ABSTRACT

This research work focused on Curriculum Implementation And Performance of Teachers of Primary Schools [in Enugu North Local Government Area  Enugu State]. The need for this research work was to determine the extent the curriculum influences the performance of teachers in primary schools in Enugu North Local Government Area, Enugu State.  Based on this, it has been observed that the study have also considered the factors that affects teachers’ performances in school, the possible impediments to effective curriculum implementation, lack of  changing the school curriculum, unqualified teachers, pupils unreadiness to learn, lack of instructional materials and equipments to learn, lack of instructional materials and equipments which hinders effective curriculum implementation and performance of teachers in Enugu North Local Government Area. However, the study employed a survey research design and to collect data, a set of questionnaire was designed and administered to a sample of respondents, which the whole copies were completed and returned representing 93 response rates. Recommendations, summary, references and appendix will be inclusive.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Education is as old as Mankind. The pre-literate people practiced their own form of education which helped them addressed their problems. The society being simple and primitive, the curriculum of what is taught was also simple.

The term “Education” has no concise meaning or definition this is so because the meaning and interpretations assigned to education differ with generations as well as religious political connotations.

Okeke B.S. (2004.3) Opined that, “available literature development of education attest to the fact that education has been influenced  great thinker, law, forms of government, modes of social life, culture and physical life” Trend analysis and conducted  on education gives credence to the fact that education does lend itself to any endurable definition that has claims to unalterable truth. Education, Okeke further states, has permanent as well as constantly, changing attributes that try to adapt to new demands and circumstances. Hence, theories and practice of education differ from society to society and civilization to another.

To many, Education is seen as a solution for vast range of tasks of the society and the bed rock for national development.

According to Ocho (1988:28-29), as sited in Ozochi (2008), the central purpose of education is virtue or character training. Other purposes of education which Ocho identifies includes; the acquisition of knowledge, understanding and physical skills. The individual requires these competencies in order to enable him live fully and contribute to the development of his society.

The society being simple and primitive, the curriculum of what is taught was also simple. More so, such contents were not recorded as the art of writing was inverted then. They there fore resource to oral passage of their cultural heritage. However as the society grow over time and the art of writing invented, the need for documentation of culture and its transmission became imperative. Today, the world has become a global village with it attendant competitiveness, education sector cannot be left behind in this global changes

However, there are basically (3) three forms of education namely; in form this refers to the various processes through which one acquire education. The informal education refers to the traditional education which was predominant in Nigeria before the arrival of Christian missionaries who introduced western education. The formal education as the name suggests is the concisions and deliberate effort is made to organize the process of obtaining education  in the school, it has variants such as: missionary, colonial, western, Koranic or/Islamic Education respectively. Finally, the Non-formal Education made to organize learning out side the regular school activity –regular school curriculum, the formal school reputation and organization.

By the 15th and 16th centuries, there was growing question for Europeans missionaries to explore the African countries. The industrial Revolution of the 19the century helped the abolition of slave trade and subsequent spread of Christianity in Africa. The first Christian missionaries arrived Badagry-Lagos by the 16th century and moved slowly through the western Region to Benin City. At the place of Oba of Benin City they set up an infant school. At Lagos also they established Nursery or infant school at each place they established their churches. Notable among the missionary bodies are the Church Missionary Society (CMS), Roman Catholic Church, Methodist Church and Church of Scotland Mission. Their major aim of coming to Africa was to evangelize and convert the people of Africa to Christianity. Education was a child of circumstance. Education became necessary when the mission discovered that the native Africans was to be educated in order to read the Bible, work as court massagers and also to serve as interpreter in law courts. The schools at first were owned exclusively by the missions who served as teachers as well as inspectors. The 18th Century Saw Nigerians Participation in the establishment and running of the Schools. The first Curriculum Content of the Missionary education was very shallow it contained only the three R’s-Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. By the 19th century, there was development in the establishment of secondary and tertiary education for example, the University of Ibadan, Ile-Ife, Nsukka were established and other higher Institutions were established by the regional governments. There was also the need to review and reform the curriculum to match up with the existing schools and also to meet the needs of the people. The 19th and 20th centuries, witnessed enormous Scramble for the various communities to establish Schools there was also completion among the ethnic groups to establish their own schools.

By the year 1970, the various state governments took over the running and administration of primary and secondary schools. In curriculum of these schools at various levels has to change as new courses and activities were to be added. By 1969, he Federal government summoned the famous curriculum conference which gave birth to the 1977 national policy on education which was aimed at Fashioning  the type of education needed by Nigerians to make people self-reliant, knowledgeable and to acquire basic skills. The National curriculum conference held in Lagos, Nigeria in September 1969 from 8th to 12thSeptember eventually gave birth to a workable blue print white-paper by the Federal government of Nigeria in 1977-the National policy on education which was actually the first of kind in Nigeria’s educational system, the policy was later revised in 1981.

This document is one of the most important curriculum documents in Nigeria today. This blue print document strives to provide a uniform education system for Nigeria and most importantly, it contains a philosophical anchorage for education in Nigeria. The National policy and curriculum conference made provision for pre-primary, primary and secondary, mass literacy adult and non-formal, science technical, vocational as well as tertiary education. There was also open and distance learning as well as special education and there was need for planning, supervision and financing education at various levels-local, state and Federal governments inclusive. The conference under the auspices of the Nigeria Educational Research council (NERC) aimed at reviewing the old and identifying new national goals for education in Nigeria at all levels (primary Secondary and tertiary) as well as provide giddiness on how the system should function so as the meet the socio-economic needs and aspirations of youths and adults of the Nigerian at all levels were still “bookish” in orientation and that the 6-5-2-3-4 system was not responding to the need of the nation.

The curriculum of a school includes not just the planned academic performance or programmes, but also all co-curricular activities and other events, as well as that which pupils learn through the nature and quality of the school ethic in other words, the world CURRICULUM refers to all the activities designed to provide students with learning in a given education system. By the same token, it refers to all the choices that were made in determining the relative importance of place of each of the subjects to be taught. The main task of the head of each school is  to provide and deliver effectively on appropriate curriculum using all the resources-human, materials and financial which are readily available. This involves mobilizing all possible resources including the ministry of education, the community and even the school. The point to note here therefore, is that before the colonial era (1900) in Nigeria there was the wide spread practice of educating young members of the society. The colonial period lasted for about 1900-1960. during this period primary and secondary schools offered subjects like History, Geography, Christian Religious knowledge, Arithmetic, elementary sciences, Grammar, etc among others. The education during this colonial period was not clearly for self consciousness, awareness discovery and reform. But in 1963, the comprehensive school Aiyetoro was established as all experiment on comprehensive system of education and curriculum organization meanwhile, in 1946, in the northern part of Nigeria, the teacher Education project was started with a view of developing as table effective curriculum that would effect the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domain of both the learners and the teacher inclusive.

In 1969, during the National Education Conference, the Nigeria Educational Research Council (N.E.R.C) was established and in 1970 recommendations of the curriculum report was stated curriculum has there fore been defined as all the activities designed to provide students with learning in a given education system and all the experiences provided by a school to educate a learner. It also involves helping teachers provide the best information on subject matter taking into consideration the interests of the learners (s) and contemporary social needs.

Statement of the Problem

it should be a matter of policy that, the government needs to up date or reform some of the older Curriculum for teachers; increase education courses, and seminars which are related to the problems of the teachers should be organized on a continuous basis to make them attain greater proficiency in their work. This policy is essential to be able to locate the following problems.

a.          The teacher lack of clarity about the curriculum.

b.          The teacher’s lack of kinds of skills and knowledge needed to conform to the new roles/behaviours.

c.          The unavailability of required instructional materials and.

d.          Lack of knowledge and understanding of the major characteristics of the curriculum.

It is therefore a matter of urgency that the four (4) selected primary schools selected as samples need to implement their curriculum considering the problems encountered. The researchers assume that the performance of the teachers might be affected, if the entire educational system is affected, (Wikipedia 2009).

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to find out:

a.          The factors that affect teachers’ performances in schools.

b.          The possible impediments to effective curriculum implementation.

c.           How the school curriculum can be implemented in order to effect a change on the teacher’s performance.

d.          The possible suggestions on how to implement a successful school curriculum in the primary schools.

Research Questions

The following Research question were formulated to guide the study

i.            What factors affects the teacher’s performances in schools?

ii.           What are the possible impediments to effective curriculum implementation?

iii.         How can the school curriculum be implemented in order to affect a change on the performance of the teachers?

iv.         What are the possible suggestions on how to implement a successful school curriculum in the primary schools?

Significance of the Study

The important significance of this study is to ascertain way of implementing the curriculum in the four (4) selected primary schools in Enugu North Local Government Area it was revealed that updated curriculum, adequate facilities and equipotent employed by qualified teachers will play vital roles in the implementation of the curriculum by the teachers in these selected primary schools in Enugu North Local Government Area.

Olaitan (1994) posits that the provision of facilities tools and equipment prevents teachers from teaching courses by the use of text books and pictures. Okeke (1985) reported that the number of pupils who understands subjects in these primary schools in minimal, perhaps as a result of poor quality teaching and under utilization of facilities. Finance constitutes a serous factor limiting the successful implementation of the curriculum; therefore to highly implement the curriculum these primary schools selected have to be well and adequately funded; This finding is in agreement with Saby (1999) who also pointed out that finance is one of the crucial factors that determines the range of equipment and services that can be provided in a primary school on improvised conditions of services and motivation of primary school teachers.

Scope of the Study

This project work is purely on the curriculum implementation and performance of teachers in primary schools in Enugu North Local Government Area where this project work is centered. From the researchers’ understanding curriculum implementation and performance of teachers of the selected primary schools in Enugu North Local Government Area cannot be death with here in full; hence, the scope covered also includes effects, problem and possible impediments to effective curriculum implementation, and problems of curriculum among primary school teachers in the area.