Assessment of the implementation of senior secondary school mathematics curriculum in abakaliki education zone of ebonyi state

The study focused on the evaluation of the implementation of senior secondary schools mathematics curriculum in Abakaliki education zone of Ebonyi State. Four research questions are posed to guide the study, and three null hypotheses are formulated and tested at 95% confidential level. Evaluation research design was adopted in the study. The design was chosen because of the evaluative nature of the study. The population is made up of all the teachers teaching mathematics and SSS students in all the public secondary schools in Abakaliki Education zone totally 119 schools, 142 teachers and 43,323 students respectively. The sample size is made up of 74 mathematics teachers and 600 students using purposive sampling Technique. Two instruments were adopted for the study - proforma and observational checklist. The proforma helped the researcher to collect data of the qualification of the sampled mathematics teachers and also yield data that was used to answer the research question one and for testing null hypothesis one. Observational checklist for collecting data of content coverage of mathematics curriculum, availability of mathematics instructional materials and extent of the utilization of the recommended assessment practices. Proportions, mean and standard deviations were used to answer the research questions while z-test and chi-square statistics were used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 significant levels. The findings of the study shows that for the proportion of qualified mathematics teachers, out of the 74 mathematics teachers only 46 of them which is the proportion of 0.62 or percentage of 62% is qualified. The mathematics curriculum content coverage is fairly covered with mean coverage of 2.41. It is significantly below an average since the expected bench mark of 2.50 as recommended in Ho2. Result also shows that out of 25 listed mathematics instructional materials only one is sufficiently available while 8 are insufficiently available and 16 is not available. This situation certainly does not enhance effective teaching and learning. Based on the findings of the study the following recommendations were made; Government should ensure that more qualified mathematics teachers are employed. Vice principals academics and principals should ensure that mathematics teachers sufficiently cover the mathematics curriculum content. Government should ensure that adequate mathematics instructional materials are provided apart from chalk, chalkboard and textbooks.