Evaluation of factors inhibiting effective performance of primary school teachers in some selected local government education areas in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

There are reasons why several students fail when they are given a task to perform. If the failure is not solely due to inattention, it may be that the task is too difficult for the particular students. Difficulties may be due to several causes, related to the concept that is being learned, to the teaching method used by the teacher and to the learners’ previous knowledge. One symptom among many that affects the learning and understanding is the quality and condition under which the school teacher found him/herself. This paper is specifically focused on the conditions under which the primary school teachers are performing their duties in some selected Local Government Education Areas (LGEA) of Oyo state. The primary school pupils could not perform due to the fact that the teachers are not stimulated to perform their duties as expected. Therefore, the following are the factors that are inhibiting the productivity of the primary school teachers in Oyo state, Nigeria, viz: lack of motivation on the parts of the government, teachers are not motivated as expected, irregular transfer of the teachers due to baseless accusation because of refusal or denial to pay the Headmasters or the local government education area officers in cash or kind and illegal deduction from primary school teacher’s salary on the account of bank charges. Others include local government education area workers seeing themselves as more significant figures of authority over the classroom teachers, job security of classroom teachers, the Head teachers are serving as agent for the LGEA officers for punitive measures. Extortion of money from the pupils’ parents on the basis of using the money for school development, sexual harassment on the parts of Headmaster and LGEA officers to the female teachers all in the name that they are superior to them. These factors are actually working against effective performance of primary school teachers and directly affecting academic performance of primary school pupils. The researcher recommends that the government should try as much as possible to motivate primary school teachers and there should be enlightment on the parts of the State Universal Basic Education Board staff, the LGEA officers and the primary school teachers that they are partners in progress. Anyone should not see him/herself as more important or relevant than others. It is of the opinion of the researcher that if the abovementioned factors are put into consideration in school administration, there may be improvement on the performances of primary school pupils.