ABSTRACT

Having observed a continuous decline in the performance of pupils and students in mathematics at all levels of education, the researcher set out to analyse and compare mathematics instruction in public and private primary schools in Abia State. The study comprised two thousand two hundred and sixty six (2,266) mathematics teachers. Five research questions and five hypotheses guided the study using descriptive survey design. The sample comprised of 90 primary school mathematics teachers, fifty four (54) public and thirty six (36) private primary school mathematics teachers. The instrument used for data collection was primary school mathematics teachers' questionnaires. Reliability of the internal consistency measure of the instrument was calculated to be 0.85 using Cronbach Alpha Method. Percentages and mean percentages were used to answer the research questions while Chi- square statistic was employed in testing the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. From the results of the analyses, it was discovered that: teachers in private primary schools teach pupils mathematics mostly with innovative and pupils- centred teaching methods while mathematics teachers in public primary schools teach with traditional methods; mathematics teachers in public primary schools have higher educational qualifications and experiences than their counterparts in private primary schools; instructional materials are more available in private primary schools than public primary schools. There was significant difference between public and private primary schools in the mathematics teaching methods used; there was also significant difference between private and public primary schools in terms of mathematics instructional materials availability. Based on these findings, recommendations were made, among which are; mathematics teachers in public and private primary schools should teach mathematics with innovative and pupils–centred teaching methods; only mathematics teachers that have the minimum teaching qualification of Nigeria Certificate in Education should be employed to teach mathematics both in public and private primary schools.