Abstract
This study examined classroom environment and mathematics achievement of senior secondary school (SS2) students’ in the Calabar Cross River State, Nigeria. Ex-post facto quasi-experimental research design was used to test two hypotheses on the influence of two classroom variables, class size and instructional materials on students’ academic achievement in mathematics. A sample of 700 students was selected from public secondary schools for the study using stratified and simple random sampling procedures. Two instruments used for data collection were a questionnaire on classroom environment and test items on mathematics achievement. The reliability estimate of the instrument was established through Cronbach Alpha reliability estimate and Kuder – Richardson K-R-20 formula which gave the reliability indices to range from 0.75 to 0.78. Independent t- test was the statistical technique adopted to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the analysis revealed that class size and availability of instructional facilities significantly influenced students’ academic performance in mathematics among SS 2 students in Calabar Nigeria. Based on this finding, increased government funding for provision of conducive classroom environment, with optimum class sizes is recommended. Instructional materials for teaching mathematics should be made available in public schools. Key words: Class size, instructional facilities, mathematics, achievement.  
Highlights
Across the nations of the world, the teaching and learning of mathematics is accorded the utmost importance because mathematics is believed to play a key role in accelerating social, economic and technological development
The result of the first hypothesis revealed that smaller class size is significantly associated with better students’ performance in mathematics achievement tests
This study has shown that small class size and use of instructional materials positively influence learning outcomes in mathematics
Summary
Across the nations of the world, the teaching and learning of mathematics is accorded the utmost importance because mathematics is believed to play a key role in accelerating social, economic and technological development. In Nigeria, the educational policy accords high priority to the teaching of mathematics, and has made the subject mandatory for all Primary and Secondary School students, and a compulsory entry requirement into all science and technology courses in tertiary institutions (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2014). To celebrate the beauty and importance of mathematics and its essential role in everyone’s life, the 40th General. Mathematics is beautiful and worthy of celebration but a significant proportion of students dislike or are afraid of mathematics rather than celebrate it. A survey of 784 higher secondary school students in southern district of West Bengal to assess the attitudes students of different streams (Science, Arts and Commerce) towards mathematics showed strong association between the students’ attitude towards mathematics and their achievement in mathematics (Kundu and Ghose, 2016)
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