AN EVALUATION ON THE IMPACT OF SCHOOL CLIMATE AND TEACHER OUTPUT ON STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN SOME SELECTED SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The school, as an institution, has certain goals and objectives that it must meet in order to succeed (FFN, 2004). The organizational environment of the company, which includes the educational system, is very vital in order to fulfill the goals and objectives set out. To put it another way, organizational climate refers to the working conditions that exist between superordinates and subordinates (school heads and instructors) in order to realize the goals and objectives of the school system. The term "school environment" refers to the characteristics that contribute to a sense of belonging in schools, as well as the attitudes of staff and students toward their respective institutions. A positive school climate is associated with well-managed classrooms and common areas, high and clearly stated expectations regarding individual responsibility, a sense of safety at school, and teachers and other supporting staff who consistently acknowledge and fairly address the behavior of students and other students. The American Institutes for Research published a report in 2007 stating that The school's physical size is also crucial to consider. The findings of an investigation of the link between school size and student success by Eberts, Kehoe & Stone (2002) revealed that teachers' satisfaction was higher in smaller schools than in big schools. Smith and Gregory (2007) used a climate assessment instrument and a series of in-depth interviews to discover that teachers in small schools were significantly more satisfied than those in large schools, whereas Fowler and Welberg (2001) discovered that large school size was negatively related to school climate in one of their studies. According to Ramirez (2002), the size of a classroom and other instructional space is not connected to student accomplishment; rather, the organization of a school's classroom and other instructional space is the most important factor in determining a school's success or failure. Teachers' productivity and the mood of the school seem to be important factors in shaping the teaching and learning environment in schools. A school's atmosphere is a collection of features that distinguishes it from other schools. These traits set one school apart from another in the same area. In one school, the principal, teachers, and other staff members may take joy in their collaborative efforts. It is possible that there is dissatisfaction among the faculty at another institution. In one school, personnel may look well organized, knowledgeable, and confident in their abilities, yet in another school, tension may arise when the school head loses control of the situation (Clifton 2009). Due to the fact both students and instructors are less likely to feel connectivity in a bad and unwelcoming school environment, poor conceit would have a detrimental impact on teachers' work productivity and student accomplishment in the school setting. In business, productivity is defined as the relationship between the amount of outputs generated by an organization and the amount of resources spent in the process. Teacher productivity is defined as the ratio of output created by the teachers to the total number of students produced by the instructors. The output relates to the quantity and quality of students produced by the teachers.

Various authors have defined climate as the perceived subjective effect of the formal system, informal management styles, and other important environmental factors that have an impact on the attitudes, beliefs, values, and motivation of people who work in a particular organization, the personality of an organization, and the atmosphere of the work place, which includes a complex mixture of norms, values and expectations as well as policies and procedures that influence individual behavior (Spencer , Pelote and Seymour, 2008).

When it comes to schools, climate is a vital relationship between organizational structure, instructor attitudes about work and conduct, and students' academic performance. It was discovered that the formal features of schools had a significant impact on the manner in which teachers carried out their responsibilities and obligations within the school system. When it comes to organizational climate, it might be defined as a composite of many variables that intervene between the structure of an organization and the styles and other characteristics of leaders, as well as between teacher productivity and student accomplishment. A large number of research have been conducted on the organizational atmosphere of schools. For example, Halpin and Croft (2003) discovered that the conduct of elementary school administrators is a significant factor in determining the atmosphere of the school. In their study, Kelner, Rivers, and Connell (2006) found that successful leadership competencies and managerial styles produce motivating organizational climates, which in turn arouse employee motivation to perform well at work, and which predict the desired organizational outcomes, which in the school system is referred to as students achievement. Numerous studies have shown the relationship between organizational climate and bottom-link performance measures such as volume, efficiency and production (see Figure 1). In the study by Spencer, Pelote, and Seymour (2008), the organizational environment was shown to be responsible for 10 to 25% of the variation in performance metrics. Mann and Hirst (2002) investigated the influence of a negative occurrence on team climate as well as the relationship between team climate and performance. According to the findings, team atmosphere was shown to have a good relationship with team performance. Zohar (2000) demonstrated that variation in behavior at the level of the individual supervisor, the group climate level of analysis, and the group climate level of analysis affects safely behavior, and it was plausible that this would hold true for other aspects of climate as well as the individual supervisor.

While high levels of productivity are the hallmark of economic growth and development in all countries around the world, the level of efficiency and productivity in schools, and the system's overall ability to achieve its set goals, are all dependent on the ability of educators to perform their defined roles effectively, because teachers are the fulcrum around which the entire educational system revolves (Eduese, 2006).

Teachers have been found to have a significant influence on student success and to play a critical part in the accomplishment of higher education degrees (Lloyd, Mensch and Clark 2000). Teaching and learning accomplishment are dependent on teachers, since there can be no real socio-economic and political progress in any community if there aren't enough teachers in place. Productivity is concerned with the total effectiveness and efficiency with which tasks are completed and completed tasks are completed. The ratio is simply a way of assessing how successfully a company turns resources into products and services. Teacher productivity may be assessed in the school system in terms of how well instructors perform on the job. When evaluating instructors' performance, qualitative techniques such as student test results on standardized tests have been utilized to do so (Schacter and Thum, 2004). As stated by Blankstein (2006), school grades and test scores do not accurately reflect the quality of instruction because teacher input is not the only factor that influences students' achievement in the school system. Other factors that have been identified as having a significant impact on students' achievement include peer effect, ethnicity, gender, motivation, and family background variables such as house hold environment and parental educational background (Wenglisky, 2001). This suggests that the level of productivity of teachers can be measured in terms of the things that they can control and do in the classroom, such as teaching effectiveness and classroom performance, rather than the things that they cannot control or do in the classroom. Teaching effectiveness has been recognized as a multifaceted concept since it assesses a wide range of distinct aspects of teaching performance (Dunkin, 2007).

1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

There are a variety of elements that might influence teacher productivity and student accomplishment in secondary school, among them: It has also been found that instructor productivity and student accomplishment are both below average at this institution(Dunkin, 2007). It is difficult in the educational system to obtain the desired effect of improved teacher performance, which is higher student accomplishment as is predicted. People are dissatisfied with teachers' low levels of production, which, in turn, results in low levels of accomplishment among pupils. It is against this background that this study seeks to assess the impact of school climate and teacher output on students academic achievement in some selected senior secondary schools

1.3   OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The study will be guided by the following research questions.

i.          To examine the relationship between teacher’s productivity and academic achievement secondary school students.

ii.        To find out the relationship between schools climate and students academic performance.

iii.      To evaluate the effect of teacher’s productivity on secondary school student’s academic performance.

iv.      To investigate the extent at which school climate affects teacher productivity.

1.4     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following questions have been prepared for the study:

i.          Is there a relationship between teacher’s productivity and academic achievement secondary school students?

ii.        Is there a relationship between schools climate and students academic performance?

iii.      What are the effect of teacher’s productivity on secondary school student’s academic performance?

iv.      To what  extent does school climate affects teacher productivity?

1.5     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

 This study will be significant to the ministry of education as the Nigerian education is in a dismal state classes are congested, schools are poorly funded, teachers are not well remunerated and workers welfare is at its lowest ebb.

This research work will therefore be of paramount importance to the government and its agencies, parents, teacher, schools administrators and old students. It will also be useful in assisting the government policy makers especially the inspectorate divisions of the ministry of education to perform their oversight function by paying routine inspection to schools in order to ascertain incompetent teachers who should be sent on refresher courses to update their knowledge. 

The study will be significant to the academic community as it will contribute to the existing literature.

1.7     SCOPE OF THE STUDY

 This study will examine the relationship between teacher’s productivity and academic achievement secondary school students. The study will also find out the relationship between schools climate and students academic performance. The study will further evaluate the effect of teacher’s productivity on secondary school student’s academic performance. Lastly, the study will investigate the extent at which school climate affects teacher productivity.  Hence this study will be delimited to Anambre State.

1.7       LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Like in every human endeavour, the researchers encountered slight constraints while carrying out the study. Insufficient funds tend to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature, or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire, and interview), which is why the researcher resorted to a moderate choice of sample size. More so, the researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. As a result, the amount of time spent on research will be reduced.

1.8     DEFINITION OF TERMS

Academic achievement : - this means the general achievement of students.

School climate: refers to the social atmosphere of a setting or learning environment in which students have different experience, depending upon the protocols set up by the teachers and administrator.

Teachers output : this connoted distinist and separate from the art of teaching.