Perceptions of the causes of mathematical difficulties

Teachers have mostly been blamed for pupils failure in public examinations. Failure in examinations may be a result of pupils experiencing difficulties in learning the subject. The purpose of this study was to elicit teachers and students, perceptions of the causes of pupils learning difficulties in mathematics in the secondary school. The study was conducted with both secondary and primary teachers and students in Masvingo urban and peri-urban schools. Results were compared to find out whether primary and secondary teachers held the same perceptions, and whether pupils had similar perceptions as their teachers. The study revealed that both primary and secondary teachers and their pupils perceived the type of curriculum, the availability of resources, and the type of administration in the school as contributing to the difficulties that may be encountered by pupils in learning mathematics at both primary and secondary levels There was no evidence to link the cause of learning difficulties to the child, the teacher, or the environment. A lot of schools have inadequate basic resources for learning, a situation that is impacting negatively on learning mathematics.