The British colonial masters in Nigeria did not encourage the teaching of science in the schools. At best science was taught as Nature Study and General Science. There was also shortage of middle-level manpower besides the gross shortage of qualified science teachers. To combat the acute shortage of qualified science teachers in Nigeria the Special Entry Preparatory programme (SEPP) was instituted in the University of Lagos to absorb and upgrade the unqualified science teachers to the level of

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... raduate science teachers with education background. The SEPP students were brought up to the advance level of General Certificate in Education (GCE A/L) which was the required qualification for direct admission into the university. Mathematics was one of the science-education courses taught through distance learning for a B.Sc degree. Using the Mann-Whitney test the performance of successful SEPP students was compared with those of "direct" students in the six courses offered. The two groups performed at the same level in four courses while outdoing each other in each of the remaining two courses.