Investigating the Effect of Teacher Qualification on Students’ Performance in Mathematics Instruction in Asunafo North Municipality

Abstract

Mathematics has a positive impact on the world, but students' performance in the subject is declining. Many researchers believe that one of the causes of this decline is the lack of qualified teachers. To investigate this further, a study was conducted in the Asunafo North Municipality to examine the effect of teacher qualifications on students' performance in mathematics classrooms. A descriptive survey research design was utilized to conduct this study which included 76 respondents, consisting of 60 students (WASSCE candidates) and 16 final year mathematics teachers. This was done through a purposive sampling technique for the sample of teachers and a simple random sampling for the selecting of the WASSCE students. Data was collected through questionnaires and interviews, and analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, mean, and standard deviation were used, as well as paired samples T-test to answer the hypothesis testing. The results of the study showed that students taught by highly qualified teachers performed better than those taught by less qualified teachers. This indicates that teacher qualification has a significant impact on students' performance in mathematics. The study concludes that teacher qualification is a major factor affecting students' academic performance in mathematics. Based on the findings, it is recommended that education stakeholders in Ghana, including the Ministry of Education, should employ only qualified teachers who are graduates or masters’ holders with teaching qualifications to teach mathematics at the SHS level.