CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Education is a vital human activity. It enables fashion and model persons in any society to perform effectively in their environment. The objective of education, according to Boit, Njoki, and Chang'ach (2022), is to empower citizens to transform their society and reduce inequity. Secondary education, in particular, is a crucial area for national and individual growth. It is critical in developing a country's human resource base beyond elementary education (Achoka & Odebero, 2021). The teacher is an important knowledge facilitator and plays an important part in nation formation. Teaching is a noble job, and teachers have a great impact on society. A teacher's teaching acts are intended to inspire confidence in the young so that they can learn relevant knowledge not only as students but also throughout their lives. The teacher's responsibility is thus to show pupils what to study, to push them by setting high standards and to critique in order to encourage greater success, to assist in overcoming blind spots, and to evaluate each student's development in terms of valid objectives. As a result, in order to be effective in their work, instructors must employ a variety of teaching tactics.

The teacher is the central figure in any educational system. Teachers, in fact, constitute a nation's strength. Teachers' impact remains strong, and it is impossible to avoid them in the process of teaching and learning. The value of teachers is acknowledged all throughout the world (Panda & Mohanty, 2019). Good instructors are critical to the efficient operation of the educational system and to the enhancement of the learning process's quality. Teachers add perceptual and cognitive performance style qualities to their methods of responding to the environment. As a result, a person is more likely to act in a way that makes the most use of his abilities. Similarly, a teacher's good attitude toward teaching and greater degree of aspiration impact his favorable assessment of the surroundings.

A comprehensive measure of aptitude, topic knowledge, teaching approach, and so on should be included in a successful teacher development plan in order to cultivate required abilities and attitudes among potential instructors. Aptitude, attitude, subject mastery, teaching methodology, personal characteristics, the classroom environment, general mental ability, personality, relations with students, preparation and planning, effectiveness in presenting subject matters, relations with other staff, self improvement, relations with parents and community, poise, intellect, teaching techniques, interactions with students. Esan (2020) assessed instructors' performance in four areas of teaching behavior: intelligence, personality, teaching approaches, and engagement with students.

Riaz (2021) assessed instructors' performance based on characteristics such as demonstrated teaching competency, motivating abilities, teachers' attitudes toward students, and grading fairness. Aptitude refers to a potential rather than an achievement. Aptitudes are commonly used to describe special talents such as intellectual or athletic ability. According to Akiri and Ugborugbo (2019), there is a considerable association between instructors' educational qualifications and work performance. Years of experience, educational qualification, skills, economic circumstances, subject mastery, teachers' quality, teachers' classroom management, development, and training, according to Esan (2021), are teacher-related aspects affecting work performance. Swartz, White, and Patterson (2021) evaluated instructors' effectiveness in five teaching functions: instructional presentations, instructional monitoring, instructional feedback, instructional time management, and student behavior management. Ferris, Bergin, and Wayne (2021) proposed seven performance dimensions for teachers' job performance. These included preparation and planning, subject matter effectiveness, composure, relationships with students, self-improvement, relationships with other staff, and relationships with parents and the community.

Teachers' performance is primarily determined by teacher characteristics such as knowledge base, sense of responsibility, and inquisitiveness; student characteristics such as opportunity to learn and academic work; teaching factors such as lesson structure and communication; learning aspects such as involvement and success; and classroom phenomena such as environment and climate, as well as organization and management. If teachers pay attention to these aspects, their performance will improve to an optimal level (Rao & Kumar, 2021). However, the proxies used by  to assess teacher quality have been terribly insufficient. Teacher performance evaluations are unrelated to admission and exit examination scores, years of experience, graduate degrees, and teaching qualifications. Leigh and Mead (2020) clearly illustrate that the quality of teaching has steadily declined worldwide, as well as that the abilities of instructors have declined owing to outmoded preparation on the side of the teacher and stagnant reward schemes by educational institution administration.

The teaching profession is experiencing issues with teacher performance. Since independence, the government has consistently spent considerable sections of its budget into education and training in order to improve the relevance and quality of labor force skills. The government has voiced concern about the quality of instructors; progress toward educational attainment has not been judged just in numeric terms, but has also been stated in terms of the quality of education founded (Esan, 2021). David (2011) defined teaching as the performance of the teachers, the performance of the students, and effective classroom discipline. He went on to add that teaching is impacted by instructors' smart use of psychological methods in making pupils want to study. A significant aspect is the teacher's attitude toward teaching and a teacher’s  capacity to establish a pleasant, welcoming atmosphere in the classroom is the key characteristic of a competent teacher. He or she must be able to educate with conviction. He must remove any impediment to successful instruction. The current study is crucial because it will give a foundation for improving the teaching and learning process. If we could control the factors that influence secondary school teachers' performance, such as teachers' qualifications, experience, economic status, and mode of instruction, the quality of education and teaching learning process as a whole would improve, as would teachers' job performance at all levels.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

No educational institution can be better than its quality of teaching. One of the purposes of teacher education is to produce highly motivated, conscientious, and effective instructors for all levels of schooling. However, the modern teacher is likely to lack sufficient professional training, which may have a detrimental influence on his or her employment. When the Universal Basic Education (UBE) program was implemented, teacher trainees and auxiliary instructors were chosen at random from a pool of market women, housewives, small traders, and disgruntled job seekers. As a result, many inappropriate persons with no basic talent, enthusiasm, or desire for teaching were discovered in teaching and teacher training institutes. As a result, even with the finest preparation, such unmotivated persons should not be expected to become better instructors. As a result, teacher training institutes produced ill-trained and ill-equipped instructors who were rushed into schools to teach.

Poor academic performance of pupils in Nigeria has been connected to bad teacher performance in terms of completing the teaching task, a negative attitude toward work, and poor teaching practices (Ofoegbu, 2020). Other elements that may influence instructors' work effectiveness include the relationship between the students and the teacher, as well as the teachers' teaching experience and credentials. The current conditions would undoubtedly have an impact on instructional quality in public schools, which may translate to either high or bad academic achievement, attitude, and values among secondary school pupils. The observation encouraged the researcher to investigate the link between teacher variables such as credentials, experience, economic position, and manner of teaching as correlates to job performance in Secondary Schools.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objective of this study is to investigate teacher related factor as a correlates of teachers’ job performance in Public Secondary Schools. This study sets to achieve the following objectives:

i.          To establish if there is a link between teacher credentials and work performance.

ii.        To determine if instructors' experience influences their work performance.

iii.      To ascertain the connection between teachers' economic position and work effectiveness.

iv.      To explore the relationship between instructors' modes of instruction and job performance.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following questions are answered in this study:

i.          Does teachers’ qualifications have effect on job performance  in secondary schools?

ii.        Does  instructors' experience influences their work performance in secondary schools?

iii.      Does any relationship exist between teachers' economic position and work effectiveness?

iv.      Does teacher's mode of instruction affect job performance in secondary schools?

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study will be of significant importance to a number of people. Firstly, it will be of significant benefit to teachers by enumerating carefully, the factors that contribute to their job performance, while discharging their duties. The study will enable teachers to seek means of being more goals oriented in the discharge of their duties. It will be of great importance to the student whose purpose of study will help address the confronting problems of low academic performance. The study will also make students to focus more attention on their academics. It will be of tremendous benefits to parents who have by no means contributed their own quota to neither the advancement of our educational system nor have added to the fallen standard of our educational system. Finally, it will be of great importance to all stakeholders and policy makers who have been relentlessly working to ensure that our educational system would not crumble in the end.

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