The Viewpoint of Primary School Teachers on the Reasons for the Low Level of Students in Mathematics in Iraq- the Province of Babylon as a Model

The aim of the research is to identify the teachers’ views on the reasons for the students’ low level in mathematics according to various variables, including gender, academic qualification, specialization, and experience.It was relied on a questionnaire prepared to measure the reasons for the low level of students in mathematics. It consisted of (28) paragraphs, each paragraph representing the possible reasons for this decline. The study was applied to a sample of (150) male and female teachers representing 65% of the original study population in a number of schools in Babylon Governorate - Iraq.

views of primary school teachers by studying a number of variables, including (gender, educational qualification, specialization, experience). Knowing the negative effects of low academic level on the educational system and society in general because it leads to academic failure and consequently dropping out.
To determine this problem, it was formulated in the form of a specific question as follows: What are the views of primary school teachers on the reasons for the low level of students in mathematics in Babylon Governorate?
b-The importance of research The importance of the research comes from a number of scientific and theoretical aspects, namely: 1-Identifying the reasons for low academic achievement in mathematics in the primary stage from the point of view of male and female teachers in the province of Babylon. 2-Providing those concerned with these matters with a descriptive survey on the causes of low achievement in mathematics in particular to address this problem and find what is necessary to deal with it. 3-This study is considered one of the descriptive sources that provide researchers and students with important information about primary school students who need to develop their skills in mathematics and do not have the ability to do so. 4-The results of this research can be used to develop the work of school counselors and supervisors and help them achieve educational goals through their cooperation with teachers.

c-Research Aims:
The research aims to: 1-Recognizing the viewpoint of the teachers of Babylon Governorate on the reasons for the low level of students' achievement in mathematics. 2-Recognizing the relative order of the reasons for low achievement in mathematics among primary school students from the point of view of teachers in the province of Babylon. 3-Knowing whether there are important differences between teachers' perspectives in analyzing the reasons for the low academic level in mathematics for students according to the variables that were mentioned previously in the primary schools of Babylon Governorate d-Search determinants 1-Human determinants: Primary school teachers determined the results of this research in terms of estimating the reasons for students' low level of mathematics.

Research method
In this research, the descriptive analytical method was followed in order to identify the reasons for the low achievement of primary school students in mathematics from the teachers' point of view.

The First Topic / theoretical framework
The issue of poor achievement of students is considered one of the important and sensitive issues, because it relates to the future of this group and their social and professional life in the future, as well as their psychological stability. Some teachers believed that students' poor achievement in academic subjects was linked to stupidity and mental retardation, while the objective view of students' academic delay was based on understanding and analyzing all aspects related to the student and the educational process in order to identify the real causes of this delay. Some theoretical studies (Labeid, 2001;Shaheen, 2004) and (Youssef, 2005;Hassan, 2006) indicate several factors that are considered influencing the decline in general academic achievement, namely: 1-The disintegration of the family and its impact on children and their academic achievement 2-Causes specific to the student and include two types of disorders, namely, organic disorders and psychological disorders. 3-Low level of student intelligence, where school success is linked to the mental age of the student, and the student is often exposed to failure in achievement if he is asked to collect facts, information and skills above the level of his mental abilities 4-The general health status of the student: It is noticeable that the student who does not enjoy a high rate of health and physical fitness cannot focus his attention in his lessons for a long period of time, because he feels effort, fatigue and exhaustion for the least effort he makes, and therefore quickly becomes distracted, and loses the ability to follow the teacher In his explanation of the lesson, he did not understand anything. Consequently, he cannot perform homework or review previous lessons, and thus lags behind his colleagues who enjoy a high level of health in his achievement. 5-Emotional and social development disorder Pupils who live in unhealthy social environments are often exposed to disturbances in their emotional and social development. As for mathematics, studies (Halil and Halhel, 2006;Youssef, 2005) indicated that students' weakness may be due in particular to the following reasons, whether these reasons are singular or combined, which are: 1-Changes in the educational curriculum: It is noted that changes in the educational curricula in general and the mathematics curriculum in particular affect immediately and directly the teaching process and consequently the achievement of students. 2-Teachers: Attention must be paid to raising the level of teachers and raising their capabilities, helping them to adapt to and keeping pace with the resulting changes, and providing them with the necessary tools to act well and deal with the new requirements. 3-Students: They are the main focus in the educational process. All programs and plans must take care of the student's comfort and well-being in order to prepare him for good citizenship and leadership in the future. We must pay attention to the fact that adults are the ones who decide the future goals from which the student can choose. 4-Parents: Being the main source of material, social and psychological support, they sometimes cannot bear the required burdens of their role. 5-Teaching environment and contents: Among the desired changes in the teaching environment, in teaching aids, means of illustration, and in learning centers. 6-The Ministry of Education: These changes oblige the Ministry of Education to support schools and teachers in many areas, including: counseling, completion courses, purchasing equipment, and others. Without substantive support, many difficulties will arise when trying to implement the new plan, and these changes will require huge financial costs. The research community consisted of all mathematics teachers in the primary stage (from the first to the fourth grade in government schools in Babylon Governorate, and their number is (230) male and female teachers studying in (65) schools, including (31) schools for males, and (27) A school for girls, and (7) co-ed schools, and they are distributed according to the variables of gender, qualification and specialization, as shown in the following table: The research sample consisted of (150) male and female teachers of mathematics for the primary stage in government schools in Babylon Governorate, and they represent (65%) of the original population of the study. Distributed according to the independent study variables, as shown in the following table: A questionnaire was prepared for its adoption as a tool to measure the reasons for the low achievement of students in mathematics from the point of view of their teachers. The process of constructing this questionnaire went through the following procedural steps: 1-The selected sample of teachers was asked the following question (In your opinion, what are the most important reasons behind the low achievement of students in mathematics?) 2-After recording and analyzing teachers' responses, we have a number of reasons for weakness in mathematics, which are (37) reasons that were formulated and organized to represent the study tool in its www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-5804 (Paper) ISSN 2225-0522 (Online) Vol.11, No.6, 2021 initial form. 3-The items of this tool were also presented to a group of arbitrators, whose number amounted to (5), from university professors, to express their comments on the research tool and modify them. 4-Thus, the study tool in its final form includes (28) items, each of which represents a possible reason behind the students' low achievement in mathematics, for which the research sample is answered according to Likert scale (very large, large, medium, few, very few) and give scores according to the type of answer. 5-The stability of the current search tool was verified, as it adopted the method of internal consistency (Internal Consistency) using Cronbach's alpha equation(Cronbach Alpha) the value of the total stability coefficient of the instrument is (0.87). The second topic: statistical processing The statistical package (SPSS) program was used to process the data obtained statistically by using the following descriptive and analytical statistical treatments: 1-Arithmetic averages, percentage and standard deviation.
2-T-test for independent operations 3-one-way analysis of variance (One Way A nova) A number of results were reached by answering five questions that were asked to the research sample, which we will discuss and analyze successively • What are the reasons for the low level of achievement of primary school students in mathematics?
To answer this question, the arithmetic means, standard deviations, and percentages of the research sample were calculated for each item of the tool. In order to interpret the results, the relative criterion for evaluating teachers' ratings was adopted, as shown in Table No. (3) as follows: The previous table shows that the five most important reasons that lead to a low level of students' achievement in mathematics according to teachers' estimations were in descending order: health weakness affects students' achievement, behavioral problems affect students' achievement performance, and self-reluctance to study leads to low The student's level in mathematics, and the lack of a sense of belonging to the school leads to a lack of interest in studying, and the lack of knowledge of teachers in modern educational and psychological theories leads to poor performance of students. The arithmetic average on these items ranged between (4.32 in percentage 86.4%) and (4.11 in percentage 82.13%) The relative evaluation of these items was at a very high level. While the results showed that the five least important reasons that lead to a low level of student achievement in mathematics according to teachers' estimates were in the following ascending order: overcrowding of classes with students leads to low student achievement, lack of modern equipment and means leads to low student achievement, and low social status The family drives students to disinterest in studying, and the high teacher's quota affects the low level of student achievement, and teachers' lack of knowledge of modern educational and psychological theories leads to poor performance of students. The arithmetic average on these items ranged between (3.29 in percentage 65.87%) and (3.35 in percentage 66.93%), where the relative evaluation of these items was at an average level.
The previous table also shows that the overall average of the reasons for the students' low achievement in mathematics from the teachers' point of view has reached (3.71), which is in a percentage equal to (64.26%) and with an average evaluation. The researcher believes that this result is appropriate for the following reasons: the teacher's lack of specialization in mathematics affects the student's low level, and the teacher's failure to follow up on homework, and the teaching methods used by teachers, and its reliance on automatic memorization, leads to low student achievement, and lack of consideration Individual differences when presenting topics within the curriculum lead to low student achievement, negative attitudes towards mathematics and its teacher, and students' lack of basic arithmetic skills such as the multiplication table, addition, subtraction, and division.
• Are there statistically significant differences according to the gender variable in teachers' estimates of the reasons for the low level of achievement in mathematics among students? To answer the above question, we calculated the standard deviation and the arithmetic mean of the answers we collected from the study sample by gender variable. The t-test for two independent groups was used to verify Mathematical Theory and Modeling www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-5804 (Paper) ISSN 2225-0522 (Online) Vol.11, No.6, 2021 the significance of the differences between these averages, the results of which are shown in the following table: From observing the results that we obtained from the above table, we find that there are statistically significant differences according to the gender variable in the teachers' estimates to determine the reasons for the low achievement in mathematics in favor of male teachers, that is, the males showed higher scores compared to the female teachers, and this was evident from the difference in arithmetic averages.
This result appears realistic and consistent with the results of theoretical studies related to gender differences in learning different skills, as these studies in developmental psychology indicate that males are superior to females in their ability to learn arithmetic and engineering skills.
• Are there statistically significant differences according to the academic qualification variable in the assessments of Babylon Governorate teachers for the reasons for the low level of achievement in mathematics among students?
To answer the above question, we calculated the standard deviation and the arithmetic mean of the answers we collected from the study sample according to the educational qualification variable. The t-test for two independent groups was used to verify the significance of the differences between these averages, the results of which are shown in the following table: 3.71 0.33 The above table shows that there are no statistically significant results for the answers of the study sample according to the academic qualification variable, and this is what was shown by the results of the arithmetic averages. Any teachers' estimates in determining the reasons for the decline do not differ, whether they hold a diploma or a bachelor's degree.
From observing the results we obtained, we conclude that teachers who have experience and a scientific qualification close to mathematics, such as physics, have a reason for the absence of differences between the opinions of the study sample.
• Are there statistically significant differences according to the variable of academic specialization in the assessments of Babylon Governorate teachers for the reasons for the low level of achievement in mathematics among students? To answer this question, the arithmetic averages and standard deviations of the responses of the teachers of the research sample were calculated to estimate the reasons for the low level of academic achievement according to the variable of academic specialization, and the t-test was used for two independent groups to verify the significance of the differences between these averages, the results of which are shown in the following table: By studying the results of the table above, we find that there are statistically significant differences in the responses of teachers, especially in the arithmetic average, in estimating the causes of low achievement for students according to the variable of academic specialization. Where teachers specializing in mathematics showed higher grades than other majors. It is not excluded that mathematics teachers are more able than others to understand and determine the reasons for the low level of students' achievement in mathematics, and this is a logical result.
• Are there statistically significant differences according to the variable years of experience in teachers' estimates of the reasons for the low level of achievement in mathematics among students? To answer this question, the arithmetic averages and standard deviations of the responses of the teachers of the research sample were calculated to estimate the reasons for the low level of academic achievement among primary school students according to the variable years of experience, and it was as shown in the following table: The reason may be that most teachers have long or close years of experience, in addition to the fact that teachers are subject to training and rehabilitation programs before and during service, which reduces the gap between them in terms of the level of experience.

Conclusions and Recommendations 1-Conclusions
The research showed the following results after analyzing and studying the data we obtained: a) There are five important reasons for the low achievement of students in mathematics according to the teachers' ratings, which are as follows: • Poor health status of the students.
• Some students may have behavioral problems.
• Weakness of students' desire and interest in studying.
• Lack of a sense of belonging to the school.
• Teachers' lack of knowledge of modern educational and psychological theories. b) The study showed that there are other reasons for the low level of students in the study, but with a lower impact rate than the previous ones, which are (lack of modern educational means -overcrowding in the classroom -the social status of the family -the large number of classes for teachers -the lack of the necessary scientific disciplines). c) There are statistically significant differences according to the gender variable between the levels of teacher evaluation for the reasons for the low level of students' achievement in mathematics. d) There are statistically significant differences according to the academic specialization variable between the teachers' evaluation levels for the reasons for the low level of students' achievement in mathematics in favor of the mathematics major. e) There are no statistically significant differences according to the educational qualification variable between the teachers' evaluation levels for the reasons for the low level of students' achievement in mathematics. f) The variable of experience did not give a statistically significant difference.

Recommendations
Finally, the following recommendations can be suggested: a) Increasing attention to the physical, health and psychological health of the student so that he can focus during the study. b) Working to provide the school atmosphere or environment in order to increase students' motivation and increase their level of school affiliation. c) Teachers should use attractive teaching methods, methods and activities that motivate students to study and pay attention. d) Increasing the attention of parents to the problems of their children and following up on their achievement first-hand. e) Developing the skills of mathematics teachers by opening courses and workshops on the methods of teaching mathematics. f) Coordination between the higher educational leadership, whether in the Ministry of Higher Education or universities, on the issue of continuous improvement and development of the education process in a way that keeps pace with modern changes and developments. g) Benefiting from previous global experiences in all countries, which have proven to be highly successful in economic, educational and social growth. h) Conducting continuous training courses for teachers on the processes of applying and implementing sports education skills at work and continuously monitoring their performance.