Impact of Workload Factors on Teacher’s Job Performance in Public Secondary Schools

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

It is widely acknowledged that performance is a significant aspect in any nation’s socioeconomic growth, since it is one of the primary determinants of the citizenry’s level of living. There is little question that increased performance is at the heart of all companies’ activities, including schools, implying that the survival and expansion of most human understandings are heavily dependent on the organization’s level of performance, which is dependent on employee performance. Many symposia, seminars, and workshops have focused on improving the performance of Nigerian employees in many areas of the economy, including school administration.. As a result, the workload has a significant impact on the performance of any employee, including teachers.

Notably, organizations may be unable to acquire a sufficient number of people due to inadequate resources, such as a limited budget and personnel. As a result, the company assigns employees tasks that are not part of their job descriptions, increasing their workload. Workload is classified as physical or mental by Shirato, and Etoh (2021). The technical needs for processing the task, both within and outside the workplace, cause physical burden. This refers to the measured fraction of physical resources consumed when executing a certain job, which is influenced by a variety of circumstances. However, mental burden is the amount of processing capability necessary for a person to complete a task at a particular time. This means that it is a feature of information processing and control systems that acts as a bridge between inputs, rules, and reactions. Therefore it is critical to identify the factors that firms must consider in order to decrease employee workload. First, they must discover the critical factor that has the most impact on an employee’s workload. Following that, the company must take the required steps to minimize burden. It is obvious that organizations, particularly human research departments, should investigate this issue. The work schedule, working day, job description, and job definition, among other things, should be well defined (Guimares, Pessa, & Biguelini, 2019).

Workload management in school is a crucial factor that may make or break educational ambitions. This is because if these jobs or obligations are not adequately coordinated, the intended outcome would be far from realized. According to Nweke and Dollah (2021), a teacher’s workload is defined as the entirety of academic teaching work and committee burden allotted to a teacher for the achievement of the school’s overall educational objectives. This includes lesson note preparation, test and assignment, examination, house mastership, and any other regular duties that the principle may delegate to a teaching staff. Workload is defined as the physiological and mental demands that occur when completing a task or a combination of tasks, according to Sinclair, as stated in Usoro, Nnaessien, and Saleh (2020), and it may also be the physical and/or mental needs connected with a task or combination of activities.

This indicates that workload is the cost paid by an individual, given their skills, while working at a set level of performance on a job with specified expectations; it is the sense of having too many things to do or not having enough time to complete what one needs to do. It is the fraction of an employee’s limited capacity that is necessary to do a certain task. Tasks are defined by their structural features. A collection of stimuli and responses are described by a set of rules that map stimuli to responses. Teaching units/working units, class size, teacher-student ratio, committee assignment, student assessment, and kind of work are all workload issues.

The performance of a teaching staff is a measure of the degree of effectiveness and efficiency with which the task is completed within a certain time frame, resulting in the attainment of school objectives. Usoro et al. (2007) agreed that performance is measured in terms of how pupils enjoyed and digested the teacher’s instruction. The size of the class can affect the rate of comprehension Because the principal is the only administrator who assigns workload to the teaching staff, he or she must be proactive in order to avoid over- or under-utilization of teaching staff for the sake of goal attainment and productive performance. In the same spirit, the principal is responsible for checking the class size taught by the instructor, as a big class size represents an excessive workload for the teacher. With rising enrollment in our schools, teachers may be compensated for more labor (Adu, Titilola & Ifeoma, 2017). They also emphasized that the principal’s task distribution is depending on the school’s teaching staff strength. Where this is little, the workload per instructor will be considerable, and some work will go unfinished. This is accountable for some subjects not being taught unless the principal hires an assisting teacher who may or may not be skilled in the subject; hence, quality or efficacy is compromised. According to Arora (2019), quality is compliance to requirement or specification. In this sense, teaching staff productivity is directly connected to the workload allotted to that personnel.

Clearly, in recent years, the quality of education in Nigeria, particularly in secondary schools, has been a source of popular concern. The main focus of such public concern is the declining level of education and the urgent necessity to correct the situation to prevent future degradation. Given the preceding circumstances, excellent secondary school administration and management become critical. The principle is in charge of administration and management in the secondary school system, whereas instructors and students are largely responsible for teaching and learning. According to Jaiyeoba (2018), the instructor is crucial to the educational context and when over burdened cannot function optimally.

 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Historically, education has been seen as the foundation of development, and teachers play a critical role in the output and outcome of the education sector. According to Onyemaechi (2022), there have been reports of instructors’ chronic bad work performance and pupils’ low academic achievement in core and major topics at the Senior Secondary School level of schooling. This can be ascribed to the increased burden of teachers in schools, which has resulted in a deterioration in teacher job performance. Abdul (2020) underlined that workload is at the forefront when it comes to the quality or efficacy of education since workload impacts the degree of teacher job performance to a large extent.

There is widespread concern about the deterioration of educational quality, since products of our educational system, including senior high school, are unable to appropriately demonstrate their worth. The situation is deteriorating due to a lack of teacher staff strength in schools, resulting in a heavy strain on the current teaching staff. According to Zwalchir and Buenyen (2019), a large class will be difficult to control, which contradicts classroom management training ideals. They also imply that when the teacher-student ratio in a classroom exceeds 1:40 in public senior high schools, a teacher may be overwhelmed with work, i.e., have too many teaching units and committee tasks, which may damage his/her performance. Thus upon this premise this study seeks to examine the impact of workload factors on teacher’s job performance in public  secondary schools

OBJECTIVES  OF THE STUDY

The major purpose of this study was to assess the impact of workload factors on teacher’s job performance in public  secondary schools. Specifically, the study sets out:

i.          To ascertain if  working hours  impact on teacher’s  effectiveness

ii.        To determine whether  class size influence teacher’s job performance;

iii.      To establish whether  teacher-student ratio influences teacher’s job performance;

iv.      To ascertain the extent at which bulk assignment affects teacher’s job performance.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following research questions were used to guide and direct the investigation:

i.          Does   working hours  impact on teacher’s  effectiveness in public secondary schools?

ii.        Does class size influence teacher’s job performance in public secondary schools?

iii.      Does teacher-student ratio influences teacher’s job performance in public secondary schools?

iv.      What is the extent at which bulk assignment affects teacher’s job performance in public secondary schools?

 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The findings of this study will equip general knowledge on workload factors and teacher’s job performance. The findings will contribute to information that can be used in organizing seminars and workshops on how to reduce teachers’ workload in public secondary schools in order to improve students’ academic performance and teachers’ job performance in educational goal realization.

The findings could also be used by human resources department of the Ministry of Education and other policy making organs of government especially in the formulation of policies that will help to ensure reduction of teachers’ workload that will help to enhance effective teaching-learning process. The findings of this study will also reveal the best organizational structure that will improve students’ academic performance in schools and improve teachers’ job performance. Empirically, the study will contribute to the body of knowledge and serve as a resource for students and academics who desire to do more research on this subject.

 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study focused mainly on workload factors and teacher’s job performance. The study focused mainly on public secondary school teachers in  Owerri Municipal in Imo State.

 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

As with any human endeavor, the researchers experienced minor obstacles in conducting the study. Due to the novelty of the discourse, the scarcity of literature on the topic was the most important limitation. The researcher expended more financial costs and devoted a great deal of time to locating relevant materials, literature, or information, as well as to the process of data collection; hence, the sample size was restricted to public secondary school teachers in  Owerri Municipal in Imo State. Therefore, the outcomes of this study cannot be generalized to secondary  schools in other Nigerian states. In addition, the researcher will simultaneously participate in other academic tasks, which will prevent him or her from devoting full attention to the research. However, despite the limitations faced throughout the research, all aspects were minimized in order to provide the best results and ensure the success of the study.

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

Class size refers to the number of students in a given course or classroom, specifically either (1) the number of students being taught by individual teachers in a course or classroom or (2) the average number of students being taught by teachers in a school, district, or education system.

Nature of work is referred to as the basic daily tasks that he carries out as part of his job, and it can refer to other non-routine tasks that may be required by the job also.

Student-teacher ratio expresses the relationship between the number of students enrolled in a school, district, or education system and the number of full-time equivalent teachers employed by the school, district, or system.

Teacher’s job performance: This is teaching work related activities expected of a teacher and how well those teaching activities were performed. This implies the level of productivity of teachers in a school organisation.

Workload factors: This is the physiological and mental demands that occur while performing a task or a combination of tasks. These factors are: teaching units/working units, class size, teacher-student ratio, committee assignment, students’ assessment and nature of work

Working hours: is the period of time that an individual spends at paid occupational labour.