THE ATTITUDE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS TOWARDS TEACHING IN THE RURAL AREAS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

According to John Dewey, education helps in the formation of fundamental attitudes of imagination, desire and thinking which is strictly correlative with culture in its inclusive sense. Rusk sees education as help in the development of each unit in the society to maximize his potentials, abilities and also to enable one contribute meaningfully to the growth of that community and share its accomplishment. Education is therefore the key to modernization and development. The introduction of Christianity was followed by western type of education and its was a common strategy that as soon as a situation was established one of the first facilities to be provided was a school to which they tried to recruit young ones who would be more easily attracted. The school was to train manpower who would successfully serve as catechist, interpreters, clerks, court messengers etc. to enhance their evangelical activities. The first missionary school was established in Badagry, a rural area in Lagos State in 1942 by Thomas Birch Freeman of the western Methodist missionary society.

Since the missionaries were in control over these schools before the government involvement, schools in the rural areas were adequately staffed and the teachers were doing their jobs effectively. Those rural are villages or communities characterized by the smallest of their population, poor housing or accommodation, the existence of untrained roads and low level of commercial activities. The occupation of the people is agriculture and they are handicapped by poor health care delivery, non-availability of portable water and electricity, inadequate transportation and communication system. With the above characteristics playing the rural areas, teachers posted to such areas started to protest their posting in favour of urban centres that are characterized with basic amenities not found in rural areas. Some teachers started to give flimsy excuses such as family separations, road hazard to remain in the urban schools. Some influenced the posting to urban centres through lobbying. These led to mass rural-urban drift, thereby creating vacuum in the numbers of teachers left to teach the less privilege students in the rural schools. The state government now took it upon themselves to post or transfer teachers from urban areas to rural areas and from rural areas to urban areas. This measure did not work out because most of the concerned teachers always find their ways to remain in urban entre4s where all their basic and social needs are met. Those who are lucky to be in the urban centres developed the sit tight syndrome.

The question now is ‘do we allow the rural schools to be phased out because of the negative attitude teachers are having towards them’? or will the government create a conducive and enabling environment in the rural areas to attract teachers to their school? It is therefore pertinent to identify the attitude of teachers towards teaching in the rural areas particularly in Uhunmwode local government area of Edo State.

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Education as a veritable instrument of change unlocks the potentials in the citizens to contribute meaningfully to the growth and development of the community. It is a common saying that no educational system can rise above the quality of its teachers. The child though seen as a focal point or centre of the educational process, the teacher is the facilitators that translate educational policies with practice and programmes into action and consequently could best be described as the pivot of the educative process. The teachers are a crucial component of any education system because he is the main determinant of the quality of the system (Okoye, 2003).

A lot of variables have contributed to the change and modification in attitudes of secondary school. Since there are inadequate or lack of basic amenities in the rural areas, teachers find it difficult to go there to teach and those who are there by compulsory or without alternative posting do so with mixed feelings, and as a result the quality of rural children education is adversely affected. It is established that poor teaching produces poorly educated children. The spatter distribution of amenities and infrastructure in those rural areas develop negative attitude towards teaching while schools in the urban areas are overstaffed. The rural inhabitants including the students would want to know why teachers are having negative attitude to rural service. Therefore, the researcher intends to investigate circumstances surrounding the trend whereby teachers are always sick of rural assignment. The researcher intends to provide answers to the following questions.

1.        Does the environment have any influence on the attitude of teachers towards rural posting?

2.        Does the teachers’ academic qualification have any effect on his/her attitude to rural posting?

3.        Does the years of experience of teachers have any influence on the attitude of teachers to rural posting?

4.        Does the marital status of a teacher affect his/her attitude or rural posting?

5.        Does the sex of a teacher affect his/her attitude to rural posting?

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of t his study is to examine the attitude of secondary schools teachers towards teaching in the rural schools. Since the teachers posted to the rural areas developed some mixed feelings, there is the danger of non-seriousness in the execution of their jobs or duties. According to the National Policy on Education (N. PE, 1989) it stated that the Nigeria philosophy of education is based on the integration of the individual into a sound and effective citizens and equal educational opportunities for all citizens of the nation at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels both inside and outside the formal school system. But the refusal of teachers to accept rural posting is now creating disparity between the rural and urban types of education thereby encouraging inequality in education. it becomes desirable to earn the possibility of maintaining some kind of balance between those areas most especially as it concerns education, the study will help to find solutions to the negative attitude of secondary school teachers towards rural posting.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

          This study is designed to guide the researcher in the following:

Is there a relationship between the environment and the teachers attitude towards rural posting?

1)        Is there a relationship between teaching experience of teachers and their attitude towards rural posting?

2)        Is there a relationship between academic qualification of teachers and their attitude towards rural posting?

3)        Is there a relationship between marital status of teachers and their attitude towards rural posting?

4)        Is there a relationship between the sexes of teacher’s and their attitude towards rural posting?

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study is important because there is need for students in the rural to have equal educational opportunities like their mate in the urban areas. It is also relevant and significant in Nigeria towards industrial and technological advancement. It is important to the ministry of education in identifying the causes of the negative attitude of teachers to teach in the rural area and to proffer appropriate solutions to the ugly trend. The study is relevant to the potentials teachers in identifying the types of rural environment they are going to work when employed. Many researchers and benefit from this study.

1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study is limited to public junior and secondary schools in Uhunmwode local government area of Edo State and all the teachers teaching in the selected schools whether professional or auxiliary teachers. The study will also include teachers teaching in the urban areas in order to get their personal opinions towards rural posting.

1.7 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

ATTITUDE: this refers to the opinions and feelings that a person has towards something. Here, the feelings teachers have about rural posting are their attitude.

PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS: These are teachers that have the necessary teaching qualifications and are certified to impact knowledge to learners. They include holders of national certificate of education (NCE), Bachelor in education (Bed), Masters in education (Med) postgraduate diploma in education or technical education (PGDE or PDGTE).

AUXILIARY TEACHERS; these are teachers who do not have the necessary teaching quahfication but find their way into the classwon to impact knowledge to learners.

PUBLIC SCHOOL: These are schools that are managed and funded by the government (state and federal).

RURAL AREAS: These are villages or communities characterized by the  smallness of their population poor accommodation or housing, existence of un-tarred roads, low level of commercial activities, handicapped by poor health care delivery, non-availability of portable water and electricity, inadequate transportation and communication system.

URBAN AREAS: those are towns or cities that have the opposite characteristics of the rural areas.

ASSUMPTION OF THE STUDY: The study assumes that teachers generally have a negative attitude towards rural posting because of lack of social amenities in the rural areas. It also assumes that children in their rural schools are behind the children in the urban schools academically because of lack of teachers in the rural schools.