Institutional Factors Affecting Mathematics Performance In Morogoro (Urban) District Primary Schools, Tanzania

The study focused on “Institutional Factors Affecting Mathematics Performance in Morogoro (Urban) District Primary Schools”. The study was guided by four objectives to:examine the causes of unsatisfactory performance in Mathematics in primary schools; identify teaching methods used by primary school Mathematics teachers to improve the performance; analyze the pupils‟ and teachers‟ attitude towards Mathematics performance and find out classroom factors which influence performance in Mathematics.Amixed research design was used. Data were collected through interview, questionnaires and observation methods. The study findings showedthat 211(60.1%) pupils agreed that lack of pupils‟ Mathematics background,lack of teaching and learning materials, large classes, poor school infrastructures and lack of pupils and teacher motivation contributed to poor mathematics performance anmong the pupils in Morogoro. Also 326 (93.3%) of pupils revealed that small group discussion method, questioning method, problem solving method and demonstration methods was rarely used in Mathematics teaching because most of time lecture method dominated. Further more the findings showed that the students hated the mathematics subject and this could be the reason for the poor academic performance in mathematics among these students in Morogoro.The study recommends that the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology should provide efforts to improve teaching and learning environment in primary schools, along with reviving the mathematics subject clubs in primary schools