UNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATION COMMISSION’SCAPACITY BUILDINGPROGRAMMES ANDPRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Teacher Effectiveness (TE) is an important index of teacher quality. However, reports have shown that, teacher effectiveness is on the decline among primary school teachers in Southwestern Nigeria. Previous efforts largely focused on the professionalism of teaching and certification of primary school teacher with little emphasis on Capacity Building Programmes (CBPs) of 2009-2016 by Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC). The study, therefore, was carried out to investigate the influence of UBEC CBPs (Training Content - TC, Favourableness of Environment - FE and Appropriateness of Resource Strategies - ARS) on TE (Lesson Preparation – LP, Classroom Management – CM, Teaching Method – TM, Subject Mastery - SM, Motivation of Pupils - MP, Use of Teaching Materials - UTM, Teacher-Pupil Interaction – TPI, Communication with Pupils - CP and Pupil Evaluation – PE) in public primary schools in southwestern Nigeria.

Socio-cognitive Learning Theory and Stufflebeam's Contextual Input Process and Product Evaluation model provided the framework, while the survey design of ex-postfacto type was adopted. The multi-stage sampling procedure was used. One senatorial district each from Oyo, Ogun and Ondo wasselected randomly while the proportionate-to-size sampling technique was used to select 14 local government areas (Oyo – seven, Ogun - three and Ondo – four). One hundred and eleven primary schools (Oyo – 58, Ogun – 29 and Ondo – 23) were selected while primary school teachers were purposively selected based on their participation in capacity building programmes.Capacity Building Rating (r=0.98), Classroom Observation Rating (r = 0.77), LP (r = 0.94), CM (r = 0.89, TM (r = 0.92), SM (r = 0.87), MP (r = 0.86), UTM (r = 0.78), TPI (r = 0.87), CP (r = 0.97) and SP (r = 0.77) scales were used. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Multiple regression and Analysis of Variance at 0.05 level of significance.

Participants’ age was 36.5 + 3.70 yearsand 54.0% were female. The perception of teachers who participated in UBEC CBPs was high in TC (x ̅= 3.40), FE (x ̅= 3.26) and ARS (x ̅= 3.17) as against the threshold of 2.50. Teachers who participated in the UBEC CBPs were favourably disposed to LP (x ̅= 3.55), CM (x ̅= 3.69), TM (x ̅=3.71), SM (x ̅=3.71), MP (x ̅=3.76), UTM (x ̅=3.63), TPI (x ̅=3.69) and PE (x ̅= 3.63) against the yardstick of 3.00. The CBP significantly influenced LP (F(1;610)=81.69), CM (F(1;610)=83.59), TM (F(1;610)=65.62), SM (F(1;610)=56.45), UTM (F(1;610)=79.87), TPI (F(1;610)=82.43), CP (F(1;610)=38.23) and MP (F(1;610)=67.39). The TC, FE and ARS jointly predicted TE (R=0.436, F(3;608)=35.25; Adj R2=0.185) and accounted for 18.5% of its variance. TC (β=0.24), FE (β=0.14) and ARS (β=0.09) relatively contributed to the TE.There were no significant differences in the effectiveness of teachers who participated in CBPs across the three states.

The Universal Basic Education Commission’scapacity building programmes from 2009 to 2016 facilitated teacher effectiveness especially in southwestern Nigeria. The capacity building programmes should be sustained to further improve primary school teacher effectiveness