International Journal of Education, Culture and Society 2020; 5(2): 20-25 http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ijecs doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20200502.11 ISSN: 2575-3460 (Print); ISSN: 2575-3363 (Online) Pupils’ Attitude Towards Learning Mathematics Subject in Nkasi District Primary Schools Geofrey Mwanahanja 1 , Frank Tilya 2 1 Department of General Studies, Water Institute, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 2 School of Physical Sciences, University of Dodoma, Dodoma, Tanzania Email address: To cite this article: Geofrey Mwanahanja, Frank Tilya. Pupils’ Attitude Towards Learning Mathematics Subject in Nkasi District Primary Schools. International Journal of Education, Culture and Society. Vol. 5, No. 2, 2020, pp. 20-25. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20200502.11 Received: May 16, 2019; Accepted: April 16, 2020; Published: April 28, 2020 Abstract: An attitude is all about emotions, beliefs, and behaviors toward a particular object, person, thing, or event. It is the result of experience. Attitude has a powerful influence over learning. The study aimed at determining attitudes of pupils towards learning mathematics, and thereupon establish possible linkages between attitudes and performance. A cross-sectional survey study was employed to answer two research questions. The questionnaires, focused group discussion, semi-structured interviews and documentary review were used to gather information from 320 pupils and 77 teachers. The descriptive statistics in contingence tabulation used to test the association of the results at 5% level of association. The findings show that the majority of pupils have positive attitude toward learning mathematics subject. Similarly, a large number of teachers have positive attitude towards pupils learning mathematics subject. Nevertheless, pupils’ attitude towards learning mathematics was not directly linked to their academic performance. Poor performance was found to be caused by poor teaching and learning environment in primary schools. In due regard, further research is needed in the same study in other districts of Tanzania for comparative reason and generalization. For the immediate action, the government should facilitate empowerment of mathematics teachers through short courses, seminars, workshops and any other professional development programmes in order to improve their ability in teaching the subject. Furthermore, teaching and learning environment should be improved for effective learning. Keywords: Pupils’ Attitude, Learning Mathematics, Mathematics Performance, Professional Teachers 1. Introduction Education is the foundation of economic, political development and social stability in any country. The government of Tanzania has formulated Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP) as a means of improving primary education quantitatively and qualitatively as a sustainable strategy for achieving the Millennium Development Goals 2015 and Tanzania Development Vision 2025 [1]. Through this programme, enrolment rate in both pre- primary and primary schools increased tremendously and the number of primary schools together with qualified teachers also increased. Consequently, Tanzania received a special prize from the United Nations for excelling in enrolling an increased number of primary school pupils. While the enrolment of pupils has constantly been increasing, the performance in Mathematics (Hisabati in Swahili) in primary schools leaving examinations (PSLE) has been very poor in comparison to Kiswahili and Social Studies (Maarifa ya jamii in Swahili). The performance in Mathematics in Tanzania has been worsening year after year (see Table 1). Though in the last three years there has been improvement in mathematics pass rate, however, mathematics is the worse performed subject in PLSE. The weighted passed percentages of PLSE subject performance in 2007-2017 for Mathematics, Social Studies and Kiswahili are 37.20%, 60.24% and 72.73% respectively. The high rates of failure in Mathematics in primary school inhibit the pupils from studying the subject in ordinary level secondary schools. As a result, that deprives pupils the opportunity for later enrolment in Mathematics-related fields in advanced secondary schools and eventually in higher learning institutions. Hence, the countrywide dwindling number of professionals in science and technology sectors.