There is no gain saying the fact that Mathematics is the backbone of science and Technology. The complexity of modern society has necessitated the need for every man to have a certain amount of competence in basic mathematics for the purpose of daily business transactions, interpreting mathematical graphs and charts, and also to enhance logical thinking and reasoning. Foller and Jessie ( year: 44) defined Mathematics as the collective name for geometry, Arithmetic, Trigonometry, Algebra, and certain sciences involving geometrical reasoning. The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English defines it as a science of numbers and size in which Arithmetic, Algebra, Trigonometry, and Geometry are branches. Bell (1979:21,25) argues that no one can grow up without basic numeracy skills, which is the primary raw material of Mathematics or without performing some simple measurements, Also, one of the objectives of mathematics as specified in the early report of Mathematics in commonwealth schools (1969: 162) is that students should enjoy mathematics and not be afraid of thinking about it. This particular objective is very crucial at the junior secondary level.

Unfortunately, it is found out that many students all over the country have developed a hatred for the learning of mathematics in our society. In Eswatini for example, majority of the students secure ordinary pass or outright failure in Mathematics in the EGSCE examinations.

This is what prompts an investigation into the probable causes of the high failure rates with some suggestions to arrest the situation or halt the trend. In this work, the focus is on the common errors that are noticeably committed most often by the Junior Secondary School Students particularly on the crucial and basic concepts of Mass and Volume. Manzini South Local Government Area of Manzini Region in Eswatini was chosen for this work.

It is hoped that the outcome of this study will serve as a guide to Junior Secondary School Teachers to identify the ways of impacting knowledge to the students on the concepts of Volume and Mass (of the sizes and shapes of different objective and containers). Also, the findings of this study will enable the Junior Secondary School Student to be able to grasp the concepts. Furthermore, it will help the student to use modern scales in weighing various objects. It is believe that in doing this, student psycho-motor domain is promoted. This will lead also to the development of the manipulative skills and other skills relating to physical co-ordination of the Secondary School Student. More importantly this would serve as an avenue to any researcher for further research work on the same or related topic and with the same focus.

Five schools were carefully selected and labelled schools A, B, C, D and E. The total number of the sample drawn from the five schools was 200 students while the total number of the sampled teachers was 15, comprising of at least a University graduate teacher, a National Certificate of Education holder and a National Diploma holder from each of the five schools. Using a simple random approach, 25% of the sampled students were taught by the University graduate teachers, another 25% of them students were taught by the National Certificate Holders, 25% of the sampled students were taught by the National Diploma holders and the remaining students were randomly distributed and were taught by any of the teachers.

Two sets of questionnaires were developed for this work. One set for the subject teachers and the other for the students. Each set had two sections A and B. For the Students’ questionnaire, SECTION A deals with the collection of demographic information such as the class and age of the student among others while SECTION B were collections of answers raised in the questionnaires and expressed by the following indicators.