1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
Education has been acknowledged by Etim (2006) to be the process of raising individuals or groups along mental, physical, moral, social, and vocational dimensions through a planned programme of activities and instruction as well as other forms of relevant experience. Education therefore, could be seen as the process of changing attitudes and behaviour of a person or group of persons through teaching and learning process. The endless effort of any educational system is to effect positive change in the behaviour of the learner. Therefore, for any education system to be effective the organization of teaching and learning process should be of great concern and some key and professional subjects should be given great attention right from the grassroots.
In the effort of making education system effective in the country, teachers' professional competences and their self-efficacy should be taken into consideration. A teacher according to Teacher's Registration Council of Nigeria handbook (2002) is a person who has undergone professional training capable of transmitting knowledge, attributes and skills to the learner. Unachukwu (1999) sees a teacher as a person trained or recognized and employed to guide learning in the classroom in order to achieve set educational goals. A teacher's personality and qualities are to this extent important. Parker, Mayo and Fristz in Nkang (2002) recognized the fact that although work must be done according to established standard rules and regulations, the man who does the job is even more important than the job itself. This is because without the man, there will be no work done. Given this importance of the job performer as far as the job, the teacher's possession of the necessary competences in his or her field and his or her self-efficacy should be of great concern. In educational setting, one thing is to have a teacher another is the competences of the teacher in his field. Salasu as cited in Umoren and Ogbodo (2001) opined that no matter how beautiful the aims and objectives of education system are, no education system can rise above the quality of its teachers. This means that a teacher can make or mar an entire education programme because of competence.
Professional competences of a teacher help the teacher to function in the classroom effectively and efficiently within his or her area of specialization. Permadi and Arifin (2010) opined that professional competence is very important because it directly relates to the performance display by the teacher in the classroom. Arikunto (1993) explains that professional competence means that “teacher must have extensive knowledge in the subjects to be taught and mastery of the methodology in the sense of having knowledge of theoretical concepts, and ability to choose the right method in teaching and learning process”. As one of the efforts to create professional teachers, the Teacher Registration Council of Nigeria Acts (1993) stipulates that every qualified teacher should be registered and licensed before being allowed to teach in Nigerian schools. This emphasizes the need for competences among teachers.
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