Effects of school ownership on problem-solving abilities in algebra among senior secondary school students in Rivers State

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of school ownership on problem solving abilities in algebra among senior secondary school students, in Rivers State, Nigeria. Ex-post facto design was used in this study. The population was all senior secondary school students in Rivers State. Convenience and purposive sampling technique was employed in this study. 390 senior secondary school students participated in the study. Nine senior secondary schools were selected by purposive sampling for the study in two local government areas. The instrument used was Algebraic Problem Solving Test questions collated by the researchers from different past West African School Certificate Examinations. The reliability of the test was determined to be 0.72 using Pearson product moment correlation formula. Three research questions were answered using simple mean. One hypothesis was raised to guide the study, at 0.05 significant level using t-test. The results of the analyses showed that: school ownership had significant effect on the problem solving ability in algebra of senior secondary school students, about 86% of the students in the private schools scored below 50% in the test, about 96% of the students in the public schools scored 49% and below, the students in the private schools outperformed their counterparts in the public schools although generally, the performance of students in both public and private schools was quite low. Based on the findings, recommendations were made.