Measures of Productivity in Schools
Productivity describes various measured of the efficiency production. A productivity measure is expressed as thee ration of output to inputs used in a production process, i.e output per unit of input. Productivity is a crucial factor in production performance of firms and nations. Increasing national productivity can raise living standards because more real income improves people’s ability to purchase goods and service, enjoy leisure, improve housing and education and contribute to social and environment programme.
The competence required by a teacher are affected by the different ways in which the role is understood around the world. Broadly, there seem to be four models.
- The teachers ask manager of instruction,
- The teacher as caring person;
- The teacher as cultural and civic person and
- The teacher as expert learner
Teacher productivity in Schools
Teachers these days are up to their ear in work that must be accomplished each day. In addition to time spend in front of students, teachers spend hour writing lesson plans and learning objectives, creating and grading tests and assignment as well as attending meetings, professional development seminars and courses for keeping up with certification.
Students’ Academic Performance
Academic performance of students is the centre around which the whole education system revolves. The success and failure of any educational institution is measured in terms of academic performance of students. Not only the schools, but parents also have very high expectations from students with respect to their academic performance, as they believe that better academic results may lead to better career options and future security. Academic performance refers to the knowledge attained and designated by marks, assigned by teacher. In educational context, academic performance is the educational goal to be achieved by a student, teacher or institution over a certain period and is measured either by examinations or continuous assessments and the goal may differ from one individual or institution to another. Academic performance is the outcome of education, the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their educational goals. Academic performance of an individual is influenced by various factors such as personality, intellectual ability, environment, etc.
Academic performance is largely identified by a range of statistical indicators. STAN, (2012) supported this argument and reported that performance is the level of attainment of a person in an examination, that is, how an individual is able to demonstrate his or her abilities in an examination.
Performance has been regarded as a measure of educational output (Adeyemi, 2006). This fact buttress Obemeata’s (2012) argument that the performance of students in public examinations in many Nigerian schools has been poor as a result of shortage of teachers, inadequate funding of schools and the broad secondary school curriculum. Supporting these findings, Animashaun (2012) expressed that this poor performance of students has been a great concern. Omotoso (2012) attributed the causes of dwindling performance of students in Nigerian schools to the poor financial position of government which has made the funding of schools inadequate. This situation has placed a greater burden on the Parents Teachers Associations which is saddled with the funding of most capital projects in schools. The introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme by the federal government of Nigeria in 1986 has led to the rising cost of textbooks and stationery in Nigeria. Hence, the running grants to schools were often delayed and grossly inadequate in view of the rising cost of living (Ige, 2010). Ibukun (2010) supported this view and reiterated that poor training of teachers, lack of textbooks and inadequate facilities often lead to poor educational results.
As a result, he asserted that the educational system in Ondo State, Nigeria is being seriously challenged, as there appears to be truth in the opinion of many people that the standard of the enterprise is falling in the State. Commenting on the inadequacy of physical facilitates in schools towards this end, Adeyemi, (2010) conducted a study on schools and teacher variables associated with students’ academic performance in Ondo State secondary schools and found that students’ performance in the major subject of the school curriculum was at a low level. Similar findings were made by other researchers (Aghenta, 2009; Ige, (2010) academic performance is the outcome of education, that is, the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their educational goals. The secondary education is known to occupy a strategic position in Nigerian education system (Akinsanya, 2008).
It serves as a link between primary and higher education by absorbing the products of the former and supplying entrants into the latter. In recent years, the performances of secondary school students in national examinations conducted by the West Africa Examination Council and NECO were extremely poor (Imoge 2008, Ashibi 2010, Ikoh 2015, Tenibiaje 2013, Ayodele and Ige 2012). Thus, the investigations of the factors that influence academic performance of secondary school students have attracted the attention of relevant stakeholders including parents, guidance, teachers, counselors, psychologists, school administrators, governments and researchers.
