Teachers’ Motivation As A Tool For Effective Secondary School Administration

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Abstract

Motivation represents an employee’s desire and commitment, which is manifested as job performance. That is, job in high motivation (intrinsic) and hygiene (extrinsic) factors leads to high performance and few complaints among employees. The purpose of this study was to examine the Effect of Motivation factors on Teachers’ Performance in Nigeria Secondary school administrations; A Case of Public Secondary Schools in Ezza L.G.A. Ebonyi state. A descriptive research design which incorporated quantitative and qualitative approaches was adopted to investigate motivation factors that influence teacher’s performance. A survey was carried out with 148 respondents including ordinary teachers, department teachers and head teachers in public secondary schools in Ezza L.G.A., Ebonyi state. In addition, in depth interviews were carried out with head teachers. Data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics of SPSS package. The study revealed that the motivation for persons to join the teaching profession was job security and absence of job alternatives but salary was a low consideration. The study further revealed that the majority of teachers were motivated by intrinsic factors, while a small percentage by extrinsic factors despite the fact that salary was inadequate. Furthermore, although not all extrinsic motivation factors (such as free meals, regular salary payment, leave of absence, free accommodation and weekly allowances) were available to teachers, the majority of teachers were concerned more about the inadequacy of current salary levels to meet their basic needs. The study recommends immediate increase the salary of secondary school teachers to match increases in the cost of living, provision of accommodation to teachers and strengthening of supervision. The study also suggests areas for research and these included but not limiting to investigation of innovative teachers’ motivation strategies, students’ satisfaction with relation to teachers’ performance and extension of the same study of other regions in Nigeria before generalization of results.

Chapter One

Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

The efficient and effective management of any organization lies in the abilities of the top management, to put in place measures that would ensure constant greater productivity and a comfortable working relationship between management and the subordinates. Consequently, motivation has often been an effective tool used by managers and administrators to boost productivity and commitment among members of staff in any organization.

The word “motivation’’ according to R’eem (2011) is derived from the Latin word ‘motus’ a form of verb ‘movere’ which means to move, influence affect and excite. Strivastava and Bhatia (2013:18), defined motivation as an action that triggers, propels and directs human behaviour and how this behaviour is preserved to achieve a particular goal. Mostly in secondary schools, principals are main administrators of staff and students, the motivational strategies and the ways they are employed by the administrators can impact positively or negatively on the attainment of the organizational goals depending on the administrative and managerial style of the principal.

Since teachers are the most important factors in determining the quality of education that students receives. Teachers’ motivation has an important effect on students their satisfaction and fulfillment for this reason, teachers are to be given proper care so as to bring out their best in delivering their services hence human resources are considered the most important factor of production. Teachers are vital component of school administration that is why, the Federal government of Nigeria made it clear in her National Policy on Education FRN (2004), that the purpose of teacher education should be to produce highly motivated, conscious and efficient classroom teachers. The Federal Government of Nigeria introduced training programmes, workshops, seminar that will enhance the motivation of staff for better success.

In most cases, when teachers are motivated, they perform better than when they are not. Oguru (2000) opined that, there are two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation refers to self generated factors that influence people to behave in a particular way e.g responsibility, freedom to act, scope to use and develop skills and abilities, interesting and challenging task and opportunity for advancement. While extrinsic motivation can be defined as what is done to people to motivate them in areas of their work, for example, rewards like increased pay, praise or promotion etc. Obi (2003) stated that, a well motivated and flexible work force can be achieved by a coherent approach to developing strategies in the area of raising teachers’ salaries without stream lining the payment system. When this is done, it will provide an environment that is conducive for the satisfaction of various needs of teachers as to be dedicated in performing their task of teaching as well as empowering them to give high quality outputs and avoid wastage in terms of dropouts, carryover and failures by students as the case may be. It is a fact that, without dedicated, satisfied and motivated teachers, there will be no base for support and stability of education.

According to Ogbonnaya (2005), education is the bedrock of all developments. As such, the importance of education to a nation’s development cannot be over emphasized so also the importance of teachers who are the pillars in the stability and sustainability of education. But it is quite unfortunate that the contemporary teachers keep complaining of poor conditions of service and lack of status in the society and that could be attributed to irregular payment, lack of fringe benefits, lack of promotion and other awards or appraisal that should be given to them to make life better. It is a fact that Nigerian society attaches no value to teachers that is why most parents do not want their children to join teaching profession. They are seen by their counterparts as, people who are poor and wretched. However, staff motivation as a tool can be defined as a method of course of action, or an instrument by which an act can be accomplished. It is an instrument used in performance of operation.

In addition, effectiveness generally refers to the extent to which the organization realized its goals or achieved its purpose for establishment. It is about doing the right thing in the teaching process so that at the end of the teaching, the objectives of the lessons are achieved. (Awotu-Efobo, 1999). The right thing in administrative process could only be done if teachers are motivated to attend to their regular duties.

Staff motivation strategies currently existing in secondary schools and the ideal motivational measures for school administrations are what this work wants to determine.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The public outcry of the poor standard of education in Nigeria has been attributed to the poor performance of teachers. Poor performance of teachers have been attributed to a number of factors, which include lack of proper motivation, low payment of salaries, premature departure from teaching, attracting the least qualified and lack of commitment to job, since those with high qualification will see teaching in secondary schools as under employment. Some of the qualified teachers have sought for greener pasture in oil companies, banking and production industries where salaries, fringe benefits and general conditions are better.

The implication of all these is that poor motivation of teachers has led to many other problems within the secondary school administrative system ranging from wide and high rate of examination malpractice to poor learning achievement, high rate of teachers’ indiscipline, low teachers’ morale and students’ poor attitude towards studies to mention but a few. As such, if this ugly trend is not properly investigated immediately, it will lead to increase in school dropout, unemployment, consistent poor performance of teachers and students. It is in the light of the above that this study tends to examine the assessment of teachers’ motivation as a tool for effective secondary school administration in Ezza North L.G.A. of Ebonyi State.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to investigate teachers’ motivation as a tool for effective secondary school administration. The study specifically seeks to:

Determine the effectiveness of secondary school teachers’ based on intrinsic motivation in Ezza North L.G.A. of Ebonyi State.
Ascertain the effectiveness of secondary school teachers’ based on extrinsic motivation.
3. Identify the type of intrinsic motivation available for teachers’ effectiveness in secondary school in Ezza North L.G.A of Ebonyi State.
Examine the factors militating against the effectiveness of teachers’ motivation in secondary schools in Ezza North L.G.A. of Ebonyi State.

1.4 Significance of the Study

The benefits that accrue from this study are many. Specifically, teachers, students, government and the society will all benefit from this study.

Teachers will benefit from this study, when their employers are engulfed with the knowledge of the findings of the study, by being more responsive in providing incentives and other benefits which will strengthen their understanding and vision of the organization by contributing effectively.

Students will benefit from the findings of this study because the effectiveness of the teacher will make learning effective on the side of the students which will bring about success in school and in the society in general

Government will be well informed with the understanding that being the employers of labour, they need to provide the necessary things that are needed by the employers. It will help government to achieve the objectives of secondary education as stated on the National Policy on Education.

The society will benefit maximally in that the development, high productivity and greater output generation will come from students because of the accumulated knowledge inculcated in them. Parents and guardian shall equally benefit from the resources spent on their children in school because; it will significantly come back to them at the long-run. Society at large will be deposited with skillful, creative, qualitative, productive and high technical manpower that will bring about growth in the economy and development in the society.

1.5 Scope of the Study

This study focuses on the teacheers’ motivation as a tool for effective secondary school administration in Ezza North L.G.A, Ebonyi State. With the aim of determining the effectiveness of secondary school teachers based on intrinsic motivation, effectiveness of secondary schools teachers’ based on extrinsic motivation, the intrinsic motivation available for teachers’ effectiveness in secondary schools in Ezza North L.G.A. and factors militating against the effectiveness of teachers’ motivation in secondary schools in Ezza North L.G.A Ebonyi State

1.6 Research Questions

From the objectives of the study, the following research questions shall guide the study:

Why is effectiveness of secondary school teachers base on intrinsic motivation in Ezza North L.G.A?
Why is effectiveness of secondary school teachers base on extrinsic motivation?
What are the intrinsic motivations available for teachers’ effectiveness in secondary school in Ezza Noth L.G.A?
What are factors militating against the effectiveness of teachers’ motivation in secondary schools in Ezza North L.G.A?

1.7 Organization of the Study

The dissertation was organized into five chapters:

Chapter One presents background information to the study, a statement of the research problem, objectives of the study and research questions, justification and significance of the study, scope and delimitation of the study and conceptual framework.
Chapter two is about a review of the extant literature that consists of the theoretical and empirical review on employee motivation and performance.
Chapter three explains the research methodology used in this research.
Chapter four provides a presentation and discussion of the research findings.
Finally, Chapter five presents, the summary, conclusions and recommendations from the study.

Chapter Five

Conclusion and Recommendations

5.1 Conclusion

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of motivation factors that influence teachers’ performance in public secondary schools.

It can be concluded that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators are considered important by teachers. However, those motivators that are presently offered to teachers in secondary schools appear not to have impact on teachers’ motivation level. In particular, teachers indicated even the extrinsic motivators such as salary and weekly duty allowance are inadequate to meet their basic needs.

Also not all extrinsic motivators were available to teachers in studying public secondary schools in Ezza L.G.A.. However, the majority of the respondents were concerned about the inadequacy of current salary levels to meet their basic needs. Thus the study found that extrinsic motivators were present to a small extent increased teachers’ morale to perform their duties at school. Overall the results imply that Intrinsic is a motivator and Extrinsic is a maintainer both affects performance of teachers in school.

5.2 Recommendations

In this research several issues of concern about the motivation of teachers and their performance in public secondary schools were identified. The following are recommendations to address them singly or separately.
First, the study revealed that salary level for teachers in studied public secondary schools was regarded to be below average income earner in Nigeria. The majority of teachers complained about the inadequacy of their salary levels not able to meet their basic needs in the face of increasing cost of living in Ebonyi state. This in lots of ways de-motivated teachers. The EVT in consultation with Teachers Representatives (CWT) should negotiate and set up an appropriate salary scale that is in tune with the current economic environment. This will not only ensure teachers get an adequate salary to meet at the basic needs but will also in many ways provide one of the important extrinsic motivation factors for teachers to increase their performance at schools.

Furthermore, the findings revealed a lot of other extrinsic motivational factors such as free meals, free accommodation, weekly allowance and access to advance payment in case of urgent teachers’ requirements were not available to teachers in most secondary schools. These have resulted in high levels of de-motivation to teachers. The EVT should increase the current teacher’s allowances in school and make them available to every school so that teachers will get motivated to go the extra mile to work hard and improve students’ performance. Accommodation needs to be provided to teacher to enable them live near schools since most of them reported to be living far away from their schools as they search for cheap accommodation. This would reduce lateness and absenteeism at school. It will also enable teachers to stay extra hours after school to give extra coaching to weak students and/or complete the set syllabus on time.

The study further revealed that although extrinsic motivational factors were important, teachers emphasized intrinsic motivation such as recognition for achievement, being given more responsibility, work environment and personal growth in terms of training and development were what they needed for sustained motivation. Thus, the heads of school should incorporate these motivation practices/tools in school management to enable teachers to be sustainable motivated and keep their performance at a high level.

The research also noted there is poor or little internal and external supervision. Teachers do what they please and as a result the standard at school have dropped to an alarming low level. The supervision by MoEVT should strengthen and a circuit of supervisors be appointed to do a routine inspection in schools to stop teachers from participating in secondary employment or not taking their work seriously. This will motivate teachers to be more regular and arrive early at school and avoid divided attention of searching for side employment. Their performance will also improve.

The study also revealed that there is inadequate or absence of teaching materials for teachers as well as for student learning. This has resulted in teachers teaching outside the syllabus and thus not able to prepare students well for their national examination. The MoEVT in conjunction with Regional Education Authorities should supply each school with relevant and adequate study and teaching materials. This will ensure students across all schools in the country are taught what in the syllabus and get them better prepared for national examinations. This will also motivate teachers to teach students within the syllabus and complete the relevant materials on time.

Lastly, one of the key intrinsic motivation factors for teachers is professional training and development. This was noted to be lacking in studied public secondary schools and demotivated teachers who wanted to advance their career in education. MoEVT should develop a national training and development policy and award programs based on performance, to enable teachers to upgrade their knowledge and skills. This will encourage them not only national competition among teachers but will also motivate them for high performance.

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