performed better in Elective Mathematics than the Core Mathematics. It also showed that majority of students developed negative attitude to the study of Core Mathematics than the Elective Mathematics because they believed the former is superior to the latter. Co-curricular activities were found to deny students and teacher of precious instructional hours. The results also indicated that some Core Mathematics teachers skipped some important topics with the view that the Elective Mathematics teachers would teach them. The study recommended that students should be counselled to develop positive attitude towards the study of both subjects because they boosted their chances of gaining admission into tertiary institutions. Besides, school managements, heads of mathematics departments should intensify their monitoring activities so that mathematics teachers would not skip any topic. Furthermore, co-curricular activities should be planned in such a way that they would not interfere with the academic work.