Problems Associated with the Use of Mother-Tongue in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics in Nigerian Primary Schools

The study focused on the problems associated with using the mother tongue in teaching and learning mathematics in Nigerian primary schools. Four research objectives, four research questions, and one hypothesis guided the study. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The study was carried out in Sabon Gari LGA, Kaduna State. The sample for the survey comprised four hundred sixty-two (462) participants, comprising 127 primary school teachers and 335 primary school students drawn from the population of study using stratified random sampling. The instruments for data collection in this study were the Teacher Competency Assessment Questionnaire (TCAQ), designed to evaluate teachers' proficiency in mother-tongue mathematics instruction; the Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) to measure students' mathematical performance; the Instructional Materials Assessment Checklist (IMAC) to assess the availability and quality of indigenous language teaching resources; and the Implementation Challenges Questionnaire (ICQ) to identify systemic barriers in mother-tongue mathematics education, and data was analysed using frequency and simple percentage, t-test, and mean scores ranking. The results revealed that the distribution of teachers' competency levels in mother-tongue mathematics instruction indicates that a significant proportion of teachers possess moderate competency, the availability of mother-tongue mathematics instructional materials varies significantly across different resource types, the t-test analysis indicates a statistically significant difference in student achievement based on the language of instruction, and the ranking of challenges in implementing mother-tongue mathematics instruction shows that lack of standardised terminology is the most significant barrier. Based on the findings, the researchers recommend that curriculum experts should develop standardised mathematical terminology in major Nigerian languages through a collaborative effort of linguists and mathematics educators, among others.