THE EFFECTS OF TEACHERS INSTABILITY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF PUPILS IN PRIVATE PRIMARY SCHOOL

1.1 Introduction

Teachers turn over affects students learning. There are many reasons to think it would, as an institution memory is lost and resources are spent on the hiring process. Thus, teachers’ instability affects the quality of care that will be given to pupils (Matthew, 2012). Teachers' effectiveness has been theorized as important to students performance (Darling Hammond, 2010), According to Darling Hammond effective teachers have improved subject matters knowledge, are capable of designing and deliver instruction, can better manage and evaluate classrooms and can better support student learning. Other scholar such as Clotfelter et al., (2007) suggested that effective teacher use new teaching strategies pay more attention to student learning and use assessment to change their practice.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Children hold the candle for the bright future and development of a given state and success in their studies provides the backbone to this effect. However, this can only be possible if they are provided with sufficient resources such as textbooks, laboratory, equipment, teaching staff and other services. But of all these, human resources is the most important as far as the development of the child is concerned.(Jackson, 2010) agrees with this by arguing that when the right quantity and quality of human resources is brought together, it can manipulate other resources toward realizing the organizational goals and objectives. It has long being argued and established that the quality and stability of human resources has a high correlation with the level and quality of organizational performance and productivity. If this were the case, then every school should strive to attract and retain the best quality and right quality teachers.

A school is an avenue through which many children’s future events and opportunities can be realized, unfortunately, it is the teaching profession that loses thousands of dedicated members each year, putting those most vulnerable children at a risk of failing to realize opportunities offered to them through quality education. The loss of a particular care giver with whom a child has established a trusting relationship can affect the child’s feelings of security in the care setting and also may affect the development of cognitive and social skills of the child (Promise, 2014).

The administrative may be left scrambling to find a competent and knowledgeable person to fill the vacant position, most times they have difficult time doing so and this affects the performance of the pupils (Promise, 2014).

In a similar view Matthew (2012) states that teachers turn over affects students learning. There are many reasons to think it would, as an institution memory is lost and resources are spent on the hiring process. Thus, teachers’ instability affects the quality of care that will be given to pupils.

Furthermore, attention must be given to the education and Psycho-social development of pupils during their early years in school. This is essential for further wellbeing of a nation and the global community (Adeja, 2009). Thus, it is imperative to point out the effects of teachers’ instability on the performance of pupils particularly in some private schools in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State and proffer solutions to the frequent changing of teachers in order to have a brighter future on the Plateau and in Nigeria as a whole.

Therefore, in Nigerian Public Secondary Schools where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Effects of Teachers Instability on the Performance of Pupils in Private Primary School.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that the most important single resource in any organization is people. Teachers therefore have the biggest impact on pupils and that is why when a teacher leaves, the effect is not only felt by the school administrators but by the pupils who most times suffer the consequences. The issue of poor academic performance of pupils in Nigeria has been of much concern to all sundry; the problem is so much that it has led to the widely fallen standard of education in Delta State and in Nigeria as a whole. This has been attributed to so many factors and one of such factors is teachers’ instability. The rate of teachers’ turnover in most private schools in Warri-South is alarming. There are complaints by many parents over the frequent changes of teachers in most of these private schools.

Most teachers could barely spend four to five years in a school especially when the condition of services is not favorable or when there is frequent misunderstanding with the school administrators. Some parents keep moving their children from one school to another due to this frequent changing of teachers. This, of course will certainly have some negative effects on the pupils who most times take a longer period to understand the teaching methodology of the new teachers and sometimes the new teacher may be inexperienced and unqualified. It is against this background that this research seeks to establish the effects of teachers’ instability on the performance of pupils in private schools in Warri-South Local Government Area of Delta State.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to investigate the Effects of Teachers Instability on the Performance of Pupils in Private Primary School using Warri-South Local Government Area of Delta State as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To determine the influence of teachers’ instability on pupils performance in private schools;
2. To identify the causes of teachers’ instability in the area under study;
3. To examine the challenges impeding teachers instability in Public Secondary Schools; and
4. To give possible solution to the problems of teachers’ instability in the area under study.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Is there any influence of teacher’s instability on student’s academic performance in Public Secondary Schools?
• In what ways are pupils affected by the instability of teachers?
• What are the factors responsible for teachers’ instability?
• What can be done to remedy teachers’ instability?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There is no significant influence of teacher’s instability on students’ academic performance in the area under study
• H1: There is a significant influence of teacher’s instability on students’ academic performance in the area under study

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1.7 Significance of Study

The importance of this research is to show the extent to which teachers’ instability affects the performance of pupils. Thus, the research will benefit the followings:

1. The Researcher: It will broaden the knowledge of the researcher since it will involve a lot of studies.
2. To Private Schools: It will help in guiding private school owners to know how to care and treasure their staff in order to sustain them for better performance.
3. Government, Ministry of Education and other Institution. It will serve as a recommendation to schools and other private institutions for their policy formulation.
4. To Other Researcher: This research will serve as a future reference Material for future research work by other researchers.
5. To Other Stakeholders: The research will also be of great help to educational administrators, curriculum planners, policy makers etc.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Factors Affecting Teachers’ Effectiveness using Some Nigerian Public Secondary Schools in Warri-South, Delta State as a case study.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

Teacher: A person whose job is teaching especially in a school.

Effect: A change that somebody or something causes in somebody or something else.

Instability: A quality in which things are likely to change or fall suddenly.

Pupil: A person who is being taught, especially a child is a school.

Performance: How well or badly you do something.

Private schools: An educational institution that belong to an individual or a person.

Effectiveness: According to the oxford advanced learner dictionary (2006:469). The term effectiveness refers to produce the result that is wanted or intended, producing successful result