"Let the Children Come to Me…For unto Them, the Kingdom of God Belongs" Mk 10:13-16: The Pastoral Challenges of this Invitation in African Church Today

The aim of the mathematics curriculum at the senior secondary stage is to provide students with an appreciation of the wide variety of the application of mathematics and equip them with the basic tools that enable such application. A careful choice between the often conflicting demands of depth versus breadth needs to be made at this stage. The rapid explosion of mathematics as a discipline, and of its range of application, favors an increase in the breadth of coverage. Such an increase must be dictated by mathematical considerations of the importance of topics to be included. Topics that are more naturally the province of other disciplines may be left out of the mathematics curriculum. The treatment of topics must have an objective, that is, the communication of mathematical insights and concepts, which naturally arouse the interest and curiosity of students.

On the basis of her long experience as a Mathematics School teacher as well as a teacher educator, the author observed that the mathematics curriculum at Class XI includes many interesting topics like sets, relations & functions, sequences and series, linear inequalities, and many more interesting topics. These topics can give good mathematical insight to students but these are typically short shrift. Whereas mathematics curriculum at Class XII is largely dominated by differential and integral calculus just because Board Examinations are conducted on the basis of Class XII syllabus and this acquires great importance among students and teachers. Thus, the author feels the need to conduct a study to understand the relationship between different topics of mathematics in classes XI and XII. In the present paper she tries to find the answers to the following questions:

➢ Have the same topics been covered from Class XI to XII?
➢ Is there continuous development of concepts from Class XI to XII?
➢ Is there a gradual increase in the concepts, illustrations, and exercises at Class XI and XII?
➢ What are the different opinions of the teachers regarding NCERT Mathematics textbooks of Class XI and XII?
➢ What are the different opinions of the students regarding NCERT Mathematics textbooks of Class XI and XII?