Human Resources and Academic Performance of Students

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

It is a universally acknowledged fact that education is the bedrock of development. This is because it is expected that the educational system will produce the required quality and quantity of human resources for economic growth by utilizing the optimal mix of inputs.

(Ibukun, 2009) emphasized that no nation or civilization can rise above the level of her education. The tremendous role of education in the development process has left a burning desire in every government to enhance access to education for all her inhabitants. Ibukun (2003) stated that universal primary education (UPE) and the more modern universal basic education (UBE) programmes were largely premised on education’s contribution to economic growth and development at the national level. The assumption has been that learners at lower levels of education should be provided with opportunities to prevent talent loss.

Education is a highly important human activity. It aids any society in fashioning and modeling individuals so that they can function effectively in their environment. According to Boit, Njoki, & Chang’ach (2012), the purpose of education is to equip the populace with the skills necessary to reshape society and eradicate inequality. Particularly crucial to national and individual growth is secondary education. It has a key role in establishing a country’s human resource base at a level higher than elementary education (Achoka, Odebero, Maiyo & Mualuko, 2007). Provision of quality secondary education is therefore vital in providing the possibilities and advantages of social and economic development (Onsumu, Muthaka, Ngware & Kosembei, 2006). According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (2005), cognitive achievement is one of the markers of education quality. According to Adediwura & Tayo (2007), academic achievement is determined by test and examination scores or subject teachers’ grades.

An organization’s human resources (HR) department includes all employees (teaching, management, and technical/support personnel) who are involved in any of the organization’s operations. It is widely acknowledged that a school’s human resources are its most precious asset. Regardless of budget constraints, there is a need to grow and reform the educational system, as well as to assure its quality in order to fulfill public demand. Teachers are the most important human resource necessary for the production function of the educational system. This is because they play a significant role in facilitating the teaching and learning process. According to Adeyemi & Akposheri, (2009), despite the growth of science and technology, the function of the teacher in the classroom has not been lessened nor has it been supplanted. Teachers appear to have a significant impact on the social and cultural development of a society, since they impart numerous values to their students, either directly or indirectly. It is not surprising that Chukwu, (2003), and (Okebukola, 2010) have identified the quality and commitment of teachers as significant predictors of the quality of education. The success of an organization is contingent on the quantity and caliber of its labor force. According to Ibukun, cited in Adegbemile (2011), the educator holds the key to nation building. Any nation’s desire to become a bigger nation can only be realized if there are qualified and devoted instructors to impart the necessary attitude, skills, and information.

This is especially evident at educational institutions, since the persons necessary to perform the organization’s basic functions are highly educated. The focus of this study will be on the teaching staff, but no less attention will be paid to the subordinate staff’s role in ensuring students’ good academic performance, such as preparing their meals on time, transporting them on tours designed to improve academic performance, typing and producing their assessment tests, and organizing their laboratories and libraries.

In the United States, a study done by Motoko, Akiba, Gerald Letendre & Scribner (2004), found that the nations with greater teachers’ quality created higher academic accomplishment. These studies give empirical, transnational evidence of the significance of investing in the quality of teachers for enhancing national accomplishment. Therefore, human resource management in education entails coordinating the activities of staff, students, and parents to achieve educational goals and objectives (Adeniyi, 2004). The National Policy on Education (FRN, 2004) elucidates the wide tasks of school administration, such as employment, promotion, deployment, and discipline of teachers, amongștiindștiindsștiindștiinds.știinds.

Successive administrations in Nigeria have made attempts to improve educational institutions’ human resource management. The significance of human resource management has been emphasized, but little is known about its association with the academic performance of secondary school students. To achieve good performance on public tests, secondary schools must hire skilled instructors, secure modern premises, offer enough facilities and equipment to facilitate teaching and learning, and monitor teaching for quality control. Administrators, managers, guidance counselors, Parents Teachers Association (PTA), curriculum specialists, funding agencies, non-teaching personnel, inspectors, and examination boards are other entities that may have an impact on students’ academic achievement (Osagie & Okafor, 2012).

Any organization that does not plan for its human resources will frequently discover that it is unable to effectively meet both personnel requirements and overall goals (Stoner1978). For instance, a school may choose to add new subjects to its curriculum. Unless the school makes proper provisions for the instructors to handle these additional courses, they will remain on the schedule without being taught. To further illustrate this point, when the federal government launched the 6:3:3:4 system of education, it invested substantial funds in technical education equipment. The human resources necessary to run the equipment, on the other hand, were not considered. As a result, the equipment was left to rot in the rain, and many of it was ultimately stolen by thugs (Osagie & Okafor, 2012).

Regarding the present educational policy, the supervision of teaching is the process of supervising instructors’ work in an effort to assist them in resolving their instructional issues so that students can derive the greatest possible advantage from classroom activities (Igwe, 2005). This can be accomplished by the principal’s or another designated official’s regular interaction with instructors and students in the classroom to supervise the teaching and learning process. According to Nwagwu (2004), the supervisor is responsible for monitoring and analyzing all employee actions and organizational programs. The primary purpose for this is to assure the obedient compliance of all employees with established rules and stated objectives through quality assurance, standard maintenance, and quality control. This stance is in keeping with the National Policy on Education (FRN, 2004) which claimed that supervision is a technique for quality control. The school’s objectives can be attained through the continuous supervision of the teaching and non-teaching staff.

In the same way that the evaluation of staff impacts their performance, it also determines the academic performance of students. For example, in the study by Akposheri (1994), she found out that there was significant relationship between teachers who were highly rated during evaluation and the academic performance of students. However, Okafor (2006) asserted that caution should be exercised in evaluating employees’ performance and not their personalities.

Secondary school not only has a key position in the Nigerian educational system, but it also serves as a bridge between the elementary and university levels of education. According to Asikhai (2010), secondary school education is intended to serve as the bedrock and foundation for higher education in tertiary institutions. It is both an investment and a tool that may be utilized to expedite a nation’s economic, social, political, technical, scientific, and cultural growth. It is regrettable that the secondary schools of today do not meet the expected standardștii.știi. The persistently poor performance of secondary school students on public examinations has prompted public outrage (Ibukun, Oyekakin, Akinrotimi, Akinfolarin & Ayandoja, 2012). According to Nwokocha & Amadike (2005), academic achievement of pupils is the standard for measuring educational quality of a nation. Hence, it is necessary that students in secondary schools in particular maintain a good performance in internal and largely external examinations.

Students’ declining academic performance has frequently been ascribed to a number of causes, including the principal’s leadership style, the quality of instructors, home issues, government factors, and the lack of educational resources (human, material, financial and physical resources). However, this study is confined to the provision of human resources and students’ academic achievement in secondary school. The availability of educational resources (human and material) is critical due to their role in achieving educational goals. Human resources are an essential educational input for the students’ overall skill acquisition and literacy development. Teaching personnel and non-teaching employees comprise the educational system’s human resources (Ekundayo, 2009). The availability of these resources is necessary for the system to attain excellence. However, it has been noticed that secondary schools in Lagos State do not have the requisite number of instructors both in terms of quantity and quality (Ekundayo, Haastrup, Timilehin, Alonge & Hezekiah, 2010). This is seen in the schools’ high student-teacher ratios.

A detailed assessment of the schools in Nigeria and their operations reveals that the majority of public schools cannot produce anything positive because they lack the necessary facilities and personnel to prepare students for West African Examination Council (WAEC) tests (Owoeye & Yara, 2011). Studies examining the link between the availability of human resources and academic achievement have demonstrated that human resources improve students’ academic performance. In their respective studies, Adedeji (1998), Ayodele (2000), Adewuyi (2002), and Okandeji (2007) concluded that instructors have a crucial role in students’ academic achievement.

Similar to Adedeji (1998) and Owoeye (2011) found a favorable correlation between material resources in schools and students’ academic achievement. According to Hallack (1990), classrooms, housing, libraries, furniture, equipment, and other instructional materials are among the material resources that contribute to the academic achievement of students.

Thus far, the evidence indicates that human resources have a substantial positive link with academic success. Thus, this study will examine the features of school personnel in terms of qualification, teacher-student ratio, and years of teaching experience as a predictor of students’ academic success.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The academic success of secondary school pupils in recent public examinations is one of the primary criteria by which the general public evaluates the products of secondary schools in Nigeria. As a result, Nigeria has not performed well in her efforts to provide high-quality education to her inhabitants. Students’ academic performance is affected by variables such as motivation, leaders’ oversight, the quality and quantity of teaching personnel, and the availability of instructional resources (Ibukun et al, 2012). Students’ declining academic performance has frequently been ascribed to a variety of causes, including the principal’s leadership style, the quality of instructors, home issues, government factors, and the lack of educational resources (human, material, financial, and physical resources) (Ekundayo et al ,2010). However, the scope of this study is confined to human resource provision and academic achievement in secondary schools. Disparities in performance continues to be identified as one of education’s several difficulties. The government’s investment on education was not only intended to increase enrollment, but also to ensure that academic performance at these institutions was enhanced at the lowest possible cost. The problem of this study is consequently the low academic performance of secondary school students, which may be attributable to human resource-related variables.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main aim of this study is to examine human resources and academic performance of students. Specifically, other objectives of this study are:

i.          To determine whether there is a relationship between human resources and academic performance.

ii.        To determine whether employment of experienced teachers affect academic performance.

iii.      To determine whether teachers qualifications affects students academic performance.

iv.      To determine whether teachers teaching methods affects students academic performance.

 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following research questions will be answered in this study:

i.          Is there a relationship between human resources and academic performance?

ii.        Does employment of experienced teachers affect academic performance?

iii.      Does teachers qualifications affect students academic performance?

iv.      Does teachers teaching methods affects students academic performance?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The importance of this study cannot be over emphasized considering the fact that without adequate human resources, excellent students’ academic performance cannot be achieved. The findings of this study will serve as a contribution to existing literature and add knowledge in the subject area. The findings from this study will assist educational administrators as well as school administrator in preventing brain drain in secondary schools especially in secondary schools of Abeokuta, Ogun State. Also, this study will be of help to the government in the area of teachers’ recruitment and retention. Moreover, the study will go a long way in assisting educational administrators in drawing up a comprehensive human resource policy and programs in the education sector.

In addition, the result of this study will assist educational managers, administrators, and technocrats in the formulation and execution of educational policy towards the attainment of the overall educational goals and objectives.

 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study is focused on examining human resources and academic performance of students. Specifically, this study is focused on determining whether there is a relationship between human resources and academic performance, determining whether employment of experienced teachers affect academic performance, determining whether teachers qualifications affects students academic performance and determining whether teachers teaching methods affects students academic performance.

Teachers and students of selected secondary schools in Abeokuta, Ogun State will serve as respondents for the survey of this study.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

As with any human endeavor, the researcher experienced small impediments while performing the study. Due to the scarcity of literature on the subject as a result of the discourse’s nature, the researcher incurred additional financial expenses and spent additional time sourcing for relevant materials, literature, or information, as well as during the data collection process, which is why the researcher chose a small sample size. Additionally, the researcher conducted this inquiry in conjunction with other scholarly pursuits. Additionally, because only a small number of respondents were chosen to complete the research instrument, the results cannot be applied to other secondary schools outside the state. Regardless of the limits faced throughout the investigation, all aspects were reduced to ensure the best outcomes and the most productive research.

 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Human resources: Human resources is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include manpower, labor, personnel, associates or simply: people.

Academic performance: Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor’s degrees represent academic achievement.

Students: A student is primarily a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution and who is under learning with goals of acquiring knowledge, developing professions and achieving employment in a desired field.