DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AND SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF THE TEACHING PROFESSION
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DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AND SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF THE TEACHING PROFESSION
ABSTRACT
In Yenagoa LGA, Bayelsa State, Nigeria, the study aimed to learn how teachers felt about demographic issues influencing their careers as teachers. The study’s goals included compensation, age, head teachers’ levels of financial management training, and gender.
Two hundred and seventy one head teachers and teachers from all secondary schools in the Yenagoa LGA made up the study’s target population. The population of teachers and head teachers was chosen using a straightforward random selection procedure.
For the teachers and head teachers, the sample size was 50% of the total population. The sample size was comprised of 120 instructors, 15 head teachers, and 1 Quality Assurance and Standards Officer.
The descriptive survey design was used for the investigation. Utilising questionnaires and interview schedules, data was gathered. After being analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics, the data was then presented using statistical means.
The outcomes were put through a series of statistical tests, including chi-square and spearman rank correlation order tests. The survey discovered that the teachers thought their pay was insufficient and hindered their ability to practise their profession.
The teachers shared the opinion that the students’ age did not meet the requirements for ensuring their maximum output. Teachers felt that the head teachers’ financial management training was extremely insufficient, which was an issue that seriously hampered their ability to pursue careers as teachers.
All respondents thought there were a lot of women in the LGA. They claimed that the teachers’ ability to effectively provide each student with individualised attention was severely limited by the gender, which they claimed stretched the teachers’ abilities to the limit.
The study came to the conclusion that the large classes, headteachers’ lack of training, teachers’ advancing age, and low pay levels all negatively impacted teachers’ ability to carry out their mandates and obligations as teachers in a professional manner.
The report advised that the teachers’ pay and benefits be evaluated, and that more creative strategies aimed at advancing their teaching careers be used, such as implementing performance rewards for top students. In order to address deficiencies and deficits, the research advised including the private sector in facility upgrades.
Only after completing a required course on financial management and being subjected to ongoing learning via refresher courses may headteachers be confirmed to their jobs.
To ensure that the students receive the most from the educational institutions, the gender issue should be addressed by the exchequer by paying for staffing shortages and facility deficiencies.
FIRST CHAPTER INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Over the past few decades, educational research has increasingly supported the notion that both teachers and schools have an impact (Askew, Rhodes, Brown, William & Johnson, 1997).
Teacher effectiveness affects students’ accomplishment and is one of the key effects on student advancement over time, according to studies employing big databases and multilevel modelling techniques (Muijs & Reynolds, 2000).
Effective teaching is measured by how well students perform academically on exams, punctuality at school and in class, providing extra lessons to students,
and contributing to the advancement of the school by participating in extracurricular activities like sports, students’ discipline, and committee assignments as may be assigned by the principal (Staiger & Rockoff, 2010).
Principals desire to collaborate with and work through instructors that are cooperative, accountable, and productive since they are primarily focused on getting outcomes (Moore & Esselman, 1992).
However, research indicates that there are some elements that may affect instructors and limit their ability to perform at their best (Coombe, 2002).
These include the actions of instructors, their sense of self-worth and beliefs, their subject-matter expertise and attitude, their working environments, governmental regulations, sociopolitical variables, their workload, organisational issues, and cultural elements.
Teachers are a key player in the educational process in American schools, according to Machin and McNally (2008), and their productivity and efficacy can change based on the incentives they get. Merit pay suggestions have lately been explored in various nations and implemented in some of them.
Pay structure has the potential to be a significant incentive tool in the hands of education policy makers. Increased teacher assessment proponents contend that present procedures keep too many inept or inefficient teachers on the job.
But the reverse issue, which lowers experience gains and raises personnel management expenses, plagues many schools: high teacher turnover. According to Machin and McNally (2008), roughly 40% of New York City teachers resign after three years on the job.
The demands of the teaching profession are rising. But in comparison to other college graduates, its average weekly wage has decreased recently.
Massive budget cuts have exacerbated working conditions and resulted in layoffs. In several school LGAs in Texas, teachers are currently given janitorial duties.
Ineffective teaching practises among teachers have been closely correlated with their attitudes and opinions of their work. Due to self-efficacy concerns that reduced their confidence levels, there have been instances of chronically unsuccessful teachers in the United States of America (Chait, 2010).
As performance-based appraisals are uncommon in the lower grades of academic domains, chronically incompetent teachers present a challenge to the education sector, and employment rules present an obstacle to their removal from the system.
Even after a reassessment of the compensation rates, the impacted teachers’ chronic ineffectiveness continued. Teacher salary has always been correlated with effectiveness.
The support and reinforcement of qualities directed towards increased teacher performance are supported by teacher remuneration, which has been proven to be a powerful motivational factor. According to Jerald (2009), the main draw for many instructors to the profession is the pay.
Teachers are always motivated to work hard and deliver the anticipated performance by feelings of affection for the tasks at hand and the realisation that recompense matches one’s production. This fosters a sense of diligence and improves productivity at work.
The teacher becomes unmotivated and ineffective at work when he feels like he is juggling multiple balls at once while managing multiple class activities and other obligations that are not in line with the compensation levels.
It is frequently noted that concerns about educator attrition and turnover are a global phenomena (Gurney, 2007). Attrition among teachers is described as a national crisis in Britain.
According to Santiago (2001), the issue has gotten worse in Sweden, Germany, and New Zealand. There are several reports of teacher shortages due to turnover across the USA’s many states (Markley, 2001).
According to the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (1999), Ontario and Australia are experiencing teacher shortages as a result of teacher attrition. The pay is the key factor in teacher attrition.
Muijs and Reynolds (2000) stated that high female teacher turnover causes overwork among the surviving teachers, which has an impact on their profession.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic is primarily linked to the phenomena of teacher turnover in the majority of African nations, particularly in sub-Saharan nations like Zambia, Nigeria, South Africa, Nigeria, and the Central African Republic (Coombe, 2002).
According to the President of the Gambian Teachers’ Union, a significant number of teachers are leaving the field due to, among other economic factors,
a lack of acceptable pay, benefits, housing, and advancement opportunities (Kamara, 2002). The school administration, inadequate resources, and poverty are the key factors affecting teachers’ effectiveness in these areas.
Teachers are overworked, especially when secondary education was made free. According to Mukumbira (2001), Zimbabwe lost roughly 2 000 freshly trained teachers in 2000, some of whom may have sought out better opportunities elsewhere. Teacher pay were the primary factor in the same.
The teacher shortage in Nigeria has gotten worse with the rise in student enrollment as a result of the Free Secondary Education because the government stopped supply-driven teacher recruitment in 1997 and started replacing just those lost to natural attrition in 2001 (UNESCO, 2003).
UNESCO (2005) mentions the need for even more complicated teaching skills, poor pay, and an ageing teaching workforce that may retire. The effectiveness of the teachers has been impacted by such circumstances.
Working conditions are cited by Duffrin (1999) as the cause of high turnover, particularly among instructors who leave the profession within the first five years of entering it.
According to Chaika (2002), factors contributing to teachers’ inefficiency include their too-young age, unfavourable working conditions, bad school administration, and a widening pay disparity between them and other college graduates.
According to Borsuk (2001), when there aren’t enough instructors remaining, they end up with too much free time, which has an impact on their efficacy and profession.
Academic performance in Bayelsa’s secondary schools has been declining over time, and it has been trending downhill since 2009 (D.E.O., 2013). Yenagoa LGA has the most decline in academic performance when compared to the other LGAs in Bayelsa.
The issue of teacher effectiveness has occupied educational research for several decades, with researchers looking at such factors as school factors, environmental factors, motivational factors, and cultural factors (Chaika, 2000; Eshitemi2005; Irumbi, 1990; Kamara, 2002; Kirembu, 1991; Matovu, 2001). Effective teachers produce results, and this is not the case in Yenagoa LGA.
Therefore, the focus of this study will be the demographic determinants affecting teachers’ careers in particular in Yenagoa LGA, Bayelsa State.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Learners may perform poorly academically as a result of ineffective teachers. According to Darling-Hammond (2000), there are a variety of factors that influence teachers’ efficacy, which often varies.
According to Mukumbira’s (2001) report, remuneration for teachers are typically low and below the poverty level or cost of living in the developing countries. Additionally, service conditions are subpar, and many schools lack suitable teacher housing (Mukumbira, 2001).
Even worse is the situation for untrained teachers, who often make between 40 and 60 percent of the lowest paid qualified teacher’s income.
The ineffectiveness of instructors and the high rate of brain drain are both a result of the low pay and subpar working conditions. Due to the challenging economic climate, teachers are leaving their profession in search of better opportunities, according to Kamara (2002).
Due to the substantial gender gap, especially with Free Secondary Education, the remaining instructors are overworked.
Their effectiveness is impacted by this. Additionally, head teachers’ assistance in providing resources and facilities may have an impact on how well instructors work.
The effectiveness of teachers is a strong predictor of increases in student success, according to research. Therefore, it is crucial to conduct research on the demographic aspects affecting teachers’ careers in Yenagoa LGA, Bayelsa State.
The study’s objectives
This study’s goal is to look into the demographic characteristics that affect teachers’ careers in Yenagoa LGA, Bayelsa State.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
To ascertain how secondary school teachers’ performance is impacted by compensation
To determine how teachers’ ages affect their efficacy in secondary schools
To determine the degree to which head teachers’ financial management training has an impact on secondary school teachers’ performance
To ascertain how gender impacts secondary school teachers’ effectiveness
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
How does teacher effectiveness in secondary schools differ depending on pay?
Which age has an impact on a secondary school teacher’s effectiveness?
How much does a head teacher’s level of financial management training affect the efficacy of the teachers in secondary schools?
How does a teacher’s gender impact their efficacy in secondary schools?
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study’s findings may advance our understanding of the demographic aspects that affect teachers’ careers. As a result, the Ministry of Education may discover other elements that affect teachers’ efficacy and seek to address them. This could assist in establishing policies that will benefit the entire education industry.
The head teachers would have a better understanding of the causes of their teachers’ ineffectiveness, which would provide the basis for what they could do to assist the teachers and therefore increase their effectiveness.
Teachers could be reminded of things that reduce their effectiveness and asked what they think should be done to improve it. The learner’s performance may ultimately benefit from this, and the academic standards may rise as a result.
The study may also assist the students because it will help teachers become more successful, which will enhance their ability to teach. This work could be used by other curious scholars for additional study.
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The respondents’ attitudes were beyond of our control. The researcher reassured the participants, nevertheless, that their identities would be kept secret. In order to alter the respondents’ perception of the study, the researcher additionally emphasised to them why it was crucial to conduct the survey. This raised the study’s credibility and response rates.
DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The study was conducted in Bayelsa State’s Yenagoa LGA. Because public school curriculum was more uniform than that at private schools, it was likewise restricted to public secondary schools. The respondents of the study were primarily teachers, head teachers, and the LGA Assurance Officer.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Gender describes how many students there are in relation to how many teachers there are and how many resources are available.
Demographic factors are the statistical traits of human populations (like age or wealth), which are used particularly to pinpoint markets experiencing a change in the state’s.
Effectiveness: student performance serves as a gauge for instructor performance.
Efficiency is the measurement of how much can be accomplished with the same amount of resources (money, time, and effort) as what teachers actually generate.
Salary: the amount of money that instructors’ employers pay them.
A scenario in which there is a shortage of instructors is known as a teacher shortage.
ORGANIZATION OF RESEARCH
There are five chapters in this work. The backdrop of the study, problem statement, aims, research questions, significance, constraints, delimitations, assumptions, and definition of words are all covered in the first chapter, “Introduction.” The second chapter examines earlier research on this subject.
It is made up of the theoretical framework, conceptual framework, a description of the chapter, and previous research on the factors impacting teacher productivity. The study design that will be used is highlighted in the third chapter.
The intended audience, sample size and sampling techniques, data collection tools, validity and reliability, data analysis, and research ethics are also covered.
The topics of data analysis, interpretation, presentation, and summary are covered in Chapter 4. Summary, discussion, conclusion, recommendations, and ideas for additional research make up Chapter 5.
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