TEACHERS ATTITUDE TOWARDS WORK AND STUDENT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN OBIO-AKPOR LGA OF RIVERS STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1          BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The importance of qualified teachers and school attitude in schools today in particular cannot be overemphasized. Reason being that school attitude has a major effect in the attitude of education students received. This implies that schools that fail to provide the necessary learning facilities and create a conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning coupled with qualified teachers may hardly put in the best in their students especially in the area of academic performances.

The attitude of education not only depends on the teachers teaching performances, but also on how he/she can control the school attitude effectively (Ajao, 2001). Many factors might contribute to students’ poor achievement inschool which may include: poor study habits and lack ofavailable resource materials, poor school climate, indiscipline,inadequate facilities, teachers’ ineffectiveness, the teachingmethod and the type of learning attitude available for boththe students and the teachers, Teacher’s ineffectiveness as a cause of student’s poor performances can narrowed down to their qualification in the subject(s) being taught. Learning can also be said to occurthrough one’s effective interaction with one’s attitude. Attitudehere refers to availability of facilities that are of good help to facilitate studentslearning and yield a positive outcome on their academic performances. This attitude ranges from books, audio-visual, software andhardware of educational technology; so also, size of classroom,sitting position and arrangement, availability of tables, chairs,chalkboards, shelves on which instruments for practical arearranged (Farrant, 1991 and Farombi, 1998).

On the other hand, the extent at which some teachers, exhibit high level of indiscipline within the school attitude does not seem to portray them as role models. Thus, they rather encourage indiscipline among students by their attitudes as this may have negative influence of students’ academic achievement.

Teachers on the other-hand can make or mar the school curriculum; therefore, their adequacy and attitude such as qualification, experience, attitude and personality for better service delivery needs to be assessed by the school authority on a regular basis, so that students’ academic performance won’t be jeopardize with.

The availability of qualified teachers is a major determinant in the performance of students in schools Akinsolu (2010).Coonen (1987) emphasizes that teachers who has undergone in-service training were more effective in classrooms as compared to teachers who had not undergone any form of training.

Many scholars and researchers generally are not in agreement that the school attitudes, which include teacher administration, play a critical role in positive academic performances than other variables (Patrick, 2005). The important role of the teachers in the learning is unquestionable. Teachers have been said to have a lot of influence on their classroom practices. Teachers should have and apply specific teaching skills and abilities that can be reflected in their students’ performance in the subject they teach, in which the students will be able to make connection between whatis taught in school and its application in problem solving in real life.