Trend in the G.C.E. Ordinary Level mathematics performance of students in the North West region of Cameroon.

Abstract

This work seeks to portray the trend (pattern) in the General Certificate of Education (GCE), Ordinary Level mathematics performance of secondary school students of the North West Region of Cameroon, across the years 2007-2013. To achieve this, an expost facto research design was used. Furthermore, the population of the study was all the 171,187 Form Five secondary school students of the North West Region of Cameroon that sat for this examination across the years 2007-2013. No sampling was used since the results of all the students in the population were considered in the study. The instrument for data collection was the “North West Region Students’ GCE O’Level Mathematics Results” Data CD which was officially collected from the headquarters of the Cameroon GCE Board, Buea. Moreover, students’ mean mathematics performance for the various years was used to describe the trend in the students’ performance. Though the results did not show any systematic pattern, it was noticed that 2009 showed the best mathematics performance, with performance dropping steadily across the years 2011-2013.

Keywords: mathematics achievement, performance trend, secondary education, GCE Ordinary Level