Educational equity and quality are not only research issues which cut across different disciplines but are major determinants of socio-economic and human development in both industrial and developing countries. The status and role of mathematics, a subject which has long enjoyed a privileged status in school curricula worldwide due to its perceived role in science and technology, render equity and quality in mathematics education at the heart of human development. This is reflected by governments' relatively large investments in improving the quality of mathematics education and extending...