CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the Study
Education is one of the most important aspect of human life, it is no doubt an instrument of change. It is the key to maintaining continued growth. One of the objectives of educational institutions is to produce required manpower for all sectors of the economy and prepare the individual for useful living in the society. Down through the ages, education has been accepted as the antidote to poverty and ignorance. No nation striving for accelerated development does so, without huge investment on education. Globally, education is seen as the springboard for literature and all-round development (World Bank, 2008). The function of education is to provide opportunities for each student to reach his or her full potential in the areas of educational, vocational, social-personal, and emotional development (Kauchak, 2011). The education system in Nigeria has faced dynamic and rapid changes that have had overwhelming effects on the learner, learning institutions and society at large. Since independence, there have been numerous changes in policy formulation and directives, among various dimensions of student/teacher interactions, the effect on a student’s own academic performance is at the heart of the diverse debates on educational reform. The National Policy on Education (2004) recognizes education as the national greatest asset towards the quick development of its literature potentials, sociological and human resources, for it focuses on the integration of the individual into a sound and effective citizen.
Teachers’ effectiveness is undoubtedly one of the most important factors shaping the learning and growth of Students (Fenstermacher & Richardson, 2005). Contributing to teachers’ effective‐ ness is teacher’s intrinsic personality attributes among other factors such as teaching experience and qualifications (Akinsolu, 2010). The prevailing conditions of these factors would definitely have a negative or positive influence on the instructional quality in schools, which may translate to either good or poor academic performance of secondary school students. Teacher competence needs to be very high in order for meaningful teaching learning to take place (Segun, 1986). Teacher’s qualifications and experience have declined gradually. According to Olaofe (2005), teacher’s qualifications and experience has witnessed a steady decline from a large number of teachers who could not make learning take place, to teachers who could make students unlearn what they have accidentally learnt somewhere else. The exodus of competent personnel from the teaching profession largely due to its unattractiveness in terms of prestige, allowances and salaries, coupled with the issues of death and retirement, has led to glaring cases of teacher-shortage in our secondary schools
Poor academic performance of students has been reported in literature and linked to poor teachers’ performance in terms of accomplishing the teaching task, negative attitude to work and poor teaching habits. Literature, as one of the social science school subjects, was planned to add various values to the learners, which includes cultural values, intellectual training and vocational training (Obemeata, 1991). The knowledge of Literature also, makes an individual to develop culture of literature literacy, which will enable them to make rational decisions in their day to day activities. Studies carried out had indicated the need for teachers’ academic qualification in their various teaching subjects. In an investigation, Etim (1985) found that teachers gained enough skills from a preparatory programme to enable them teach their subjects at any level of secondary school. This points to the need for appropriate training in the subject matter area of teachers so that their classroom instruction could be above board. Otuka (1987) found out misconceptions in students which they traced to misconceptions held by their teachers. Research also shows that teacher knowledge of specific subject matter, particularly at the secondary level is a good predictor of student achievement.
In spite of all these benefits derived from Literature, many students largely record poor performance in the subject. The school is basically established for instruction and learning, to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in schools it is important that the necessary facilities are put in place. There is need to tailor and restructure the education system to meet the standard desired of it. Research have shown that school facilities have profound impact on students’ outcome, hence the resources available in schools are assumed to be related to educational setting in order to achieve the necessary academic output.
Government of Nigeria have tried in various ways to improve the quality of education in the country by introducing various policies such as the Nigeria “National Policy on Education” published in 1997, revised in 1981 and 1990. The policy had been revised to ensure that the educational sector is supportive of government development goals. Recent initiatives have also been taken by the government in the funding of education. The FGN/ODA Nigeria Community Education Programmes introduced in 1996. One of the objective of this initiatives are to restructure educational funding arrangement. Alternative sources of funding education have been explored. In 1995 the government established the Education Tax Fund.
Another notable change has been the effort to update the curriculum, a committee for the improvement of the curriculum was also established. The overall responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Education is to ensure quality within the system, to encourage and initiate innovations and to ensure the schools maintain minimum standards of acceptable educational practice. The National Policy on Education has stated that the government will continue to use education as a tool to achieve its national objectives. In 1977, a policy on education evolved which was national and presumably indigenous, which was later revised in 1981, 1988 and recently in 2004.
1.2. Statement of the Research Problem
Understanding the nature and the magnitude of teacher’s competence in education is crucial for the “productivity” of educational processes and student academic performance. The Nigerian educational system more than ever before, is bedeviled by a host of challenges ranging from infrastructural deficit, irregular policy framework, massive corruption to teacher disenchantment and incompetence. All these take a heavy toll on the products of the educational system.
Effective and sustainable human capital development cannot be realized under a weak educational base. Hence teachers are the key drivers of knowledge and skill acquisition in the formal school system, their professional competence in human capital development is indispensable. There are strong indications that teacher competence in Nigeria is a far cry from the minimum benchmark. Many products of the nation’s educational system (including University graduates) are unemployable (Iyoboyi and Muftau, 2014).
A number of scholars have highlighted the benefits of evaluating teacher’s competence on student academic achievement. Despite the relevance of evaluation, very few studies have been conducted in the Nigeria, some results of numerous studies are very mixed, finding strong, weak or non-existent effects across a wide range of outcomes. Various strategies have been employed by diverse studies conducted to test the relationship between teacher’s competence and student performance. Literature is applicable to all areas of human endeavours for promoting the culture of self-reliance and wise decision making. However, students exhibit underachievement in the subject. Scholars have advocated exploring teacher-related factors such as Nsubuga (2013); Asikhia (2010); Adediwura and Tayo (2007). Studies have strongly linked these factors to students’ achievement in other school subjects with little emphasis on Literature. Hence, the researcher considered studying Literature teacher’s competence and secondary school student performance in Kajuru local government area of Kaduna state.
1.3.1 Objectives of the Study
1. To assess how teacher qualification influence teaching literature in Kajuru LGA.
2. To examine how demographic characteristics of teachers influences the teaching of literature in Kajuru LGA.
3. To establish how teaching experience of the classroom teacher influence the teaching of literature in Kajuru LGA.
1.4 Research Questions
1. How does the teacher’s qualification the teaching of literature?
2. How does the demographic characteristics of teacher’s the teaching of literature?
3. How does the teaching experience of the classroom teacher the teaching of literature?
1.6 Justification/Significance of the Study
The effectiveness of high academic performance critically depends on several factors among which is teacher’s competence. The significance of teacher’s competence in addressing educational challenges had led to a wide range of research on teacher’s competence on the academic achievement of student, the purposed have been to empirically justify this influence at any point in time.
This study provides a clear, sound and functional understanding of teachear’s competence influence in Nigeria schools and this could help policy makers in the country to interpret with relative precision, the effect on educational system. The outcome of study also revealed the strengths and weaknesses of teacher’s competence in addressing academic challenges in schools.
In addition, the study provides a link of causation between literature teacher’s competence and student academic performance. This is very crucial given that the educational sector is important to Nigeria.
The critical nature of student performance in particular and the educational sector in general to the success or growth of any economy is given, this is because the level of student performance determines the level of manpower produced in a country. Empirically, this study is carried out to investigate the influence of literature teacher’s competence on academic achievement of secondary school students so as to ameliorate the problems associated with it. This study will be important to the academic sector of the nation, as it will help guide the boards in charge of school management on how it can operate and how it should operate
This study will be of utmost importance to investors, government and the researchers because it will provide policy recommendations to the various Nigeria stakeholders taking adequate measures in educational sector. It is hoped that the exploration of secondary schools in Kajuru local government area of Kaduna state will provide a broad view of the operations of the educational system to investors and government. It will contribute to existing literature on the subject matter by investigating empirically the role of teacher’s competence on academic successes. This study will be of benefit to;
The Academia: members of the academia will find the study relevant as it will also form basis for further research and a reference tool for academic works.
Government: this study will reveal to the government happenings in the educational sector. Formulation and implementation of policies based on these findings would ensure development in the sector.
Investors: this study shall also be valuable to the investors especially those who may have research interest as it shall guide their private investment decisions.
This study at the end will enlighten the board of educational sector on the implications of teacher’s competence.
1.7. Theoretical/Conceptual Framework
Stuffle Beam’s CIPP Theory
The CIPP theory was developed by a man Daniel Stuffle beam and his associates in Ohio State University. The CIPP theory had four components: context, inputs, process and product. According to Beam (1971) as cited in Yusuf (2012) his theory provided a systematic way of looking at many different aspects of the curriculum development process.
Context: This stage describes the need to make planning on the decisions to be taken on curriculum. The various needs which the curriculum will address should be staged. Such could be for learners, teachers, schools or the nation. It should take into cognizance that individual needs vary from one to another depending on the circumstance.
Process: This was the implementation of decisions. In this phase, the planning was made to examine how well such was implemented from the initial stage to the ending stage. However, barriers may likely arise from the implementation stage which would have been anticipated and evaluated during the formative stage. Issues such as time, logistics, finance and political will or might constitute a barrier at this stage. It was important to resist the whole process undertaken in order to identify the strength and weakness of the other stages.
Product: This was the last phase in CIPP theory which anchors on recycling decisions. The result needs, as such it will examine if the needs were met or if they were on the decrease from the starting point....
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Item Type: Project Material | Size: 56 pages | Chapters: 1-5
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