Teaching/Learning Resources and Academic Performance in Mathematics in Secondary Schools in Bondo District of Kenya

Abstract

The education system in Kenya is evolving steadily even as it is faced with a number of shortcomings which include inadequate teaching/learning resources in secondary schools due to poor planning and corruption. The study looked at the effect of teaching/learning resources on academic performance in secondary school mathematics in Bondo district of Kenya. The research design for this study was descriptive survey design with a total of 405 senior four students as the population of the study. Two hundred and forty two (242) students were randomly selected from nine schools in the three divisions of Bondo districts out of 24 schools. Intact classes were chosen. The schools were stratified into co-educational day, co-educational boarding, boys boarding and girls boarding. One validated research instrument developed for the study was Student Questionnaire on Performance (SPQ) (r = 0.437). Three research questions were answered. The data collected was analyzed using multiple regression analysis. There was a positive correlation among the eight independent variables and the dependent measure – mathematics performance(R= 0.486; F(8,241)=9.014; p<0.05). The eight variables accounted for 23.6% of the total variance in the independent measure (R2 = 0.236).Government Financial support (B=0.182, t=2.469; p<0.05), trained teachers (B=0.341, t=3.489; p<0.05), classroom/laboratories (B=-0.347, t=-4.173; p<0.05) and textbooks/student-ratio (B=0.413, t=4.186; p<0.05) could be used to predict academic performance in mathematics. The study recommends that review of curriculum, in-servicing of trained teachers, recruiting more competent teachers, motivation of learners, improved government support to education, good teaching methods, improved students-book ratio and better remuneration of teachers are factors that the government and all stakeholders should pay more attention to in order to improve performance in mathematics.