Mathematics is a core subject at both the primary level and secondary levels. In most careers and courses in Kenya mathematics is key but poorly performed in schools .here might be the causes of poor performance;
- Negative attitude.
2. Poor language of interpretation.
poor language skills especially in English affect performance in mathematics negatively. A student is incapable of reading, understanding, and interpreting a mathematics quiz since the language used is English. Language policy in county school where students use vernacular to converse affect not only mathematics but other subjects questioned in English.
3. Poor foundation in primary school.
They say students don't fail but give feedback, so if a student has been failing in mathematics from grade 1 to grade 8, then automatically no miracle will happen for them to perform well at the high school level. poor background from primary school really gives students a big challenge especially in mathematics since the sign of operation doesn't change from +,-,* /.
4. Negative influence from seniors.
As the norm students in form one do well in Mathematics in the first and second terms, however as they continue performance declines. The seniors influence them negatively by telling their juniors they also scored 90% but things changed. They mention some difficult topics in upper forms which really brings fear to the junior learners.
5. Teachers’ bad comments on learners’ performance.
Learners get funny names and bad comments from teachers once they perform poorly. You don't pay attention in class, your parents used to fail in mathematics, you are cursed, stupid among others are some of the comments students come across. This not only scares the students but makes their scores worse also.
6. Lack of teacher’s general concern about the learners.
Some teachers just do their work of teaching, covering the syllabus, giving assignments, marking students' exam papers, and don't comment on the performance of the students. This shows that the teachers are not concerned with the performance of students taking the majority perform poorly
7. Teachers not awarding improving students.
Students try as much as they can to get good scores in maths but end up unrecognized making them give up. High school learners are still children growing up and perform well in subjects to impress the teacher not knowing it's for their own advantage. This makes the student not maintain the same pace thus failing in next paper
8. Other teachers’ comments on mathematics in class.
Teachers in the staffroom talk of how they performed poorly in mathematics and how boring the then mathematics teachers gave them lots of assignments. They also share them in classes with groups of learners making the students give up on performing well.
9. Very high grading system as compared to the K.C.S.E. grading system.
Grade E in most school start from 0-30. A student who scores between that range has only one point however, in the KCSE grade E starts from 0-9 or 11 depending on how tough the paper is. This high grading system really discourages learners making them fail and completely give up.
10. Parents negative comments to their children about the subject teacher.
parents instead of motivating their children to work hard in mathematics make bad comments that lower the learner's self-esteem in mathematics. Some tell them mathematics is difficult and they also got poor grades. Others say even in your family nobody has ever performed well in mathematics so who are you to pass.
