The Educational Effects of a Teacher Teaching All Subjects in Primary School Case Study of Lea Primary School Mban
CHAPTER ONE
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to:
- Examine the relationship between one teacher teaching all the subjects and pupil’s poor academic performance in public primary schools in Mban Local Government Area.
- Find out the current teacher-subject ratio in public primary schools in Mban Local Government Area.
- Determine the relationship between a teacher teaching all subjects and pupils academic performance.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Theoretical Framework
This study is based on system theory. A general system concept is a functional analysis of all the sub-units interacting and interrelating to function as a whole system. It is a functional analysis of sub-systems which seeks to explain the character of the system as a whole. Synergy is one of the aspects of system concept; it is a collective effort that is more than a single effort. The expression of synergistic function connote a derive demand function where its sub- units of the system is dependent on one another to function (Robert, 2005). The development of system theory in the 1950s is an attempt to explain and predict the behaviour of the organization as a whole. Akinyemi (2003) defined a system as a group of related parts working together to accomplish the same pre-determined goals and objectives. All parts are important and indispensable in a system because non performance of a part (individual) will disrupt the achievement of overall objective of the system.
Christospherson (2002) stated that a system is any ordered interrelated set of things and their attributes, linked by flow of energy and matter, as distinct from the surrounding environment outside the system. The elements within a system may be arranged in a series or interwoven with one another. A system comprised any number of subsystems. Within Earth’s systems, both matter and energy are stored and retrieved, and energy is transformed from one type to another.
System theory is the interdisciplinary study of organization within the context of a definitive system. It is a framework for analyzing and describing any group of objects (individuals) that work in concert to produce some result. This could be a single organism, any organization, society or a group of individuals. System theory as a technical and general academic area of study is predominantly refers to as the science of systems resulted from Bertalanffy’s General Theory (GNT) among others in initiating what became a project of system research and practices (Robert, 2005).
Specifically, the systematic approach to Private schools a formal organization sees the organization as a purposeful system composed of interactive parts, rather than dealing separately, the approach gives the administrators the opportunities to look at the various components of the organization in a large external environment working together towards a predefine objectives. All these must in exclusive principle interrelate / interact with one another to form a single whole. None of these sub-units of the organizational system can function on its own without the co-operation and the ancillary relationships of other functions of the sub-units to form a single whole or system. Therefore system theory is the best to describe the Private schools a formal organization via pupil-teacher relationship.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
Kerlinger (1992) describes research design as the plan and structure of investigating, so conceived to obtain answers to research questions. Research design provides the glue that holds the research study together. In this study, the research design is used to structure the research, to show how all the major parts of the research- the samples, measures, treatments, and methods of data collection- work together in order to address the central research questions. However, the research design for this study is mainly a descriptive research design and explorative in nature. It is therefore a survey research designed to establish the relationship between pupil-teacher ratio and pupil academic performance using LEA primary schools in Mban local government area of Lagos State as a case study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
Socio-demographic data of respondents
The demographic data obtained in the study from the pupils is analysed using frequency and percentage. This is presented as follows.
CHAPTER FIVE
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
Recommendations
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are hereby suggested:
There is no doubt that the smaller the pupil-teacher ratio, the better the educational quality of both high and low intelligent schools. Those in charge of this arrangement should endeavour to scale down the number of pupils per class by employing more high quality teachers.
The teachers and the pupils should be properly motivated for optimum productivity.
Efforts should be made to improve the intellectual ability of the not-so-gifted pupils by teaching them at their own pace and being patient with them.
The practice of separating the low from the high performing pupils should be discouraged as that creates room for the feelings of inferiority and superiority complexes amongst them which is unhealthy. Mixing them promotes the spirit of healthy competition as the low achievers will feel challenged to struggle harder to meet up with their class mates.
Teachers in schools that practice separation should know that the low performers need extra attention from them instead of shying away from entering their classes or paying good attention to help them improve.
Counseling services should be given to the low performers from time to time to encourage them not to lose hope but work harder to perform better.
Conclusion
While pupil-teacher ratios are important, it is hard to say whether there is an ideal ratio. Again, individualized attention does not necessarily mean that a child will learn faster or slower. This is just one measure of educational quality and not the only measure. There are many other factors that influence educational quality as stated in this study. This study reveals that pupils’ enrolment increases as well as number of qualified teaching personnel but the number of unqualified teaching personnel is more in private primary schools than in public schools. Also, the quality of teaching personnel is very important in assessing pupils’ achievement. This is in collaboration with the work of Sanders (1998), that, the quality of teaching personnel is important and that having consecutive years of good and bad teaching personnel in schools can have a dramatic effect either positive or negative on pupils’ achievement. It may be positive if the school continues to retain good and competent teaching personnel, and negative if incompetent and bad teaching personnel are allowed to teach the pupils. Therefore, there is need for continuous improvement for both pupil and the teaching personnel. The study also shows that there is the need for proper supervision by the teaching personnel. This is a critical component in professional development efforts to improve teaching learning process in schools. The Standard Based Education (SBE) holds the teaching personnel and school responsible for pupils’ performance. Teaching personnel are expected to collect data about their pupilsand use such information to improve teachers’ delivery and help to correct the pupils’ shortcomings. However, it must be noted that the lower the pupil-teacher ratio is, the better the educational quality of the pupils involved.
REFERENCES
- Achilles, C.M., Nye, B.A., & Zaharias, J.B. (1995). Policy use of research results: Tennessee’s Project Challenge. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA.
- Addonizio, M. F. & Phelps, J. L. (2000). Class size and pupil performance: A framework for policy analysis. Journal of Education Finance, 26(2), 135-156.
- Blatchford, P., Goldstein, H., & Mortimore, P. (1998). Research on class size effects: A critique of methods and a way forward. International Journal of Educational Research, 29, 691-710.
- Boozer, M. A. & Rouse, C. (2001). Intraschool variation in class size: Patterns and implications. Journal of Urban Economics, 50(1), 163- 189.
- Card, David; Alan B. Krueger (1996). “School Quality and the Return to Education”. In Gary Burtless. Does money matter?: the effect of school resources on pupil achievement and adult success. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution. pp. 118–119. ISBN 0-8157- 1274-X.
- Cooper, H. M. (1989). Does reducing pupil-to-teacher ratios affect achievement? Educational Psychologist, 24(1), 79-98.
- Cuban, L. (2004). The Blackboard and the Bottom Line: Why Schools Can’t Be Businesses, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: Harvard University Press.
- Dave, P. N. (2008) –National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi, India.
- Davis, I. K. (2002) –Style and Effectiveness in Education and Training,
- Instructional Science, Vol, 1, No 1
- Duflo, E, DUpas, P and Kremer (2007). Pear effects pupil-teacher ratios and teachers incentives. Evidence from a randomized evaluation in Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya Ministry of Education.
- Dunkin, M. J. and Biddle, B. J. (2004) –The study of Teaching, New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
- Ehrenberg RG, Brewer DJ (2004). Do school and teacher characteristics matters? Evidence from high Private schoolnd beyond. Econ. Educ. Rev. 13(1): 1-17.
