EFFECTIVENESS OF SCHOOL QUALITY INDICATORS ON THE PRODUCTION OF TECHNICAL TEACHERS IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN SOUTH WESTERN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The  study  was  carried  out  to  assess  the  effectiveness  of  school  quality indicators on the production of technical teachers in South Western Nigeria Colleges of Education. A descriptive survey research was adopted for the study. The population for the study was 102 consisting of 72 lecturers and 30 administrators. A structured questionnaire with four sections, 39 items and five point Likert scale was used as instrument for data collection after being subjected to face validation of three lecturers. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was 0.89 using Cronbach alpha coefficient. Three research questions and three null hypotheses were designed for the study. Means and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while t-test was used to test the hypotheses. The study revealed 10 effectiveness indicators needs for personnel, 12  effectiveness needs  for  facilities and 9  quality indicators for adequate learning environment. It was recommended that the quality indicators identified for the three school quality indicators i.e personnel, facilities and adequate  environment should  form  the  basis  for  planning and  teaching of technical teachers in Colleges of Education that produce technical teachers. It was also recommended that the stakeholders of technical education in colleges of education producing technical teachers should make provisions for personnel on   how   adequate   training   and   collegial   learning   should   be   provided. Government at all levels should provide befitting incentives for lecturers and administrators    of    technical    department    in    Colleges    of    Education

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

It  is  axiomatic that  good  school  facilities  are  quality  indicators that usually support educational enterprise. Quality as disclosed by Studtmann (2007) comes from Latin word “qualitas” meaning an attribute or property. Attribute  according  to  studtmann  are  ascribable  by  a  subject  where-as properties are possessible. The quality of something is the inseparable sum of its essential attributes or properties. It   depends on the criteria being applied to it.

Thus, in industrial terms, quality according to Muller and Funnel (1991) is the total of those things which combine to satisfy the need of market place. This implies that    quality is customer- driven. Educationally, Stanton (1991) stated that quality focuses specifically on the processes involved in learning which recognizes the centrality of the learner as the benefactor of the successful learning outcome. This also implies that quality is learner – driven. The processes involved in learning in Technical Education as explained by Stanton (1991) empower technical students to innovate, experiment, reflect and learn from relative failure as well as from success. This is why Olaitan, Nwachukwu,

Onyemachi, Igbo and Ekong (1991) asserted that quality is the watch word of

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all technical education activities. They emphasized that quality as an essential attribute of technical education be expressed as the functional character of the entire technical education curriculum with respect to the content, instruction, method, facilities, human and material resources which are the indicators.

The term indicator as interpreted by Hornby (1995) means something that tells you whether something exists or what it is like Brizius and Campbell (1991) viewed indicator as something that provides evidence that a certain condition exists or certain results have or have not been achieved. Brizius and Campbell stressed that indicator enables decision makers to assess progress towards the achievement of intended outcome, goals and objectives. Hence, school quality indicators are tools that assist technical education stakeholders to achieve excellence in school (OECD 2006). Thus quality indicators are expressed in functional terms in relation to the students they produce as outcome.  Apparently,  Jesup  (2000)  stated  that  no  single  factor  guarantees school quality and that qualities depend on multiple and interdependent elements. The  United  State  Education Department (2006)  identified school quality indicators and classified them as school context, teachers and classroom which according to the Department harmoniously work together to produce reliable and dependable students’ learning. Technical Education is geared towards producing reliable and dependable graduates.

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The  Federal Republic of Nigeria, (FRN,  2004) defined technical and vocational education as a comprehensive term referring to those aspect of the educational process, involving in addition to general education, the study of technologies and related sciences and acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding and knowledge related to occupations in various sector of economy and social life. Asuquo (2005) described technical education as education   for   occupational   preparation.   Asuquo   stressed   that   technical education facilitates the adjustment of the skills and knowledge of man to the changing demands within the society. It is on this note that Olaitan (1996) asserted that technical education is deliberately designed to help humans improve on the skills in chosen occupations. For progression in technical education, Osuala (1998) identified communication skill,  mathematical skill and science skill as the three basic academic skills required. These skills are expected to be given by the school quality indicators identified by Jesup (2006) which according to him are interdependently related.

Colleges  of  Education  (technical)  are  institutions  where  technical teachers are trained for Pre-vocational subjects in junior secondary school level and vocational subjects in Senior Secondary level (Federal Ministry of Education 2000). Technical teachers are those teachers who are interested and have  accepted  technical  education  as  permanent  calling  and  are  ready  to

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progress  in  it.  Olaitan  (1996)  identified  two  modes  of  preparing technical Teachers for skill programmes in junior secondary school as the single control mode where technical education programmes are purely planned and implemented under technical administrative culture.   The second mode is the dual control mode where technical teacher education programmes are run in the same institution with general education programmes like Geography, Mathematics, History, Economics and others. However, the dual control mode is the most common mode of technical teacher preparation in South Western Nigeria. The State government mostly finances the dual control mode and the single control modes are usually financed, sponsored and supervised by the Federal Government. Such Colleges of Education are usually built by Federal Government in Geo-political Zones across the country.

For  both  modes  of  technical  teacher  preparation  in  Colleges  of Education, one thing that is imperative for the progress, up- keep, improvement, sustenance and substance of quality is the assessment of the technical teacher preparation programme. Assessment of Technical teacher production programme will contribute in no small measure to the expected standard and quality of such technical teacher preparation. This implies that adequate assessment  of  school  quality  indicators  in  Colleges  of  Education  where technical teachers are produced will bring about improvement on the degree of

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excellence or superiority-the worth for which technical education is known and identified.

The term assessment is generally used to refer to all activities involved in helping the students to learn and to assess their progress (Valencia and Sheila

1997). According to Okoro (1993), assessment is a form of    evaluation that uses collected data to estimate the worth of a programme. According to Academic   Exchange   Quarterly   (2009)   assessment   is   the   process   of documenting, usually in measurable terms, knowledge, skill, attitudes and believes. Assessment can focus on the individual learner, the institution, or the educational system as a whole. In educational setting, Moskal, Babara and Leydens (2000) stated that assessment might be on teacher or learner, providing feed back on students’ work and may not  necessarily be  used for guiding purposes. Assessment therefore implies a process of determining or ascertaining the worth or the effectiveness of school quality indicators like school context, Lecturers and classrooms in the preparation of technical teachers.

Effectiveness as observed by Olaitan et al (1999) is an indication of the impact of a  group of  activities performed on  the  achievement of  intended learning  outcome.  Muller and  funnel  (1991)  looking  at  effectiveness  from resourcing and standard output agreed that effectiveness is  concerned with outcome. Thus a college according to them is effective to the extent that it

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produces outcome which are relevant to the needs and demands of the society (Client). The quality indicators i.e the personnel, environment and facilities especially in colleges of education producing technical teachers are effective only when their activities produces desirable technical teachers who in turn through their services can make a positive impact in the general society.

School quality indicators are broadly grouped into school context, Lecturers (teachers) and classrooms (USED 2006). To produce teachers that will boost the dying degree of excellence or superiority of technical education in South Western Nigeria  in particular and the entire nation, those quality indicators  must work  in concert as  they are  interdependently related. In  a capsule,  the  involvement of  the  identified  school  quality  indicators  in  the production of technical teachers cannot be underestimated and at the same time their assessment to improve production of technical teachers in South Western Nigeria Colleges of Education is imperative

It is upon this background, therefore, that this study is poised to assess the effectiveness of school quality indicators on the production of technical teachers in Colleges of Education in South Western Nigeria.

Statement of the Problem

Technical education is one of the disciplines in the school system that supports,  encourages  and  promotes  the  application  of  scientific  principles,

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invention, development and application of new sources of power and realistic industrial development (Okorie, 2000). It is unfortunate, however, that technical education till now has not been accorded a strong recognition in Nigeria. As observed by Olaitan (1996), it has been very difficult to produce and maintain adequate number of teachers for the available technical education programmes.

Okorie (2000) revealed that in many Colleges of Education, the technology content that prospective technical teachers are exposed to is rather low and inadequate. There is no unified view of technology due to weak and fragmented  specialization  they  got  during  training  (Okorie  2000).  Olaitan (1996) attributed this problem to  gross  inadequacy of facilities, equipment, competent instructors (lecturers) and low sensitivity of the administration and government at all levels. School Quality Indicators are vital but when qualities are not available, the only option is to train the technical teachers with the available indicators without considering quality. This is the situation in Nigeria technical teacher preparation. Ineffective quality indicators have resulted in the production of ineffective teachers

Another problem that trails preparation of technical teachers in Colleges of Education is non review of the course content at all level which could enable the new teachers to meet the challenges of technology. Closely related to this is the  problem of assessment of  Colleges  of  Education involved in  technical

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education programmes. The technical teacher preparation aspect according to Okorie (2000) was not provided for in the Nigeria National Policy on education. Hence the importance of technical education has long been neglected and any programme for human resource production without adequate quality will not lead to the achievement of the objectives as it relates to technological development and advancement.

The low quality in technical education has been due to the very poor perspective  from  which  the  general public  views  technical education.  The continuous absence of school quality indicators that would have guaranteed quality production of technical teachers has motivated the researcher to carry out this study. More so that Olaitan et al (1999) stated that the present state of effectiveness of technical education programme has not been promising as very poor attention has been provided for the needed improvement of the human and material resources which form the basic school quality indicators.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to assess the effectiveness of the school quality indicators on the production of technical teachers in Colleges of Education. Specifically, the study will assess.

1.        The effectiveness of personnel as quality indicator in the production of technical teachers in Colleges of Education.

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2.        The effectiveness of facilities as quality indicator in the production of technical teachers in Colleges of Education.

3.        The effectiveness of learning environment as quality indicator in the production of technical teachers in Colleges of Education.

Significance of the Study

The findings of this study will be of benefit to the ministries of education at state and Federal level as the assessment of the effectiveness of the school quality indicator will reveal the necessary area where provision could be made on the indicators which can lead to the production of effective technical teachers.

The curriculum planners in technical education will not be left out as the study will unveil quality indicators needed in colleges of education which can be  integrated into the  curriculum as  innovation for production of effective technical teacher.

Technical teachers in general will derive advantage from the findings of this study as the assessment of the indicators will bring assist the technical teachers to identify their weaknesses which will spur them to rise to the challenges posed by current advancement in sciences and technology updating themselves in the use of modern technology recently produced sophisticated instructional media. Effectiveness as a result of personnel development will

10 lead  to  effective  delivery  of  instruction.  The  Learners  will  benefit  as  the

assessment will bring about desired activities in which they can be effectively

trained to meet their short and long term needs.

The unemployed youths will be of great advantage as the production of effective technical teachers in colleges of education will be achieved through the assessment of the school quality indicators. Teachers produced will be effectively involved in  the  training of artisan, and  technicians in  technical colleges and vocational schools.

Research Questions

The following research questions are developed to guide the study:

1.       What are the effectiveness of personnel as school quality indicator on the production of technical teachers in Colleges of Education?

2.       What are the effectiveness of facilities and equipment as quality indicator on the production of technical teachers in Colleges of Education?

3.       What are the effectiveness of learning environment as quality indicator on production of technical teachers in Colleges of Education?

Hypotheses

The following three null hypotheses formulated for the study were tested at 0.05 (P<0.05) level of significance

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HO1: There will be no significant difference between the mean responses of the administrators and lecturers of Colleges of Education on the effectiveness of the personnel  as  quality  indicator  on  the  production  of  technical  teachers  in Colleges of Education.

HO2: There will be no significant difference between the mean responses of the administrators and lecturers of Colleges of Education on the effectiveness of facilities as quality indicator on the production of technical teachers in Colleges of Education.

HO3: There will be no significant difference between the mean responses of administrators and lecturers of Colleges of Education on adequate learning environment as quality indicator on the  production of technical teachers in Colleges of Education.

Delimitation of the Study

The study is delimited only to personnel, facilities, equipment and learning environment as school quality indicators. South Western Nigeria is only geographical area studied other geographical area are not studied.

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