POST QUALIFICATION TRAINING AND JOB PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Education is a prime instrument for national development and governments the world over, in recognition of this notion, endeavor to invest hugely on education. With sound education, individuals perhaps are liberated from the indignities of human right violation. Moreover, individuals’ liberty is assured and the road to economic emancipation is smoothed. Furthermore, the educated citizens readily understand and accept government policies, if the policies are in concert with the will of the people and for overall national development. One of the indices of a developed nation is the literary level of its inhabitants (Adeyegbe, 2005).

In a country where a good majority of the people are not literate, such a country is perceived as under developed. However, where a majority of the citizenry are literate, such a nation is seen to be developed. The education system produces the nation’s manpower needs and also influences her technological development. Education, therefore, must be seen to functional and relevant to the needs of the people and that of the nation and the nation gains in strength through manpower development for all its productive enterprise (Abolama, 1999 and Edet, 1999).

In compliance with the above assertions, the nations educational needs have to be ‘manned’ by competent and well trained personnel that will be effective and efficient. Organizations, like the school, need people just as they need raw materials, and equipment in order to function successfully. Thus, it is not uncommon to hear managers acknowledge. “Our people are the most important asset”. Organizations undertake human resource planning to enable them meet the future ‘people’s’ need in the same way in which they plan for their non-human resources (Armstron, 2003).

The decision to train or not to train staff of an establishment has always been a very tedious process in view of the numerous factor involved. Such factors include finance, service time and general working conditions of services. In a developing economy, like Nigeria, such factors often overshadow the main purpose of training and development. Teaching is one of the dynamic profession and the operators must keep abreast of improvements in teaching methods, administration and environmental happenings. Teachers employed in an education industry would have had a basic qualification which needs to be built upon by subsequent training and development activities.

Aina (2005), opines that:

“Education is designed to improve the overall competence of the employee in a specified direction and beyond the job currently held and that training is an experience, a discipline or a systematic action, which causes people to acquire new skills and knowledge, and exhibit pre-determined behaviour on the present job”.

This notion maybe true when the employee is new to the organization or when the organization changes its technology. Aina further asserts that “Staff development is concerned with preparing the employees in order that they can move with the organization as it develops changes and grows.

Ayo-Sobowale (2002), while streamlining the contributions of some scholars, asserts that education is generalizing by providing individuals with the basic knowledge, skill and attitudes to qualify him for a given position, while training focuses on improved competences in order to perform in various positions. However, staff development enables the individual to perform higher responsibilities which accompany higher position along career path.

The present teachers need more than educational qualifications but require updating knowledge from time to time. Olaniyanu (2006), expressing the views of Fafunwa states that the challenges of today’s teachers are as follows:

The teacher of today faces greater challenges than the teachers of yester years. His task as a classroom manager has become a more complex one. Today’s teacher, to be effective has to extend his activities beyond the classroom and the school compound, for the world of the child today has wider and more varied horizons than, for instance, the world of Plato and Aristotle. Pp23.

It could be ascertained from the foregoing that training and development of professional teachers employed for educational services are imperative for the system to be relevant to its objectives and goals.

Fig. 1.2 Relationship between Education, Training & Development

Source: Ayo-Sobowale (2002)

Moreover, staff training and development of teachers has numerous advantages such as increased learning rates, increased quality of performance, reduced number of accident or casualties and reduced labour turnover and absenteeism. Therefore, this study examines the effect of post qualification training on job performance in Lagos State secondary schools.

1.2Statement of the Problem

Performance gap between standard of education and the current performance level determines the training needs or non-training needs. Ogunsola (2005) records that recent releases from West African Examination Council (WAEC) and Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) indicate that less than 10 percent of those who sat for West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) obtained the matriculation requirements and one out of ten that applied for University Matriculation Examination (UME) gains admission to tertiary institutions.

The percentage of wastage under this circumstance is monumental. However, Ogunsola (2005) maintains that most people agree that the standard of education has not fallen but students’ performance is steadily going down.

What is not in doubt is the stakeholder’s obligation to empower teachers to guide and inspire all students to learn. The question that may be asked is how do we prepare, train, sustain and retain our teachers in particular for the numerous tasks in the classroom.

According to Adeyegbe (2005) teachers should not rest on their oars. They must build on the experiences gained while in training and thus learn from personal experiences of the present generation are highly demanding and multi-faceted compared with the past. Demands are not similar neither are their responses to the various situation in their environment, Adeyegbe (2005) argues that the decline is apparent and worse still, the educational system is deemed liable.

Staff development and training could have significant positive and negative effects on teachers’ job performance and consequently students’ academic achievement. Perhaps the lack of well articulated staff development and training for teachers on secondary schools possibly led to poor attitude of teachers and by extension, the low level of job performance of the teachers in the State. Perhaps if teachers are up-dated through workshops, seminars, conferences and training in the institutions after employment (entrant qualifications) students will benefit more from the schools’ instructional programme. If on the contrary, teachers are not updated in terms of knowledge acquisition, the students perhaps stand the risk of failure in public examinations and the school system may not achieve its aims and objectives. It is against this background that this study examines the effect of post qualification training on job performance in Lagos State secondary schools with a special reference to some selected schools in education district V.

1.3Purpose of the Study

The major objective of this study is to examine the effect of post qualification training on teachers’ job performance. While other specific objectives are:

i.            To examine the effect of staff development on teachers’ productivity in Lagos State;

ii.            To investigate the impact of staff training on teachers’ effectiveness in Lagos State Public Secondary Schools;

iii.            To find out the effect of teachers’ welfare on teachers performance.

1.4    Research Questions

This study will be guided by the following research questions:

1.   What is the relationship between staff development and teachers’ productivity in Lagos State?

2.   Does staff training impact on teachers’ effectiveness in Lagos State Public Secondary Schools?

3.   To what extent does teachers’ welfare influence teachers’ performance?

1.5    Research Hypotheses

The following hypotheses will be tested in the study:

1.      H01: There is no significant relationship between staff development  and teachers’ productivity in Lagos State.

2.      H02:    Staff training has no impact on teachers’ effectiveness in Lagos State Public Secondary Schools.

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