Gender Differences in Mathematics Performance of Secondary School Students in Obio/Akpor Local Government of Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated Gender Differences in Mathematics Performance of Secondary School Students in Obio/Akpor Local Government of Rivers State. The descriptive research design was used for the study. The population comprised all secondary school students in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area in Rivers State. A sample of 195 was selected with the simple random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire titled Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT). Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while t-test statistic was used in testing the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study shows that there was a difference in the performance of male and female students in mathematics. Also, there was a significant difference in the mathematics performances of male and female students in rural and urban secondary schools. The study recommended that students should devote more time for mathematics; especially female students to enable them meet up academically with their male counterparts; and parents in the rural areas should not occupy their wards with much domestic chores to enable them have more time for the study of mathematics.