Educational services, teacher quality and students’ academic performance in public senior secondary schools,

Educational services refer to the services available for teachers to improve their quality and promote teacher effectiveness in the school system, while teacher quality is a degree of excellence especially as it relates to high level of competency and worth of teachers. Specifically, the study examined the extent to which provision and utilization of educational services relate to teacher quality and students’ academic performance.

Correlational survey design was adopted and it was conducted ex-post facto. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 3,360 participants out of 8,800 target population, (3080 teachers and 280 principals). The respondents were selected from 280 (35%) Schools out of the 800 Public Senior Secondary Schools in the North Central Zone, of Nigeria as at the time of this study. Three researcher-designed instruments, namely, Availability of Educational Services Questionnaire (AESQ), Teacher Quality Assessment Questionnaire (TQAQ), and Students’ Academic Performance Proforma (SAPP), were used to collect relevant data for the study. The instruments were validated by six experts in Educational Management, Science Education, Measurement and Evaluation and Statistics. The coefficients of reliability of AESQ and TQAQ after a three week test-retest were found to be 0.75 and 0.78 respectively. Six research questions and nine hypotheses were formulated and tested. Means and Percentage were used to answer the research questions raised. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the main hypothesis. In addition, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Statistical Methods were used to test the operational hypotheses, all at 0.05 significance level.

The findings revealed that provision of library service, computer services and education resource centers services were found to be grossly inadequate (22%, 37% and 38%) as indicated by the teacher responses. The average success rate of students in West African Senior Schools Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) from 2004 to 2008 was 12.0%. The Fitted Multiple Regression Model was significant at α = 0.05, indicating that there was significant relationship among educational services, teacher quality and students’ academic performance (p-value < 0.05, R2 = 0.51). The hypotheses tested indicated that there was significant and positive relationship among the provision of library services, supervision of instruction, teachers’ in-service training and students academic performance (r=0.54, p < 0.05 and r=0.52, p < 0.05 and r = 0.70, p < 0.05) respectively. The results further showed that there was a significant, positive and strong relationship among the use of computer aided instruction, education resource centre services, teacher academic qualification and students’ academic performance (r = 0.54; p < 0.05; r = 0.80, p < 0.05 and r = 0.53, p < 0.05) respectively. The result further indicated that there was a significant, positive and strong relationship among teachers’ professional qualifications, teachers’ experience and students’ academic performance (r = 0.71, p < 0.05 and r = 0.73, p < 0.05) respectively.

The implication of these findings was that students’ academic performance cannot be determined with a single factor of teacher quality alone but may be determined by the extent to which a combination of educational services are concurrently provided for them. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended, among others, that old students’ association, philanthropists and well meaning individuals in the society should assist in the provision of essential educational services like libraries and computer laboratories for effective teaching and learning. Also the acquisition of computer skills should be the basis for promotion for secondary school teachers. Periodic review of remuneration of teachers should be given top priority but it must be based on teachers’ and students’ performance.