SOURCE:

Faculty: Education
Department: Science Education

CONTRIBUTORS:

Nkanyimo C. Ifeoma
Okeke S. O.C.

ABSTRACT:

The study investigated industry-related mathematics skills acquisition for job performance by senior secondary school students in Anambra State. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. Five research questions guided the study and four hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to draw 2,495 senior secondary three mathematics students from a population of 42,002 in the State. The Industrial Mathematics Skills Acquisition Test (IMSAT) was used as instrument for data collection. The IMSAT was validated by three experts. Single administration method was used to obtain data for reliability test. Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 was used to establish the reliability of IMSAT which yielded a reliability index of 0.89. The IMSAT was administered to SS3 students from the sampled schools. 2495 item papers were distributed but only 2154 were recovered and used for data analysis. The research questions were answered using aggregate score, mean and standard deviation while hypotheses were tested using t-test and analysis of variance. Findings of the study indicated that; majority of the students had good acquisition of industry-related mathematics skills for job performance; both male and female students, urban and rural students, public and private school students and all students irrespective of school type had good industry-related mathematics skills acquisition, and there was no significant difference between the mean scores of urban and rural SS3 secondary school students in industry related mathematics skills acquisition for job performance. Based on the findings, it was concluded that in Anambra State senior secondary schools, students were sufficiently exposed to industry-related mathematics skills for gainful employment in industries. The study recommended among others that mathematics teachers should continue to teach mathematics in such a way that the students’ good acquisition of industry-related mathematics skills will be sustained.