INTRODUCTION
Secondary education is the type or level of education the learners receive after successful completion of primary education. It comes before the tertiary education for those who wish to further their studies. The Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN, 2013) stated succinctly that the broad goals of secondary education shall be to prepare the individual for useful living within the society and for higher education. In order to achieve these goals, schools are established as a formal agency of education where students learn about the custom, attitude and ways of doing things in the society. Secondary schools are educational institutions where the customs, values, norms and ways of doing things in a society are taught and learnt. They are institutions where the culture of the people is transmitted from one generation to another.
In order to ensure that customs, values and norms are successfully taught and learnt in schools,the Federal Government of Nigeria under the National Policy of Education (NPE) (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2013) recognizeseducation as “an instrument per excellence for effecting national developmentâ€. The NPE also acknowledges the fact that “no educational system may rise above the quality of its teachers†(FRN, 2013:2). This implies that teachers have a very crucial role to play in the achievement of the broad goals of secondary education. Hence, the quality of teachers dictates the level of educational advancement in a country and their job performance,can be greatly affected if they (teachers) are confronted with challenges at work.
Teachers’ challenges refer to factors, -physical or abstract, material or non-material, affecting teachers in the course of carrying out their instructional and administrative duties at school. They are factors that hinder teachers from carrying out their instructional and administrative duties effectively on a daily basis. Some of these challenges as identified by Obineli (2013)include: low access to instructional materials for teaching, unsuitable work conditions, inadequate training and development programmes, non-involvement of teachers in school’s decision making processes and low access to promotion and other compensation packages.Adejumobi and Ojikutu (2013) addedthat teachers’ challenges are multi-faceted and vary with school type and size. They identified some of these multi-faceted challenges as: availability of physical resources for teaching staff; work climate in school with co-staff, principals, students and their parents, class size and work overload, leadership style of principals/school heads and motivational strategies. As identified above, access to instructional materials for teaching, availability of physical resources for teaching staff, access to training and development programmes, involvement of teachers in school’s decision making processes and access to compensation packages, among others constitute challenges to teachers.
Instructional materials are objects or devices which help the teacher to make learning meaningful to the learners. According to Aduwa-Ogiegbaen and Imogie (2005), these materials include but are not limited to audio tape recorders, video tape recorders, slide projectors, opaque projectors, overhead projectors, still pictures, programmed instruction, filmstrips, maps, chart, and graphs. These materialsoffer a variety of learning experiences individually or incombination to meet different teaching and learning experiences. On the other hand, physical resources are material items that enhance teachers’ job performance; making their duties easier to be carried out on a day-to-day basis at school. They include suitable staff room for teaching staff, fans, class registers, log books, stationery, clocks, tables, chairs, computers and its other associated devices. These resources are often found in the staffroom or kept in special rooms like laboratories and used by teachers from time to time while carrying out their instructional and administrative duties. Some of these duties include writing reports, preparing lesson notes and marking of students’ scripts in the general staffroom, science laboratory, Home Economics laboratory or library.
Instructional materials provide teachers with interesting and compelling platforms for conveying information since they motivate learners to learn more. Furthermore, the teacher is assisted in overcoming physical difficulties that could have hindered his/her effective presentation of a given topic in the classroom. To support these materials, tables, chairs, stationery, and fans among other physical resources are also needed in a well-ventilated staffroom to help teachers to prepare their lesson notes, mark students’ scripts, relax and study before or after lesson period. When these resources are not available or inadequate in a school, work becomes burdensome for teachers irrespective of their willingness to carry out their duties or quality of training they could have received.
Access to training and development programme and involvement of teachers in decision making process of the schools are other forms of challenges confronting teachers in schools. Training and development programmesimply means on-the-job professional development. They are programmes that are aimed at enhancing the capacity of teachers to be effective and efficient in their ability to accomplish the predetermined objectives of the school system. For instance, in-service programme represents a veritable medium which aim at correcting certain deficiencies in order to accelerate technological advancement through the educational system. In addition, workshops, conferences, seminars serve as effective measures of dissemination of information concerning academic practice (Amadi & Anaemeotu, 2013). Unfortunately, not every teacher has access to these programmes in their schools and this constitutes another challenge to teachers that seek on the job professional development. This problem is further compounded by teachers’ work load and lack of financial support from schools.
Involvement of teachers in school’s decision making processes and access to compensation packages have also been identified as teachers’ challenges. According to Duze (2011), teachers’ involvement in decision making in the school system has attracted major advocacy in modern day school management and planning. He noted that decision making in schools, usually border on curricular/instructional programmes, transportation/communication systems, staffing, students/staff welfare, students/staff discipline, school plant maintenance, accommodation/health facilities, admission policy, budgeting, purchasing, gaming, and extra-curricular activities, among others. These decisions are often discussed among set of school leaders in the school.
On the other hand, compensation packages entails some basic features that tend to make employees satisfied on their job amongst which include salaries, bonuses, incentives, allowances, promotion, and recognition.According to the American Compensation Association (ACA)(2005), “compensation is the cash and non-cash remuneration provided by an employer for services rendered.†It could be financial rewards which refer to any monetary rewards that go above and beyond basic pay. These rewards are separate and not added into basic salary. Examples of these include financial incentives, bonuses, and recognition. Compensation can be described as direct and indirect compensation received by employees in an organization that serves to achieve employee satisfaction and retention as well as improve performance. Direct compensation includes wages, salaries, bonuses or commission. Indirect compensation includes incentives, medical benefits, reward employees receive in exchange for performing organizational tasks. Compensation is direct and indirect wages. Direct compensation includes wages, salaries, bonuses or commission based on performances, overtime work, holiday premium, while indirect compensation is paid as medical benefits, housing allowance, meal allowance, utility allowances, incentive bonus, shift allowances, hospitalization expenses, out of station allowance, vehicle loan benefits, annual leave allowances, car basic allowances, and so on. Thus, one can rightly refer to compensation as atype of reward that a teacher receives or is given in exchange for his job performance.
Job performance is something a single person does. It refers to an act of accomplishing or executing a given task. It refers to how the various duties associated with an employee’s job description is accomplished or carried out at a given time. Adeyemi (2009) sees teachers’ job performance as something measured through a rating of teacher’s activities in terms of performance in teaching, lesson preparation, lesson presentation, actual teaching and teacher commitment to job, extra-curricular activities, supervision, effective leadership, motivation and morale among others.
Within the school context, Kant (2014) clearly noted that job performance of a teacher covers: effective teaching, lesson note preparation, effective use of scheme of work, effective supervision, monitoring of students’ work and disciplinary ability. He noted that teachers’ job performance could be measured through the annual performance/evaluation report of teachers. The report measures teachers’ activities in terms of performance in teaching, lesson preparation, and lesson presentation, mastery of subject matter, competence, teachers’ commitment to job and extra-curricular activities. Kant (2014) further classified the duties of a teacher into two (2) major sub-groups namely – instructional and administrative duties. The instructional and administrative duties are the tasks a teacher is expected to perform inclass or in school, on behalf of the school authority respectively. The former (instructional duties) include: class teaching, lesson note preparation, students’ note supervision, syllabus interpretation, and classmanagement among others while the latter dimension (administrative duties) include: conducting ofstudents on the assembly ground, managing the school laboratory and workshop, planning the programme for the year; financial management; project development; organization of school co-curricular activities, taking staff meeting agenda and so on. More often than not, decisions on these duties are often taken by principals and selected teachers or the principal only.
Ndu and Anogbov (2007) noted that where teachers are not involved in governance or decision making matter of the school, it results in teachers behaving as if they are strangers within the school environment. Thus, most teachers do not put in their best in giving full sense of dedication to the school activities. They further asserted that where teachers are adequately involved in decision making process, there would be commitment and adequate support for the principal, dedication to the realization of school goal would be easy, apathy and opposition within the school would be minimized and teachers’ job performance would be influenced.
It has been observed that in most schools where instructional and physical resources are inadequate or not provided compensation and support for capacity building through training and development is usually poor. Teachers’ salaries are usually delayed while their allowances and fringe benefits remain unpaid. Such schools employ a few teaching staff and neither give financial or administrative support for teacher seminars, workshops, conferences nor even provide on-job training to enhance teachers’ skills and proficiency. Consequently, teachers that are victims of these challenges do their job haphazardly and poorly carry out their duties at school.
When an employee enjoys the work environment and the various tasks that characterized his/her job situation, it is expected that such a worker would have a strong desire to come to work and perform assigned duties diligently. But the contrary is the case with some teachers on a daily basis in public secondary schools in Edo State as a lot of negative work behaviour such as lateness, absenteeism, lack of zeal in carrying out assigned tasks, sneaking out of school to run private businesses, trading in the school premises are exhibited by them on a daily basis. Observation has shown that many of them avoid classes and stay in the staffroom during their lesson period. They only give their lesson notes (prepared from home) to the class representative to write or dictate for other students to copy in class.
This unwholesome attitude to work suggests that these teachers are greatly confronted withsome challenges responsible for the manner in which they carry out their duties. Furthermore, studies have been undertaken on challenges influencing teacher’s job performance in Nigeria (Okobia, 2011; Adejumobi& Ojikutu, 2013; Obineli, 2013;Apagu & Wakili, 2015). Okobia (2011)investigated teachers’ access to instructional materials and found it to be a significant predictor of teachers’ job performance in Delta State.Adejumobi and Ojikutu (2013) determined the relationship between school climate and teachers job performance in Lagos State and found that leadership style and disciplinary problems constitute the most significant challenges affecting teachers. Apagu and Wakili (2015) and Obineli (2013) similarly conducted their studies on teacher challenges in Anambra and Yobe States and identified: access to teaching facilities, administrative support and compensation as factors affecting teachers’job performance. These studies were all conducted beyond Edo State region, and only investigated one or more teacher challenges within selected schools in one local government. Hence, a knowledge gap exists on teachers’ challenges as correlate of their job performance in Edo State. Therefore, this study is an attempt to fill this gap by investigating teachers’ challenges as correlate of their job performance in publicsecondary schools in North Senatorial District of Edo State.
The purpose of this study is to examine teachers’ challenges as correlate of their job performance in public secondary schools in North Senatorial District of Edo State. Specifically, the study sought to:
This study was guided by the following research questions:
The following research hypotheses were tested in the study:
This study will be of benefit to the Federal and State governments, principals and school heads, teachers and prospective researchers. The study was designed to provide useful information on teacher challenges in secondary schools. Hence,it was hoped that the findings of this study wouldexpose to the Federal and State governments, some challenges affecting teachers on their job at school. Identifying these challenges, would help them develop problem-solving strategies.
To principals and school heads, the findings of this work would help them to ascertain whether or not availability of physical resources, access to instructional materials for teaching, access to training and development programmes and involvement of teachers in school’s decision making processes, affect the job performance of teachers in public secondary schools in North Senatorial District of Edo State. Consequently, this could help them to make amends where necessary as it may apply to their schools.
The findings will also afford public secondary school teachers in North Senatorial District of Edo State, the opportunity of determining the challenges confronting them on their job at school. Consequently, the study could sensitizethem to improvise or seek alternatives (where necessary) for the material and non-material needs affecting their performance, that are not provided in their schools.
Finally, this study is also vital as it would contribute to knowledge and add to the existing studies and literature relating to teacher challenges and their job performance in Edo State. Hence, the study could be of benefit to prospective researchers in future.
The study coveredteachers’ challenges as correlates of their job performance in public secondary schools in North Senatorial District of Edo State. North Senatorial District of Edo State consists of six (6) local government areas, namely: Akoko Edo, Etsako Central, Etsako East, Etsako West, Owan East and Owan West. The study identified teacher challenges and determined their level of job performance in the district. The study focused on the following teacher challenges: availability of physical resources, access to instructional materials for teaching, access to training and development programmes, involvement of teachers in school’s decision making processes and access to compensation packages. Their job performance covered: preparation of lesson note, teaching of students, marking of student’s subject notes, giving students class exercises and assignments, organizing students on the assembly ground and preparation of students’ record. However, in order to determine, whether the findings in the study were consistent with result from previous studies, the study was undertaken among public secondary school teachers in North Senatorial District of Edo State.The study was limited to only teachers in public secondary schools in the district.
The following terms are operationally defined in the study
Teacher challenges: These are factors that affect teachers in the discharge of their duties at school. The challenges in the study are: limited access to availability of physical resources, access to instructional materials for teaching, access to training and development programmes, teachers’ involvement in school’s decision making processes and access to compensation packages.
Instructional materials:Â These are books and non-book materials that help in the teaching of learners in class. They cover: text books, chalkboard/magnetic board, maps, charts, laboratory apparatus for science teachers, kitchen utensils for home Economics teachers and farm implements for agricultural science teachers.
Physical resources: These are infrastructural materials that help teachers to perform their school and class duties on a day-to-day basis. They are namely: tables, chairs, class registers, teachers’ registers, books, stationery, fans, file cabinet, files and computer devices such as computers, printers, and other computer storage devices forteachers use.
Training and development programmes: These are series of planned programmes that help to enhance teacher’s skills and expertise on their subject of specialization. They include: monthly or bi-monthly and in-door discussions for teachers, bi-annual or annual teachers’ seminars, workshops, conferences, specialized trainings and other on-job training programmes
Teachers’ involvement in decision making: Thisis the deliberate involvement of teachers or set of teachers in discussing matters bordering on: the school programme for the year, financial management, development projects, organizing schoolfunctions, co-curricular activities, resource allocation, conflict management, lesson planning and preparation, teacher supervision, syllabus interpretation, staff meeting agenda and introduction of new syllabi
Compensation:These are all forms of monetary and non-monetary rewards that are given to employees in return for their job performance
Job performance: This refers to how well a teacher carries out his/her various duties at school. In this work, teachers’ job performance covers: preparation of lesson note, teaching of students, marking of students notes, giving students class exercises and assignment, organizing of students during the assembly and preparation of students’ records
Level of job performance: This operationally refers to high and low performance of teacher on the following duties: preparation of lesson note, teaching of students, marking of students’ subject notes, giving students class exercises and assignments, conducting of students on the assembly ground and preparation of students’ record as measured on a four point Likert scale of strongly agree to strongly disagree stem. A bench mark of 2.50 rating or higher denotes high job performance while a bench mark below 2.50 represents low performance among teachers.