Investigation into the Challenges Facing Planning of Mathematic Programme in Senior Secondary Education in Abuja, Nigeria.
The aim of this study is to investigate the challenges facing the planning of mathematics programme in Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive research survey design. The population of the study comprised ninety (90) respondents. Stratified and systematic sampling technique was used to select the sample population. The study employed the used of questionnaire as instrument for data collection. Two lecturers from Educational Administration and planning from University of Abuja was consulted to validate the questionnaire. Three research questions and two hypotheses were developed for the study. Test retest reliability was employed for the study. Percentage and Chi square test was used to test the hypotheses and data collected from the study. The result revealed that there are challenges facing the planning of mathematics programme of senior secondary education and the challenges includes; inadequate data/information to plan, inadequate funding of planning of mathematics programme, poor capacity development of few mathematics planners, inadequate professional mathematics planners ,political instability, corruption and lack of political will to support planning of mathematics education. The study concluded that the implication of the challenges on the implementation mathematics education is poor implementation of the mathematics programme in the senior secondary schools. The study recommends that the government should increase the funding of educational planning in the country especially mathematics education. Keyword: Challenges, Planning, Mathematics Education INTRODUCTION The importance of education in the development of any nation cannot be overemphasized. There is an increasing belief in the power of education to transform the society. In Nigeria, education is viewed as an instrument per excellence for national development. Education is needed for the social, economic, political and technological transformation of the nation. It is education that can transform the economy of a country from where it is to where it should be. Therefore, for education to play its leading role in the development of a nation, it needs to be properly planned, taking into consideration the needs and aspirations of the citizenry, the social, cultural and technological changes as well as the impact of globalization on the growth and development of the country (Akpan, 2000) The success of any educational system depends greatly on effective panning. Planning is the process of examining the future and drawing up appropriate actions for achieving specified goals and objectives. Educational planning on the other hand involves the setting of educational goals and objectives, the formulation of educational policies and the coordination of educational programmes and activities that would lead to the accomplishment of the predetermined educational goals and objectives. It also involves financial planning and budgeting as well as human resource planning (Akpan, 2000) Ogunode Niyi Jacob (Investigation into the Challenges Facing Planning of Mathematics) Journal of Education and Learning Mathematics Research Volume 1, Number 2, 2020 92 The planning of education is very important at every level and in all programme. The educational sector is very complex and because of this, planning becomes a necessity.Planning of education looks at programme or subject, site, infrastructural facilities, human resource, material resources, students' projection, curriculum, lesson, management and administrative planning. Programme planning or subject planning is very important. Programme planning involve systematically identifying professional teachers needed to teach, how many students, facilities needed, instructional aids, financial resources required and other materials resources needed. In Nigeria, many programme or subject offered in the Nigeria educational institutions are not properly planned. The educational wastage that occurs in the educational system is as a result of lack of planning. Research available shows that in the Secondary schools in Nigeria, is either there is a shortage of teachers, inadequate instructional aids, over crowdness of class, inadequate infrastructural facilities or inadequate funds. Mathematics programme which is one of the fundamental subjects offered in the Nigerian educational sector and in the rest of the World is one of the most affected by the problem of lack of planning. Mathematics is an essential discipline which forms the basis of all other sciences and deals with the material substance of space and time. Mathematics can be divided into pure and applied mathemathics. Pure mathematics focuses on concepts which are based on the rules of mathematics. The aim of these concepts is not necessarily for meeting the needs of the physical world. Pure mathematics mainly deal with the determination of mathematical proofs. .Applied mathematics is that branch of Mathematics which is applied to other branches such as chemistry, physics, chemistry, etc. It focuses on a problem solving approach. It attempts to discover practical solutions to solving the everyday problems of life. In practical life, pure mathematics and applied mathematics overlap each other. The concepts of pure mathematics are also used by applied mathematics to discover practical solutions (Info guide Nigeria, 2018) The place of Mathematics in any nation development cannot be overemphasized. According to Betiku (2001,p.8) Sciences, Technology and Mathematics Education (STME) have been widely acclaimed to be the index of measuring any nation's socio economic and geo political development. Among science and Technology courses, according to the National Policy on Education Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004) Mathematics is one of the core subjects to be offered by all students till the tertiary levels of education. This compulsory nature of Mathematics carries with it the assumption that the knowledge of the subject is essential for our live As important as mathematics to the development of the country, the subject has not been given the maximum attention that will make it to achieve its objectives. Obodo (2000, p.56) lamented the poor state of mathematics instruction in Nigeria and averred that the problem of quality of mathematics instruction and learning are from diverse sources. The teacher has been accused to be responsible for the low quality of student performance in our secondary schools (Cooney, 1994) Despite the relative importance of mathematics, it is very disappointing to note that the student's performance in the subject in both internal and external examinations has remained consistently poor Salau (1995) and Amzigo (2000, P. 8) Many education stakeholders in the country have listed some possible problem facing the teaching and learning of mathematics and even linked it to reason for poor performance in the subject. Some of the problems listed includes; The planning aspect of mathematics education has been ignored for long. Many researchers have never deep it fit to actually look at the planning of the entire programme. Every programme required Ogunode Niyi Jacob (Investigation into the Challenges Facing Planning of Mathematics) Journal of Education and Learning Mathematics Research Volume 1, Number 2, 2020 93 planning first before implementation. The quality of planning giving to a programme determined to an extent the level of its implementation. If mathematics as a School programme is not properly planned then the implementation will failed. Sunday, Obed &Yalwa (2018, p.54) looked at the issues in Mathematics Education in Nigeria. Obodo (2006) did principle and practice of Mathematics Education in Nigeria while Odili (2006, p.34) wrote on Mathematics in Nigeria secondary school: A teaching perspective. Also, Terna, kuje, Jamila, (2018, p.78) conducted a research to investigate the problems facing the teaching and learning of mathematics in secondary schools. Research on planning of mathematics education in primary, secondary and tertiary education is limited or not even available. Base on this problem, this study aim to investigate the challenges facing the planning of mathematics programme of Senior Secondary Schools in Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria.