RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN QUALIFICATIONS, REMUNERATION, TRAINING AND JOB EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHERS IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EDO STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the relationship between qualifications, remuneration, training and job effectiveness of teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State, Nigeria. In carrying out this study therefore, five research questions were raised out of which one was answered descriptively while four hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted the correlational research design. The population of the study was made up of 3321 teachers in public junior secondary schools in Edo State, Nigeria. The multistage sampling technique was adopted for the study. A sample of 332 teachers was used which comprised 10% of the population. However, the principals were also used as respondents for the study to ascertain the job effectiveness of teachers. The copies of the questionnaires were used for the data collection and were titled: Teacher Job Effectiveness Questionnaire (TJEQ) and Teacher Qualification, Remuneration, Training and Job Effectiveness Questionnaire (TQRTJEQ). The instruments for the study were validated by the researchers’ supervisors and two other experts in Education. The test re-test reliability method was adopted for this study and the reliability coefficients of 0.87 and 0.79 were obtained. The data collected were analysed using frequencies, percentages, chi-square and regression analysis. The findings of the study showed that teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State were fairly effective in their job, qualifications had no significant relationship with job effectiveness of teachers, remuneration and training had significant relationship with job effectiveness of teachers and that training mostly predicted job effectiveness of teachers. Based on the findings, it was recommended that Government should ensure that remuneration packages such as leave bonuses, car loans, housing loans, health insurance scheme among others, are provided to teachers in order to enhance their job effectiveness in schools and that in-service training programmes like coaching, mentoring, computer based training, discussion session should be regularly organized by the school administrators for teachers.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

It is a common saying that education is the key to national development and that teachers hold the key to it. The success of the educational system is what the teacher makes out of it. Education is so powerful that it can “heal and kill”, it can build up or tear apart, it can lift up or impoverish. This however would depend on the type of education and particularly on the teacher who is the hub of the education process. It is therefore expected that only the intellectually promising, morally stable and qualified teachers are needed in teaching the learners.

Teachers constitute an important factor in the implementation of the school curriculum. For the goals of the education to be achieved, the role of the teacher can not be underplayed. Teachers as principal agents of change must be effective for the goals of education to be achieved. Effectiveness means producing the desired result. Teacher effectiveness is therefore used broadly, to mean the collection of characteristics, competencies, and behaviours of teachers at all educational levels that enable students to reach desired outcomes, which may include the attainment of specific learning objectives as well as broader goals such as being able to solve problems, think critically, work collaboratively, and become effective citizens.

According to Okolie cited in Oviawe (2016), effective teaching may include high level of creativity in analyzing, synthesizing and presenting knowledge in new and effective ways. It instills in the learners the ability to be analytical, intellectually curious, culturally aware, employable and capable of leadership. Teacher effectiveness involves a set of teaching behaviours which are especially employed in bringing about desired changes in students’ learning. Teacher job effectiveness in this study therefore, relates to how well teachers perform in their duties as outlined in their scheme of service, such as lesson plan/note preparation, lesson presentation, punctuality and regularity at lessons, lesson evaluation, classroom management, marking of students’ classroom work, among others. The job effectiveness of teachers could be measured against their routine job roles in schools. Hence, teacher job effectiveness could be said to mean doing the right thing at the appropriate time in terms of designed job roles.

There are identifiable characteristics of teachers that are predictive of their success in the classroom. Wayne & Young (2003) identified teachers’ characteristics that are predictive of their success in the classroom. These include among others, qualifications, remuneration, good conditions of service, adequate and quality infrastructure, instructional materials, training, equipped libraries and laboratories. However, this study only considered qualifications, training and remuneration as predictors of teacher job effectiveness.

One of the identifiable characteristics of teacher job effectiveness is qualification of teachers. Improving teacher quality is at the forefront of concern among education stakeholders and policy makers. The qualification of teachers is a key predictor of the overall outcome of the educational system. The quality of education of a nation to a large extent is determined by the quality of her teachers. The academic qualifications of teachers in secondary schools remain a priority concern to administrators because it determines their effectiveness (Abe & Adu, 2013). The success or failure of any nation depends largely on the quality of its educational system. This in turn depends on the quality of her teachers.

Qualification is most often viewed from two perspectives, academic qualification and professional qualification. Academically qualified teachers refer to those that are not certificated in education. Meanwhile, it is expected that anybody going into the teaching profession should have a qualification in education. Teachers with such qualifications as NCE, B.Ed,  B.Sc/B.A. Ed, M.Ed etc could therefore be regarded as professionally qualified teachers.

Another identifiable characteristic that could predict the job effectiveness of teachers is training. In order to ensure there is effectiveness in the system, teachers have to undergo training from time to time. Teaching as a profession demands continuous development of knowledge and ability through training programmes. Staff training has been accepted as an effective method of increasing the knowledge and skills of teachers in order to enable them teach more effectively. According to Lawal (2004), staff training programmes for teachers are important aspects of education process that deals with the art of acquiring skills in the teaching profession. They are essential practices that enhance subject mastery, teaching methodology and classroom management.

The objective of training is that it ensures the promotion of professional growth, helps to improve pedagogical skills, keeps teachers abreast with new knowledge, meets particular needs, such as curriculum development and orientation, helps in leadership responsibility, helps new teachers to adjust to teaching field, helps to promote mutual respect among teachers and recognizes the need for modern teaching methods (Madumere-Obike, 2007). Training programme in an organisation is a process by which people are taught with skills and equipped with the necessary knowledge or attitude to enable them to carry out their responsibilities to the required standard in the present job and to undertake greater and more demanding roles for effective job performance.

Organisations are facing many challenges which are related to economic needs, social needs and technological needs. The world has gone digital and technology is fast growing and it is expected that every sector of the economy especially education sub-sector key into this technological age. As such, training programme plays an important part in overcoming these challenges and in catering for the needs of the education sector as an organisation. The need for training in education, particularly for teachers, is important because it helps to improve the quality of the education system. Such training programmes include workshops, conferences, seminars, induction and orientation for new staff, refresher courses and so on. Training provided for serving teachers according to Ogunu and Omoike (2006) include job rotation, coaching, mentoring, formal lectures, visit or tours, and computer based training which are classified as on-the-job training while conferences, seminars, workshops and additional formal training in Colleges and Universities especially the sandwich programme undertaken by teachers during the holidays are regarded as off-the-job training. The effectiveness of teachers to a large extent, could be enhanced by the training received while on the job because such training keep them updated with current global trends in education.

One of the characteristics that could also predict teacher job effectiveness is remuneration. Remuneration of teachers is an important aspect of the school life as it often time determines the motivational behaviour of teachers. Teachers’ remuneration covers such aspects as salaries, wages, allowances, fringe benefits, leave benefits among others. Although, teachers are seen as the manufacturers in the education sector, the live wire of any educational institution and the most important catalyst for man’s intellectual development, yet their welfare and condition of service in the society are to some extent neglected. The title, ‘Teachers’, in the colonial days can open a lot of doors to the bearer (Edem cited in Egwu, 2015). Egwu explained that though the attention to the teaching job was never drawn by monetary involvement or teachers being classified as the rich, but teachers in the past were not wallowing in poverty in the society, since they were thankfully appreciated by their employers and voluntary organisations.

Unfortunately, the teaching profession which used to be prestigious is presently seen by many teachers as stepping stone to other lucrative jobs. Observation shows that the sudden change in the economy of Nigeria as a result of the fall in oil revenue created financial constraints in every sector especially in education. Owing to the short fall in the prices of oil which is the main source of revenue for Nigeria, education sector has continued to receive poor allocation from the federal government annual budget. As a result of this, education sector has continued to dwindle, resulting to the neglect of teachers especially in the regular and prompt payment of salaries and the provision of adequate infrastructure.

Owing to these ugly situations, teachers abandon their official duties to engage in non-school activities in order to make ends meet; and most often, embark on strike arising from non payments of salaries, fringe benefits and other entitlements. It is only believed that to make the teachers to be effective in schools, there may be need to reverse this situation by encouraging teachers through better salaries paid as and when due, and enhanced welfare conditions such as car loans, housing loan scheme, health insurance, among others. 

It is often believed that money helps to stimulate job efforts. This is particularly true of most of the developing countries where physiological needs of most workers are yet to be satisfied. Money is instrumental in achieving workers’ desired needs and in obtaining higher order needs such as recognition in the society and in buying essential and luxury goods and services that make for comfortable life. One major reason people work is to earn income in monetary terms. Salaries tend to have a large motivating effect on workers, especially teachers. It is not the increase in salary that only matters but also its prompt and regular payment.

This is why Fabiyi cited in Akande (2014) concluded that, of all conditions of service, salary is the best predictor of teacher’s performance and productivity. The researcher’s study expressed that job that offered higher salary would attract more and better qualified personnel than any other that offered a lower pay. It further added that salaries of teachers were inadequate to the extent that it became difficult for them to meet the basic necessities of life. Teachers’ salaries when compared with other employees with the same qualifications and experience in other sectors of the economy such as Banking and Health can be described as inadequate. In Edo State for instance, the salary of secondary school teachers is relatively low compared with professionals in other sectors of the economy such as financial institutions and oil and gas. Although the State Government recently on 1^st of May, 2016 announced increment in salary of workers from N18, 000 to N25, 000 minimum wage, the impact on teachers, may not be significant taking into cognizance the rate of increase in prices of goods and services emanating from hike in pump price of petrol and exchange rate of Dollar to Naira. To this end, teacher qualification, training and remuneration are considered key variables that could determine teacher effectiveness in secondary schools.

The level of teacher job effectiveness in secondary schools is important to this study. The state of readiness of teachers in discharging their assigned duties needs to be measured to ascertain their level of effectiveness that is, whether they are very effective, averagely effective, fairly effective or not effective through proper assessment by the school principals. It is often widely acclaimed by stakeholders of the education sector that teachers are not performing to expectation in their assigned roles of lesson plan and note preparation, lesson evaluation, punctuality and regularity at lessons, examination invigilation, marking of students’ examination scripts, completion of scheme of work, among others. Whether teachers are effective in these tasks are issues of serious concern to the researcher. The principals as the supervisors are to oversee the activities of teachers and other workers in the school system to ensure that they conform to the generally accepted principles and practices of the systems especially in the discharge of assigned tasks. As such, principals’ are used to measure the level of teachers’ job effectiveness in schools. It was on this note that this study investigated the relationship between qualifications, remunerations, training and job effectiveness of teachers.

Statement of the Problem

The issue of low quality products from the educational sector has continued to be a source of worries to stakeholders in education over the years. It is observed that many secondary school products in Nigeria are poor in reading, writing, computational and vocational skills. Academic performance of students over the years seems to be low both in internal and external examinations and it is believed that effective utilisation of teachers influences academic performance.  Many teachers in secondary schools seem to show lukewarm attitude to teaching. Some of them may only attend to the students during the classroom teaching session and may not have extra time to advise and counsel the students on school related issues and other personal and emotional needs that could interfere with their education. Some could give assignments which may never be marked while others give notes to students to copy with or without explanations. All these practices could be linked to the effectiveness of teachers. The end result of this could be half-baked secondary school graduates that may not be able to further their educational pursuit, or even be employable because they could lack the requisite knowledge and skill to function in the labour market.

Remuneration of teachers which covers salaries, wages, allowances, leave bonuses, holidays and tours, fringe benefits among others serve as motivation to teachers. However, the welfare and condition of service of teachers in the society are to some extent neglected. This is why Akande (2014) reported in a finding that salaries are the best predictor of teachers’ job effectiveness. Researchers like Osibanjo, Adeniji, Falola and Heirsmac (2014) and Adu, Akinloye and Adu (2015) found that proper remuneration of staff acts as motivating factor to their job performance and effectiveness. When these are absent, there is the likelihood that job effectiveness of teachers could be low. It is however observed that teachers are not satisfied with the level of remuneration received at the secondary school level most especially in the areas of salaries and fringe benefits when compared to staff in other sectors of the economy with same or similar qualifications. This could therefore constitute a source of dissatisfaction which could lead to low morale and invariably low effectiveness.

It is worrisome that the teaching profession which used to be prestigious is presently seen by many teachers as stepping stone to other lucrative jobs. Observation shows that the sudden change in the economy of Nigeria as a result of the fall in oil revenue created financial constraints in every sector especially education. As a result of this, education sector has continued to receive poor allocation, resulting to the neglect of teachers especially in the regular and prompt payment of salaries and the provision of adequate infrastructure. For instance, only 7.92%, 7.40% and 7.04% of the total national budget were allocated to education in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively. Owing to these ugly situations, teachers could abandon their official duties to engage in non-school activities in order to make ends meet; or embark on strike arising from non payments of salaries, fringe benefits and other entitlements.  

Teachers in secondary schools are expected to perform their assigned duties and they should do so at the right time. Whether the teachers are actually effective in the performance of their assigned duties is a fundamental issue that puzzles the minds of many researchers. The job effectiveness of teachers over time is questioned by many stakeholders of the education sector due to the poor quality of secondary school graduates produced yearly. For teachers to be seen as effective, it must be reflected in the overall output of the learners. In this case, it could be questioned if teachers effectiveness is influenced by their qualifications, remuneration and training. Hence, a knowledge gap exists. It was this gap in knowledge this study sought to fill.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between qualification, remuneration, training and job effectiveness of teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to:

1. ascertain the level of job effectiveness of teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State;
2. find out if any relationship exists between qualification and job effectiveness of teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State;
3. find out if any relationship exists between remuneration and job effectiveness of teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State;
4. ascertain if any relationship exists between training and job effectiveness of teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State;
5. find out which of the variables among qualification, remuneration and training most significantly predict job effectiveness of teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State.

Research Questions

The following research questions were raised to guide the study.

1. What is the level of job effectiveness of teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State?
2. Is there any relationship between qualification and job effectiveness of teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State?
3. Is there any relationship between remuneration and job effectiveness of teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State?
4. Is there any relationship between training and job effectiveness of teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State?
5. Which of the three variables of qualifications, training and remuneration most significantly predict job effectiveness of teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State?

Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance.

1. There is no significant relationship between qualification and job effectiveness of teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State.
2. There is no significant relationship between remuneration and job effectiveness of teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State.
3. There is no significant relationship between training and job effectiveness of teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State.
4. Qualification, remuneration and training do not significantly predict job effectiveness of teachers in public secondary schools in Edo State on equal basis.

Significance of the Study

The study would be of benefit to policy makers in education, teachers, principals, students and the public. The finding of this study would be of benefit to policy makers in education because they could routinely access the qualification and level of job effectiveness of teachers and on the basis of their discovery, plan in-service training programmes for teachers to enhance their job effectiveness. This would in no doubt help to improve on the quality of the education sector. They would also see the need to inform the government of the dissatisfaction of the present status of teachers in terms of salaries and other fringe benefits so that proper packages can be arranged for them to enhance their motivation.

The teachers would benefit from the finding of this study by being provided with in-service training programmes to help them to upgrade themselves in the modern methods of teaching; in this way, their job effectiveness may be enhanced. Better pay gives motivation and when teachers are well remunerated, they might have the inner satisfaction which might increase their job effectiveness in schools. This could lead to improved instructional practices which might invariably lead to improved students’ academic performance in schools. When students’ academic performance is improved, there is the likelihood that the goals of the education system could be realized.

The principals of schools would equally benefit from the findings of this study because having teachers with better salaries and adequate training; there is the likelihood of having well motivated and dedicated staff to work with. This would help ease the instructional supervisory task of the school administrators (principals) in secondary schools. The public would also benefit from the finding of this study as more qualified graduates might be released into the society to be engaged into the labour force. This would go a long way in boosting the economic development of the country because the economy relies on the education sector for its development.

Scope of the Study

The content of this study covered teacher qualifications, remuneration and training in relations to teacher job effectiveness in public junior secondary schools in Edo State. Teacher effectiveness covers among others, teachers’ commitment to duties of lesson plan/note preparation, lesson presentation, marking of students’ register, preparation and administration of test/examination and marking of scripts and classroom management. The study was limited to teachers of public junior secondary schools in Edo State.

Operational Definition of Terms

The following terms are defined as used in this study.

Effectiveness: This simply means doing the right thing. It also means producing the right result with available resources to the organization. Effectiveness is a measure of the appropriateness of the goals an organization is pursuing and the degree to which the organization achieves those goals. Meanwhile, efficiency is the extent to which an organization minimizes amount of input resources (labour, materials and time) available to it to produce a given output of goods. However, performance is the measure of how effective and efficient resources are put to use to achieve organizational goals.

Job Effectiveness: This is concerned with the commitment of teachers to their duties, producing actual results in terms of their job roles or duties. Job effectiveness was measured on four point scale of very effective, averagely effective, fairly effective and not effective.

Teachers’ Qualifications: Teachers’ qualification as used in this study refers to both academic and professional qualifications. Teachers with academic qualification refer to those who have no qualification in education. Such academic qualifications include OND, HND, B.Sc, B.A, PGD, M.Sc, LLB, LLM, Ph.D etc. Teachers with professional qualification are those with qualifications in education such as NCE, B.Ed, B.Sc Ed, B.A. Ed, PGDE, M.Ed, and Ph.D in education.

Teacher Remuneration: This is the payment or rewards for services rendered to teachers by their employers (government). It comprises salaries and fringe benefits.

Teacher Training: This is related to the training acquired by teachers after they have been employed into the teaching profession. It comprises on-the-job training and off-the-job training. It constitutes teacher professional development.

On-the-Job Training:   This is related to training programmes made available to teachers to learn a specific skill to improve on practice. They include among others job rotation, coaching, mentoring, formal lectures, visit or tours, and computer based training. They are usually in-house. In this study, the following are listed as on-the-job training: job rotation, mentoring, computer based training, formal lectures and coaching among others.

Off-the-Job Training: Off-the-job training on the other hand is the training provided outside the normal working hours that usually takes place in training schools, conferences, seminars, workshops and additional formal training in colleges and Universities especially the Sandwich programme undertaken by teachers during the holidays. These training are provided for teachers to learn specific skills.

Tagged with: Effectiveness, Job Effectiveness, Off-the-Job Training, On-the-Job Training, Teacher Remuneration, Teacher Training, Teachers’ Qualifications