Need of Statistics in Education

Statistics is a science dealing with numerical facts, collected systematically with a definite aim or purpose of interpretation and study. It is a branch of mathematics which evaluates numeric data. Talking in numbers always carries conviction. Telling the child’s mental age (MA) or calculating his IQ is a modern device and with the help of this figure we measure and denote the child’s mental ability. Talking in numbers or numerical terms gives a plain man a clear notion of things. The main business of statistics is to provide us with the greatest possible information about everyday facts in the briefest possible manner. Standardized tests would not have been possible without the tool of mathematics for finding out relationship between scores in the test with some other previously known scores or judgments. Standardization of the test material and its results would not have been possible without the help of mathematics. Validity and reliability of test could be fixed only with the help of different mathematical or statistical formulae. The mathematical method of factor-analysis of intelligence is a very well known device.
The chief concern of the teacher is with the general ability of the class, and the special abilities of the individuals, as well as the inter-relationship of these abilities. The teacher is sometimes interested in comparing one group of facts with another. Thus a teacher is called upon to deal with the masses of quantitative data collected from the scores in standardized tests and ordinary examinations and from other school records. All these data need organization, condensation and analysis; otherwise, they would yield nothing specific. It is thus clear that mental test is of little significance to the teacher unless it employs mathematical devices. Statistical methods are “especially adapted to the elucidation of quantitative data affected by a multiplicity of causes”. Statistics gives us a technique to obtain, condense, analyze and relate numerical data. Statistical methods are of a supreme value in education and psychology.