ABSTRACT
Education plays a very significant role in the development of any nation. For a nation to pass its culture from generation to generation, in this age of technology, there is a need for well-trained teachers. The quality of a teacher is undoubtedly reflected in the quality of his teaching as well as the outcome of teaching. This study was carried out to look at the relationship between the quality of teachers and the students’ academic performance in Efon Local Government Area. The research instrument was a self – designed questionnaire called “Teachers Quality and Students Academic Performance” (TQSAP). The respondents were sampled using simple random sampling techniques. The questionnaire was administered on the teachers of the sampled schools. The results, among others showed that teachers’ qualifications had high significant relationship on students’ academic performance.
On the basis of the findings, it was recommended that there is the urgent need for recruitment of qualified teachers in various subject areas to arrest the present cute shortage of teachers. Teachers should be encouraged to attend more workshops, conferences and seminars to improve their pedagogical skills, knowledge and efficiency
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
Teaching is made up of several components of different dimensions such as the teacher, the students, the curriculum, the teaching method and instructional materials. Therefore, teacher qualities are the different components involved in the teaching and learning of economics ; importance of learning economics .
With the above definition therefore, this study intends to investigate the impact of teacher qualities on the academic performance of Senior Secondary school students in Economics using two instruments: the teachers‟ questionnaire and a paper and pencil test for the students.
The major development associated with the National Policy on Education NPE (2008) is the pride of place it has given to Economics . The policy regards this subject as a compulsory core subject area which all students at Senior Secondary Schools cannot dispense with in their learning activities. Very importantly the policy endorsed that, the teaching of Economics in our Senior Secondary Schools must be seen as one of those avenues of establishing strong basis for the production of effective citizens and of foregoing a cohesive society that will support the notion of the nation building.
The above statement implies not only a perception of the Economics education in terms of understanding on human relationship, but also in terms of its aims at producing citizens with skills, competencies, moral values and reasoned judgment to effectively live,
interact, interrelate and contribute positively to the economic, social and political development of Nigerian Society.
According to Okobiah (1999) to achieve these objectives in Economics education, the teachers involved in this task must implore qualified, well experienced and well attended workshop, seminars and conferences organized for economics teachers. However for the current practice in Economics education to be vital and valid within classroom context, it must be made operational by the teacher through qualification and teaching experience, aims and objectives, curriculum context, methodology, instructional materials, resources and evaluation procedure/processes.
For the diversified curriculum structures of economics to be delivered by the professional teachers successfully, Economics as a discipline must integrate the divergent and contemporary issues in Nigerian school curriculum. However it is generally accepted fact that Economics education stresses societal goals with man and his socio-economic and political environment as the focal point. Economics is an integrated discipline aimed at solving the complex and diversified problems of man in totality.
Dubey et al (1980) stresses that it is the hope of Economics that knowledge, attitude and skills obtained in the process of studying will have transfer value to the lives of children so that the decision they make as mature citizens would be useful to themselves and to the whole society. Economics education was therefore recommended for implementation nationally in 1969 at National Curriculum Conference.
For the reorganization and reshaping of the core curricula to achieve its desirable social as well as economic goals it has naturally become the primary concern of African
countries to reflect the self needs of their societies and this is where economics came in. At the time it was introduced, concerted efforts were made by some associations, such as Economics Association of Nigeria (SOSAN) and governmental bodies such as the Nigerian Educational Research Development Council (NERDC) to get it well established along with other traditional subjects in the school curriculum. Also seminars, workshops and conferences were convened where papers were presented and discussed. As such, the teaching and learning of Economics was made compulsory at the school levels of education system. This was the attempt to achieve the national goals and objectives.
Ogunsanya (1984) also indicated that “the experience of many countries of the world where Economics has been introduced into the school curriculum has shown that such countries were initially motivated to do so by the felt need to get rid of certain social vices plugging their countries and which they believed economics contributed in eliminating”.
Okam (2002) explained that Economics is not only concerned with the controls imposed on our lives by political institutions, but also the fostering and improvement of human relations through better understanding of others both at home and abroad. It is also devoted to the basic Social institutions and the relationships of the Nigerian polity to those organized bodies that shaped our behaviour in so many ways. The discipline of Economics has assumed a major dimension in the sphere of curriculum development in Nigeria.
Joof (1991) pointed out that the inability of Geography and History to prepare the citizens for their effective living in an increasingly complex world has been one of the circumstances that induced the introduction of Economics in the school curriculum. Ogundare 1984, Agbole 1985, Adeyoyin and Okam 1988) which agreed that an effective
classroom dispensation of Economics can create a strong basis for inculcating attitudes favorable for sound social development of youths. Also there is a consensus in these findings associated with these studies that, the teaching and learning of economics can contribute to an acquisition and sustenance of desirable attributes characteristic of effective citizenry with a given democratic framework such as Nigeria.
As a Economics teacher and scholar, the researcher observed through experiences for many years that teachers teaching Economics are not well qualified in employing and exploring the method of teaching Economics instruction which has resulted to student’s negative perceptions and poor performance. As such it is against this background, therefore that the researcher was motivated to carry out an investigation in order to find out the impact of teacher quality on the academic performance of senior secondary school students in economics . There is the need for teachers to use various teaching methods aimed at enhancing effective classroom management and control instead of using one single method which will lead to monotony and loss of interest from the learners.
1.2. Statement of the Problem
With the introduction of Economics education in the Nigerian educational system in 1969 at National Curriculum Conference which made economics to be a core course or subject at the primary and Senior Secondary Schools level, Dubey and Barth (1977) conceptualized Economics as a process of education which utilizes the study of human life for the purposes of given children and adult the opportunity to practice and solve individual and societal problems. Therefore Economics as a subject should enable young people to understand their own complex industrial world. Economics is a subject that deals with the comprehensive study of man in relation to his social and physical
environments and he deliberately applied science and technology in order to make the society a better place to live. It is observed that, there are multidimensional or multi-various teaching qualities such as, qualification, in-service training and experiences in teaching Economics affect the student’s academic performance in Senior Secondary Schools in Efon local government.
The problem of teaching and learning of Economics in Senior Secondary Schools is of colossal magnitude which this study attempts to analyze, because the National Policy on Education (NPE, 2004) identified Economics as an integrated subject which students must undergo at Senior Secondary School level to prepare them for social science based courses at Senior Secondary Schools (S.S.S.). However, for the subject to be fully appreciated by the students and to have higher performance in the subject the researcher feels that there is a need for using teacher quality, experience and teachers attendance of workshops, seminars and conferences to measure the performance of Senior Secondary school students in Economics .
The research study aimed to investigate the impact of teacher quality as variables on the academic performance of Senior Secondary School students in economics in Efon local government . The present study sets out to achieve the following objectives:
- To find out whether teachers‟ qualification affects Senior Secondary School academic performance in Efon local government .
- Whether teachers‟ experience in teaching affects Senior Secondary students‟ academic performance in Economics , in Efon local government
- Whether teacher attending workshops, seminars and conferences affect Senior Secondary School Students‟ academic performance in Economics in Efon L.G.A, Ekiti state.
The study attempts to find out answers to the following questions:
- Does teacher’ qualification affect Senior Secondary school student’s academic performance in Economics in Efon?
- Does teacher’s experience affect Senior Secondary school students‟ performance in Economics in Efon?
- Do teacher’s training/attendance of workshops, seminars and conferences affects Senior Secondary school students‟ academic performance in Economics in Efon L.G.A, Ekiti state?
Based on the above research questions, the researcher stated the following as the research hypotheses:
Ho1 There is no significant relationship between the teachers‟ academic qualification and student’s academic performance in Economics in Senior Secondary School students in Efon.
Ho2. There is no significance relationship between the teachers‟ teaching experience and their students‟ academic performance in Economics in Efon.
Ho3 There is no significant relationship between teachers attendance of workshop/seminar/conferences and students‟ academic performance in Economics.
This research is significant in the area of Economics Education for the fact that its findings will contribute immensely to researchers, teachers, curriculum planners and educational administrators. Above all it will serve to improve the teaching of the subject and a better student’s academic performance in economics in Efon L.G.A, Ekiti state.
The finding of the study will help and emphasise to the Economics teachers to further their education to a high standard, that is from NCE level up to PhD level, so that to foster learning and improve students‟ academic performance in the subject. The research will also help to generate more researches as related to teacher quality as they relate to Economics. It will also serve to encourage the researchers to research more of teaching qualities in the improvement of teaching and students academic performance in Economics. It will be of help to curriculum planners in the sense that, the importance of teacher as a teaching variables and the teaching of Economics and improvement in the students‟ academic performance will serve as suggestions so that when they are reviewing the economics curriculum every topic should be accompanied with suggested teaching qualities experienced in employing teachers to teach economics . Finally, it will help the educational administrators in the sense that it will highlight the need for the provision of sending the economics teachers to further their education, and they should be sponsored by the government. It will also serve to highlight the needs for administrators to encourage and support teachers to be attending seminars, conferences, and workshops on economics.
It will also serve to educational inspectors to encourage economics teachers to be using suitable teaching method and suitable instructional materials to be used and their improvisation in the teaching of the subject.
This study is restricted to Government Senior Secondary Schools in Efon and it will only focus on “impact of teacher quality on the academic Performance of Senior Secondary School Students in economics in with particular attention to economics teachers. This scope is cumulatively built upon the fact that the study seeks to justify the academic performance of Senior Secondary school students with regard to the availability of qualified economics teachers, sufficient economics teachers, experience economics teachers and furthering of their education from national certificate in education (NCE) to PhD degree level so that to improved the teaching of the subject in the state.The research covers the period between 2013 and 2014 and was equally delimited to the use of structured questionnaire as the instrument for data collection and a test will be given to the students, and the statistics used for the data analysis were percentage and T- test.
