ENHANCING MATHEMATICS EDUCATION IN RURAL GAMBIA: INVESTIGATING THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHER QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE ON STUDENT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

This study investigatesthe influence of teachersqualifications and experience on the academic performance of senior secondary school mathematics students in rural Gambia.To achieve this objective, I conducted a rigorous analysis of quantitative data sourced from surveys administered by the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education through the Education Management Information System (EMIS) and data from the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC)-The Gambia.To ensure a representativesample, I employed a simple random sampling technique. I selected 35 schools out of the total 57 public secondary schools in rural Gambia that presented candidates in the 2022 West African Senior School Certificate Examination in mathematics. Subsequently, the collected data undergoes statistical analysis using IBM SPSS-25. A series of independent t-test analyses wereconducted to compare the mean academic performance scores across various student groups while testing the formulated hypotheses at a significance level of 0.05.The studys findings revealed a substantial impact of teachersqualifications and experience on student performance in mathematics. Considering these findings, one recommended action is to encourage and support secondary school teachers to pursue higher education degrees, particularly a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) specializing in mathematics.