The question “Why do students struggle with mathematics?” is often answered too quickly. Students are described as weak, careless, afraid of numbers, or simply “not mathematical.” Such explanations may describe what a teacher observes, but they rarely explain the underlying learning problem.

Mathematics learning is cumulative. A learner who has not developed secure understanding of number, place value, operations, fractions or proportional reasoning may later encounter algebra, geometry, statistics and calculus without the conceptual foundations required to make sense of them.

This report therefore treats mathematics difficulty as a learning-system question rather than a student-deficit question. It brings together evidence on foundational numeracy, educational inequality, teaching quality, instructional resources and assessment to examine how mathematical learning gaps emerge and why they persist.

The purpose is practical: to help teachers, school leaders, policymakers, parents and education technology developers identify where intervention should begin.

Students struggle with mathematics for multiple, interacting reasons. The strongest evidence suggests that mathematical difficulty is frequently rooted in earlier learning gaps, unequal learning conditions, instructional challenges and insufficiently targeted support—not simply in a lack of intelligence or effort.

The Nigerian evidence makes the scale of the problem clear. UNICEF's analysis of the MICS 2021 foundational learning assessment found that only 25% of children aged 7–14 demonstrated the assessed core numeracy skills. The figure varied sharply by wealth: 62% among children in the richest quintile compared with 5% among children in the poorest quintile.

The problem also persists into secondary education. Nigeria's NALABE 2022 assessment examined Primary 3, Primary 5 and Junior Secondary 2 learners across all 36 states and the FCT, including 23,564 JS2 learners. The assessment was designed to measure proficiency in mathematics and other core subjects and to examine the context in which learning occurs.

The central implication is that mathematics intervention should become more diagnostic. Before asking a struggling learner to complete more exercises, educators need to determine which prerequisite concept or skill is missing, whether the learner has a procedural or conceptual misunderstanding, and what contextual factors are limiting engagement.

Why do many students struggle to understand and apply mathematics, and what conditions make mathematical difficulty more likely to persist?

The question is deliberately broader than “Why are students poor at mathematics?” because performance is an outcome. Understanding the causes requires examining what happens before, during and after mathematical instruction.

Sub-questions guiding this review

Mathematics is unusually cumulative. In many subjects, a learner can begin a new topic with relatively little knowledge of the preceding topic. Mathematics is different: later concepts frequently depend on earlier representations, vocabulary, procedures and relationships.

A child who has not developed reliable understanding of place value may struggle with multi-digit operations. A learner who has weak fraction concepts may struggle with algebraic manipulation, ratio, probability and calculus. By secondary school, these gaps can become difficult to see because the visible problem appears to be the current topic.

This creates a compounding cycle:

N igeria's mathematics learning challenge sits inside a much wider foundational learning crisis. UNICEF's 2024 Situation Analysis reports that only 25% of children aged 7–14 demonstrated core numeracy skills in the MICS 2021 assessment. By the beginning of junior secondary school, 59% had acquired the assessed foundational numeracy skills, meaning a substantial proportion had not mastered basic numeracy before entering secondary education.

The problem is not distributed evenly. Urban children performed better than rural children, while the wealth gradient was particularly pronounced. UNICEF reports core numeracy levels of 43% in urban areas compared with 13% in rural areas, and 62% among the richest quintile compared with 5% among the poorest.

How mathematical learning accumulates

This report is a secondary-data synthesis. It draws primarily on Nigerian education assessments and analyses produced by government institutions and international development organisations, supplemented by evidence on foundational learning, assessment and instructional quality.

NALABE 2022 is particularly important because it provides nationally representative evidence across different stages of basic education. UNICEF reports that the assessment sampled 75,067 Primary 3 learners, 71,041 Primary 5 learners and 23,564 JS2 learners from schools across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Primary data sources

Foundational numeracy is already weak before secondary school

Core numeracy skills among children aged 7–14

The figures demonstrate that mathematical difficulty cannot be understood solely through individual learner characteristics. The probability of demonstrating foundational numeracy varies substantially according to the environment in which children live and learn.

Equity gap in foundational numeracy

9.1  The prerequisite problem

Mathematics behaves like a knowledge network. Later concepts depend on earlier concepts, and the dependencies are often hidden. A learner can appear to understand a topic because they can reproduce a procedure while lacking the conceptual structure that makes the procedure meaningful.

This is particularly important when learners move from arithmetic to algebra. Algebra introduces symbols, generalisation, equivalence and relationships. If numerical relationships, operations and proportional reasoning are insecure, algebra can appear to be an entirely new language rather than an extension of familiar mathematical ideas.

9.2  The instructional problem

Mathematics teaching must balance procedural fluency with conceptual understanding. Procedures are necessary, but students need opportunities to understand why a procedure works, represent mathematical relationships in different ways and explain their reasoning.

UNICEF's work on teacher development in Nigeria identifies inadequate teaching quality among the challenges affecting educational outcomes. Its School-Based Teacher Professional Development Learning Lab model was developed around improving teaching effectiveness and learner outcomes through collaborative teacher learning.

9.3  The confidence and engagement problem

Repeated failure can change how learners approach mathematics. Students who expect mathematics tasks to expose their weaknesses may avoid difficult problems, seek only memorised procedures or stop attempting unfamiliar questions.

This creates an important distinction between a mathematical knowledge problem and a mathematical engagement problem. The two can reinforce each other, but they should not be treated as identical.

The longer a learner experiences mathematics as repeated failure, the more difficult it becomes to separate what the learner does not know from what the learner has stopped attempting.

This is why effective mathematics intervention must address both the cognitive diagnosis of mathematical knowledge and the classroom conditions that support persistence.

The Nigerian data show that mathematics learning opportunities are not evenly distributed. In the MICS 2021 assessment, 43% of urban children demonstrated the assessed core numeracy skills compared with 13% of rural children. The wealth gradient was even wider: 62% for the richest quintile compared with 5% for the poorest.

These differences matter because mathematical learning depends on more than classroom time. Access to learning materials, parental support, stable attendance, language familiarity, school resources and opportunities for practice can all influence the conditions under which mathematics is learned.

A national mathematics strategy that treats every learner as if they began from the same starting point will systematically miss the learners furthest behind.

International education policy increasingly distinguishes between access to school and actual learning. The World Bank's learning poverty framework illustrates this distinction by combining schooling deprivation with learning deprivation. Although the standard indicator focuses on reading, the broader principle applies to foundational mathematics: years spent in school do not automatically translate into mastery.

10.1  Foundational learning as a global priority

UNICEF's Foundational Learning Action Tracker identifies foundational learning as requiring clearly defined learning outcomes, appropriate learning materials, regular assessment and the effective use of assessment data to improve teaching and policy.

10.2  Nigeria within the global learning crisis

Nigeria's mathematics challenge should therefore be understood within the broader global shift from measuring schooling inputs toward measuring learning outcomes. The country's national assessments provide an important foundation for this transition because they make learning achievement measurable across grades and locations.

When a student repeatedly fails a mathematics question, the first intervention should not automatically be another worksheet containing similar questions. The teacher needs to identify the point at which the student's reasoning breaks down.

A diagnostic mathematics system should therefore map current performance against prerequisite concepts. If a learner struggles with solving linear equations, for example, the diagnostic pathway might examine integer operations, inverse operations, equality, simplification and the meaning of the equals sign before prescribing additional equation practice.

This reframes mathematics intervention from “give more questions” to “identify the missing knowledge, repair it and then practise the target skill.”

If we know that a student is struggling, the next question should be: “What exactly is missing?”

Priority matrix

Proposed Waokmath research direction

Report type: Secondary-data research and evidence synthesis.

Evidence base: National education assessments, UNICEF Nigeria education analyses, foundational learning assessments, education system reports and international learning measurement frameworks.

Methodological notes

This report is not a new national assessment of mathematics achievement. It synthesises available evidence to explain the factors associated with mathematics learning difficulty. It therefore cannot determine the exact causal contribution of each factor for an individual learner.

This section establishes a qualitative research agenda for future Waokmath fieldwork. The questions are designed to move beyond examination scores and investigate how mathematics difficulty is experienced by the people who teach, learn, support and manage mathematics education.

Foundational numeracy

Basic mathematical knowledge and skills that provide the foundation for later mathematical learning.

Learning gap

A difference between the knowledge or skill a learner currently possesses and the knowledge or skill required for the next stage of learning.

Mathematical misconception

An incorrect or incomplete understanding of a mathematical idea that can produce systematic errors.

Diagnostic assessment

Assessment designed to identify what a learner knows, does not know or misunderstands so that instruction can be targeted.

Procedural fluency

The ability to carry out mathematical procedures accurately, efficiently and appropriately.

Conceptual understanding

Understanding mathematical relationships, principles and meanings rather than merely recalling procedures.

Learning poverty

The World Bank's indicator combining schooling deprivation and learning deprivation, defined around the ability to read and understand a simple text by age 10.

1. National Assessment of Learning Achievement in Basic Education (NALABE 2022) Universal Basic Education Commission & UNICEF Nigeria · 2025 · UNICEF Nigeria
2. Situation Analysis of Children and Adolescents in Nigeria, 2024 Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning & UNICEF Nigeria · 2024 · UNICEF Nigeria
3. Nigeria Education Fact Sheets: Analyses for Learning and Equity Using MICS Data UNICEF Nigeria · 2024 · UNICEF Nigeria
4. Strengthening Education Through Innovative Teacher Development in Nigeria UNICEF Nigeria · 2024 · UNICEF Nigeria
5. Foundational Learning Action Tracker 2024 — Nigeria Country Scorecard UNICEF · 2024 · UNICEF
6. Learning Poverty World Bank · Education Global Practice · World Bank
7. Accelerating Learning Measurement for Action World Bank · 2024 · World Bank

Waokmath Research & Insights is a research publication series accompanying Waokmath, a mathematics education platform covering curriculum-aligned mathematics learning from foundational education through secondary school and examination preparation.

The series examines questions that sit behind mathematics teaching and learning: why learners struggle, how misconceptions develop, how assessment can improve instruction, where educational inequalities emerge, and which interventions have the greatest potential to improve outcomes.

The objective is not simply to publish information about education. It is to convert credible evidence into practical insight for teachers, schools, families, policymakers, researchers and learning-technology developers.