FUNDING, TEACHER MOTIVATION AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS OF PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NORTH CENTRAL STATES, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study assessed Funding, Teacher Motivation, and Academic Performance of Students of Public Secondary Schools in North Central States, Nigeria. The study was guided by three research questions with corresponding three objectives and four null hypotheses. The research design used for this study was correlational survey research design and ex-post facto design. The total population of the study consisted of 38,780 (1900 principals and 36,880 teachers) obtained from all the public senior secondary schools in North Central States, Nigeria. The sample size of the study consisted of 3970 (283 principals and 3687 teachers) drawn from 283 public senior secondary schools using multi-stage and simple random sampling techniques respectively. The researchers self-developed instrument that consisted of 38 items and Proforma were used for data collection. The instrument was duly validated and it yielded 0.79 as logical validity index. The instrument was pilot tested on 44 staff and the coefficient of internal consistency of 0.76 was obtained. Descriptive statistics of mean, standard deviation and simple percentage were used to answer the research questions while Pearson product moment correlation and multiple correlation analysis were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The major findings of the study indicated that there is a significant relationship between funding and teacher motivation in public secondary schools in North Central States, Nigeria, there is a significant relationship between funding and student academic performance in public secondary schools in North Central States, Nigeria, there is a significant relationship between teacher motivation and student academic performance in public secondary schools in North Central States, Nigeria, and there is a significant interrelationship among funding, teacher motivation and student academic performance in public secondary schools in North Central States, Nigeria. The study recommended among others that the various state ministries of education in North Central States of Nigeria should encourage all principals to harness alternative avenues of generating additional funds to complement the ones they receive from the government to manage their schools successfully towards the improvement of student academic performance. The availability of such funds would help to provide teachers with the required teaching aids to enable them to perform their jobs successfully. Such additional funds could be generated through school farming and Parents Teachers Association levies, development levies, community supports among others.