Chapter one
Introduction
background to the Study
Education occupies a very unique position in the national development of any nation. It is acknowledged as the bedrock of socio-economic and political advancement of countries (National Bureau of Statistics-NBS, 2009). This is because education empowers people to take advantage of development opportunities. Thus, educated individuals are seen to be crucial catalyst for any economy through driving technological diffusion and utilization among others (Becker, Osabuohien and Efobi, 2012). To acquire education in Nigeria, one is expected to be enrolled in a public or private school.
After home, the school is the most important place for students to learn and develop their educational and social competencies. Teachers play a pivotal role in providing education to the students. Every school strives to recruit good and qualified teaching staff that can deliver quality education to its students. Only highly qualified and committed teaching staff or teachers can produce effective results by producing good quality of students, who contribute to their country now and in future.
The teacher is regarded as one of the greatest inputs into the educational system. Teachers are recognized as the most important school factor affecting student achievement (Sass, Hannaway, Xu, Figlio, and Feng, 2010).Teachers facilitate effective teaching and learning. At the same time, poor academic performance of students can be blamed on teachers. This is because the ability of a teacher determines his capabilities based on the level of his exposure through training and skills learnt.
The effectiveness of a teacher is in his or her ability to achieve a maximum positive impact on the academic performance of a student with minimum energy, time or materials, (Muruako 2017). An effective teacher can be described as one who fits perfectly into carrying out all such assigned and extra functions as; adequate preparations for lesson, keeping the teaching records, sees to a clean and safe teaching environment, maintain discipline among the pupils in and outside the class, check and mark notes, given to the student regularly, sets mark, records class assignments, test and examination scripts properly, attends staff , P.T.A. and other meetings regularly, punctual and partake actively in them, marks the attendance register regularly and take note of the absentees, sees to the welfare of every student in the classroom, prepares the continuous assessment and class maters sheets regularly and carries out other functions as may be assigned and duly relevant to producing an excellent student.
In the public schools, the effectiveness of teachers is one thing which has been regularly questioned by all and sundry mostly because of the lack of concern in quality shown by the government and administrators of such schools. Recall that public schools are institutions owned and managed by the government. The governments whose task level are so big and are flawed by a lot of factors often go for teachers are either not willing or committed or fail to properly evaluate and motivate this teachers hence the threat to teacher’s effectiveness in this public schools.
Schools are commonly evaluated using students’ academic achievement data (Heck, 2009). Teachers cannot be dissociated from the schools they teach and academic results of schools. It would therefore be logical to use standardized students’ assessments results as the basis for judging the performance of teachers. Teachers celebrate and are rewarded when their schools and teaching subjects are highly ranked. In their study, Wright, Horn and Sanders (1997) concluded that the most important factor influencing student learning is the teacher. Teachers stand in the interface of the transmission of knowledge, values and skills in the learning process. If the teacher is ineffective, students under the teacher’s tutelage will achieve inadequate progress academically. This is regardless of how similar or different the students are in terms of individual potential in academic achievement.
There is little or no doubt that one of the factors that could determine the performance of students at the secondary and tertiary levels is the foundational knowledge that has been acquired at the primary level. This was reflected in various national and regional polices, especially the Universal Primary Education (UPE) in the Western and Eastern regions in 1953, aimed at making education available to all. The introduction of UPE in 1975 was characterized by acute shortage of classrooms – overcrowded classrooms, shortage of teachers as well as equipment. Babalola and Adedeji (2009) assert that three decades of exclusive government ownership, control and management of education had been attended by unprecedented failures. It has been characterized by poorly trained teachers, poor teaching, poor technology and under-funding. As public education became increasingly ineffective and inefficient, private provision of education became inevitable.
However, many factors tends to affect how teachers perform this duties in a more efficient and effective manner, this includes; High teacher ratio, inadequate teaching-learning facilities, equipment and instructional materials. This could affect teacher’s effectiveness, and also could reduce the performance level expected of an average learner thus the attempt by the researcher to inquire into ways through which through which factors militating against the effective performance of teachers in public primary schools can be eliminated.
statement of the Problem
Educational institutions are built to train students who are expected to turn better after their education. However, the problem arises when these students are not properly trained due to so many reasons of which some are dependent largely upon teacher’s effectiveness.
Teacher effectiveness has been a great concern to the stakeholders in recent times. Teachers seem not to be adequately motivated and trained in relation to their counterparts in other profession. As a result of this, many people are not attracted to the profession. Many are in the profession due to unemployment and therefore display nonchalant attitude to teaching learning process (Uduak, 2014).
The high turnout of graduates from our higher institutions with less employment opportunities has made the teaching profession a dumping ground for graduates of all disciplines. A good number of teachers in the primary and secondary schools lack the basic qualifications required to teach at the foundation level of education. The implications of this poor attitude towards teaching by the teachers especially in public primary school portends grave dangers to the society as the teachers are either under motivated or lack the will to teach in the first place thus affecting their effectiveness.
According to Heck, (2009) Schools are commonly evaluated using students achievement data. Therefore, teachers cannot be dissociated from the schools they teach and academic results of schools. It would be logical to use standardized students assessments results as the basis for judging the performance of teachers. Teachers stand in the interface of the transmission of knowledge, values and skills in the learning process. If the teacher is ineffective, students under the teacher’s tutelage will perform poorly academically. This it regardless of how similar or different the students are in terms of individual potential in academic achievement.
There is little or no doubt that one of the factors that could determine the performance of students at the secondary and tertiary levels is the foundational knowledge that has been acquired at the primary school level. Babalola and Adedeji (2009) assert that three decades of exclusive government ownership. Control and management of education had been attended by unprecedented facilities. It has been characterized by poorly trained teachers, poor teaching, poor technology and under-funding. As public education continues to fall in standard, educationist and researchers are bothered and are in a constant quest to finding out the reasons for the decline and a way out hence this particular research into the reasons for teachers effectiveness in public primary schools in Nnewi South Local Government Area so as to know how they can be made more effective.
purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to find out factors affecting teacher’s effectiveness in public primary schools in Nnewi South L.G.A.
Specifically, the objectives are;
- Identify the factors that are responsible for teachers effectiveness in public primary schools in Nnewi South L.G.A.
- To ascertain the level of teachers effectiveness in public primary schools in Nnewi South L.G.A.
- To identify strategies to improve teacher’s effectiveness in Nnewi South L.G.A.
Significance of the Study
This research work will be relevant to the following group of people;
Teachers
Pupils
Parents
Government and Ministry of Education.
Practically, for the government and ministry of education, the outcome of this study has the potential to assist curriculum planners of the curriculum research and development division of the Education Board under the Ministry of Education in formulating policies and procedures towards ensuring teacher effectiveness throughout the public primary schools. To the Pupils and parents, it shall be enlightenment on how they contribute to teacher’s effectiveness. And then to the teachers, it shall expose to them their weaknesses, strengths, expectations and reward for effectiveness in the classrooms. This will also provide information to all interest groups who may find it very relevant in their fields of work.
In addition, the result of the study will help school management, teachers and authors among others to produce effective and efficient teaching learning materials and strategies that will make teaching and learning at the primary school level more appealing and motivating.
Theoretically, the result of the study will be helpful to future researcher as reference materials.
Scope of the Study
The scope of the study covered the factors responsible for teachers effectiveness and ineffectiveness in Public Primary schools inNnewiNorth Local Government Area of Anambra State.
Research Questions
The following research questions guided the study;
- What are the factors that are responsible for teacher’s effectiveness in public primary schools in Nnewi South L.G.A?
- What is the level of teacher’s effectiveness in public primary schools in Nnewi South L.G.A?
- What are the strategies to improve teacher’s effectiveness in Nnewi South L.G.A.?
