Introduction
1.1 Background To The Study
It is imperative to enunciate the nature and trend of educational progress in any developing country. Education is a systematic intellectual and moral training, geared towards obtaining knowledge, development of character and also mental development that will ensure human survival. This becomes a reality through effective teaching and learning. The performance of students in school greatly depends on the ability and capacity of the prospective teachers and the school administration.
Hence, an efficient, reliable and courteous teacher equipped with professionalism, creative imagination, costly ingenuity and depth of experience is a necessity for optimal performance in the 21st century.
The differential scholastic achievement of students in Nigeria has been and is still a source of concern and research interest to educators, government and parents. This is so because of the great importance that education has on the national development of the country. All over the country, there is a consensus of opinion about the fallen standard of education in Nigeria (Adebule, 2004). Parents and government are in total agreement that their huge investment on education is not yielding the desired dividend. Teachers also complain of students’ low performance at both internal and external examination. The annual releases of Senior Secondary Certificate Examination results (SSCE)
conducted by West African Examination Council (WAEC) justified the problematic nature and generalization of poor secondary school students’ performance in different school subjects.
The National Policy of Education states, “No Education system can rise above the quality of teachers in the system” (Fgn, 2006). Orgunsaju (2004), states that the academic standard in all Nigerian educational institutions has fallen considerably below societal expectations. Blumende (2001), corroborated this view when he reported that the decline in the quality of education cannot be ignored by anyone who is aware of the significant role of education as an instrument of societal transformation and development.
There is a need to focus on teachers’ adequacy and competency in respect to their pedagogical practices and strategies and mastery of the curriculum and subject content (Chall & Popp, 1990; Stuart, 2004; Rodgers, 2001). In support of the aforementioned scholars, Ekwesili (2006), institutionalized the Private Public Partnership (PPP) and School Based management Committee (SBMC) to manage secondary education and to promote school effectiveness since students’ success depends on the amount of learning that takes place in the classroom and other related how effective and efficient the teacher performs in schools. Ijaiya (1998), concurred and opined that improving the quality of the teaching force in schools is seen as the key to raising student achievement. Thus, raising educational standards should be the government’s number one priority. Similarly, Lassa (2000), and Guga (1998), claimed that education cannot be provided by just anybody, it requires a teacher who plans and
delivers the lessons or instruction in such a way that objectives can be achieved. An uncertified teacher cannot prepare students for WASCE/GCE because it is unlikely that they could pass. Corroborating this,,. Owolabi (2007), stated that government should find all possible means to retain veteran and experienced teachers who are still willing to serve so that they can contribute their wealth of experience to improving the system. The Baguada Seminar Reports on Quantities and Qualities in Nigerian Education (NERC, 1980) as cited by ESA, (2005) also shared the consensus that teachers are the main determinants of quality in education: If they are apathetic, uncommitted, uninspired, lazy, unmotivated, immoral, and anti-social, the whole nation is doomed. If they are ignorant in their disciplines and thus impact wrong information, they are not only useless but dangerous. Therefore, the kind of teachers trained and posted to schools may well determine what the next generation will be like. Based on the aforementioned statement, this study examined the relationship between the quantity and quality of teachers/the relationship between the quality and quality of teachers/principals and students’ academic performance in economics.
