THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHER QUALITY AND JUNIOR SECONDARY STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN ENGLISH JSCE: A CASE STUDY OF GIWA EDUCATIONAL ZONE. KADUNA STATE MIDAT,

The study examines the relationship between teacher quality and junior secondary students’ performance in English: a study of selected schools in Giwa educational zone. Survey research design was adopted for the study. A total of forty three English teachers and three hundred and fifty five Junior Secondary School Students were randomly selected for the study. The instrument used for data collection was a four point rating scale questionnaire on teacher quality. The instrument was validated and pilot tested, using Kuder Richardson (KR 20) the reliability index was 0.78, while examination result spread sheet from the secondary schools were used to collect examination academic achievement. Mean and standard deviation were use to answer the research question while Pearson’s product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMC) was used to test the hypothesis. The result revealed that, there is a significant relationship between teacher qualification and students academic achievement and there is a significant relationship between teacher pedagogical skills and students academic achievement. Based on this finding it was recommended among others that teachers’ knowledge on pedagogical skills should be updated continuously through training and retraining. Introduction Education is a tested tool which nations of the world depend on to develop growth of human capital and economic empowerment for her citizens. The important of quality education to the development of any nation cannot be over emphasized; education have contributed and still contributing to every aspect of human life and national development. The developed nations have developed socially, economically, politically and technologically because of the quality of their education. Hence, every developed nation pays a great emphasis to an effective and quality education to its citizen so as to make them effective and productive in the society. Education therefore, is a process of modifying the life of an individual to become a useful and effective member of the society (Kolo, 2005). Education is recognized in Nigeria as the major yardstick for promoting rapid national development. In recognition this importance, the federal government of Nigeria describe education as an instrument per excellence. But despite the significance role of education to the life of an individual and the development of the nation, the performance of the students in both internal and external examination in English is not encouraging for instance the performance of students in West Africa examination council (WAEC) and national examination council (NECO) is annually declining. According to a documentary on the Journal of Science, Technology, Mathematics and Education (JOSTMED), 10(2), April, 2014 154 challenges of education sector of Nigeria presented by an NTA reporter dated 20 march 2012, revealed that over 60% of the students who sat for November/December West Africa examination council performed below average. Okebukola (2012) observed that in the senior secondary school certificate examination (SSCE) conducted by National Examination Council (NECO) in the last five years, more than 75% of candidates who sat for subjects that will qualify them for admission into the university fail to earn credit pass in may/june examination in which English is a basic requirement for university admission. English is the medium of communication in the classroom in Nigeria, the effective communication of the subject matter will enhance teaching and learning and in turn improves students performance in the subject matter but this might have not been the case in. Researchers have attempted finding out the causes of students’ poor performance in science subjects. Problems identified among others include: Poor teaching methods, poor infrastructure and inadequate instructional materials, teacher – centred instruction and lack of qualified teachers (Olorukoba, 2007; Olaofe, 2005 & Yaki, 2011) A teacher is the most important person for the realization of the goals and objective of the national policy of education. This probably explains why the national policy on education (FGN, 2006) stresses the need to accord teacher education a prominent place in educational planning. The policy further maintains that among other things, the mission of teacher education should be to; produce highly (motivated) conscientious and efficient classroom teachers for all levels of the educational system, and provide teachers with the intellectual and professional background adequate for their assignment. The quality of teachers will continue to be given a major emphasis in education because no educational system can rise above the quality of its teachers (FGN, 2006). This is because the quality of teachers determine to a large extent, the quality of the educational system itself. Professional teachers in particular are crucial to the formulation and successful implementation of educational polices in any country In spite of all that is mentioned above, it has been said that lack of qualified teachers is one of the greatest contribution towards the dwindling standard of education observed that the engagement of non-professionals as teachers were responsible for the low quality of teaching in schools (Attahiru & Umar, 2002). For instance, in the northern state of Nigeria, for instance out of 207,081 teachers in primary school, only 51,630 i.e.25% were qualified while in the southern states out of 212,000 primary schools teachers, 114,810 i.e. 54% were qualified (Olaofe, 2005). Teacher quality has shamelessly moved on the declining plane from a large number of those who cannot teach, to the teachers who unleash who the students incidentally learnt (Olaofe, 2005). English language is an important subject in the teaching and learning process because it is the medium of communication in the classroom. Inspite of its important role in learning the status of English language in Nigeria is engendered especially in the school system. That the youth especially do not have adequate functional competence in the language is attested to the rate of failure or, low level of performance in external examination. This low level of competence demonstrated by the students’ draws attention to the ineffectiveness and inefficiency of teacher qualification and teacher pedagogical skills. In view of this Akinsola (2010) reported that teachers’ qualification is significantly related to students’ academic performance. Journal of Science, Technology, Mathematics and Education (JOSTMED), 10(2), April, 2014 155 Statement of the Problem The teacher is a model whose quality could have positive or negative impact on the performance of the students. The quality of the teacher could be measured from different perspectives, from the point of view of qualification, methodology, personality, characters and value. Pyans (1964) cited in Binnual Review (1996) classified these qualities that influence their effectiveness as teaching experience, values, personality and marital status. Professional teachers in particular are crucial to the formulation and successful implementation of educational polices in any country. In spite of this it has been observed that lack of qualified teachers is one of the greatest contribution towards the dwindling standard of education, it is also observed that the engagement of non-professionals as teachers were responsible for the low quality of teaching in schools (Attahiru & Umar, 2002) Unqualified and non professional teachers are employed to teach the junior secondary schools so long as they can speak English. It is pathetic to note that in the northern state of Nigeria, for instance out of 207,081 teachers in primary school, only 51,630 i.e.25% were qualified while in the southern states out of 212,000 primary schools teachers, 114,810 i.e. 54% were qualified (Olaofe 2005). Against this background, this study sets out to examine the relationship between teacher quality and students’ performance. Purpose of the Study Purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between teacher’s qualification, pedagogical skills and students’ performance in JSSCE examination in english. Specifically the study sought to: (i) Determine the relationship between teachers’ qualification and the performance of students’ in JSS 3 final year examination (ii) Determine the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical skills and the performance of students’ in JSS3 final year examination Research Questions In order to carry out this investigations, the following questions will serve to guide the designs: (i) What is the relationship between teachers’ qualifications and the performance of students’ in JSS3 final year examination? (ii) What is the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical skills and the performance of students in JSS 3 final year examination Research Hypotheses The following null hypotheses are formulated to guide and direct the conduct of the study Ho1. There is no significant relationship between teachers’ qualifications and the performance of students’ in the JSS 3 examination. Ho2. There is no significant relationship between teachers’ pedagogical skills and the performance of students in JSS 3 examination. Methodology The survey type of educational research designs was employed in the study since the study set out to determine the quality of teachers and its relationships on student performance. The population Journal of Science, Technology, Mathematics and Education (JOSTMED), 10(2), April, 2014 156 for the study comprises the entire English language teachers and students’ of Junior Secondary Schools within Giwa Educational Inspectorate Division of Kaduna state. The total Junior Secondary Schools is estimated to be 68. The sample used for this study was drawn from the total population of English Language teachers and J.S. S Student from Giwa Education Inspectorate Division of Kaduna state. Forty three of the English language teachers and