CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
This chapter includes an overview of the background to the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, objective of the study and research questions. The chapter also discusses significance, limitation and assumptions of the study. Finally, a conceptual framework model is presented.1.1 Background to the Study
Mathematics is a compulsory subject for all students at the secondary school level in Nigeria (Stanic, 2010). This is necessitated by the fact that knowledge of mathematics is essential for all members of the society. When students in secondary schools complete their secondary school education, they will not be limited in career choice and advancement. This view is held by curriculum developers, teachers, parents and students alike. While this may be true, selection of students to join universities in Nigeria by Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has been so prohibitive. Cases are many of students who did so well in mathematics in school examinations are not necessarily selected to pursue competitive courses in the public universities in Nigeria. This is because of extremely few vacancies available for those competitive courses (Stanic, 2010).ÂÂÂ
Patton, (2013) stated that mathematics need not be learned by students in secondary schools for the sake of career choice or advancement but students should be able to learn mathematics with understanding and therefore be able to apply mathematical ideas later in life (Patton, 2013). The intention of curriculum developers at the Nigeria Institute of Education is to develop secondary schools mathematics syllabus that will help students become numerate, accurate and precise in thought. This is in line with (National Goals of Education in Nigeria, 2012). As much as this could be a noble desire of curriculum developers, a student may complete his/her secondary school education without necessarily being numerate, accurate and precise in thought, in the strict sense of the words. But that does not mean such a student has not learnt mathematics at all in his/her secondary education Mac et al. (2007).          Learning of mathematics is a continuous process and is not limited to the classroom experience only. In secondary schools, more lessons of mathematics are taught than those of sciences. Despite concerted efforts of teachers, school administrators, parents and all other education stakeholders to enhance learning of mathematics among secondary students, performance and success in learning mathematics is still not satisfactory. The reasons for poor performance in mathematics examination resulting from poor learning of the subject are likely to be due to formed attitudes towards the subject by the students; teaching methods which are not appropriate and lack of resources among others (Mapolelo, 2008). The formation of unfavorable attitudes among students can be curtailed and how favorable attitudes towards learning of the subject can be encouraged, Education Matters, (2008) attributes poor learning and consequently poor performance in mathematics to teachers reinforcing negative attitudes towards the subject among the students. The teachers may knowingly or unknowingly depict high achievers as the probable achievers in mathematics examinations but low-attainders to be the automatic failures in examinations and they show it openly Bandura, (2007). This may create a negative attitude towards the subject among the low achievers, who may not learn the subject effectively. Teachers influence on student’s attitudes and students’ positive attitudes are very important factors needed in order to enhance students learning of any subject and more specifically mathematics. National Examination Council (NECO) mathematics results in Onitsha zone indicate poor performance among students, worrying trend of performance and the root course need to be sought. It may be attributed to poor learning of the subject among students. Consequently, poor learning could be a result of many factors among them being the attitudes formed by the students towards the learning process itself. Therefore this study is set to determine the factors influencing the attitude of secondary school students towards the learning of mathematics.