EVALUATION OF TEACHERS’ PREPARATION IN UNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATION (UBE) PROGRAMME IN KATSINA STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

This study is aimed at assessing teachers training in Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme in Katsina State. The objectives of the research were to examine the level of Inservice training programme for UBE teachers in Katsina State, find out the level of Workshop programme for UBE teachers in Katsina State, ascertain the level of Mentoring programme among UBE teachers in Katsina State. Also, the research questions and hypotheses were developed according to the objectives. The study assumed that all teachers under UBE programme in Katsina State have equal opportunity of attending in-service training programme, adequate funds were made available for sponsoring UBE teachers to attend conference, there is high level of commitment from stakeholders with regards to mentoring exercise for UBE teachers in Katsina State. Descriptive survey research was used for the purpose of the study, under which the opinions of 494 respondents were sampled through questionnaire instrument out of a target population of 2,956 teachers from 136 schools and 250 education managers. A sample population of 152 education managers were randomly selected which comprise of head teachers, KTSUBEB officials, LEA officials and supervisors, and 342 teachers were equally sample from Katsina and Mani education zones. A total of 434 copies of questionnaire were filled and returned, 313 from the side of the teachers, while 121 were returned from the side of the education managers. t-test statistical tool was used to analyzed the data. The research finds out that there is no significant difference on the opinion of both respondents that the level of in-service training programme for UBE teachers in Katsina State is not satisfactory, workshop programme for UBE teachers were below average, mentoring programme for UBE teachers is poor. The study recommended the provision of more in-service training opportunities for all teachers without discrimination, that the contents of workshop programme should reflect issues that are suitable to the skills needed at work using modern technology, as well as enhancing mentoring exercise among UBE teachers through effective supervision and monitoring of all UBE schools. 

 

CHAPTER ONE                                                      INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Katsina State was created on September 27^th, 1987 out of the former Kaduna State. The ancient city of Katsina was chosen to be the State Capital. The State has a total number of 34

Local Government Area Councils. It has a population of about 5,801,584 people according to

2006 census figures. Katsina State has two traditional Emirate Councils namely Katsina Emirate Council and Daura Emirate Council.

The vegetation of the State spreads across three ecological zones: its extreme northern fringes lie on the Arid Zone of Sahel; the vast tropical grasslands of the Sudan Savannah from the north through to most of the south and then the Guinea Savannah on the southern margins. The rainfall ranges between 640mm in the extreme north to 1056mm towards the south, occurring annually with district wet and dry seasons in May-September and OctoberApril respectively. It has an average temperature range of 21and 30 degrees Celsius.

Katsina State is boarded by Zamfara State to the west, Kaduna State to the south, Jigawa and Kano States to the east and Niger republic to the north. Katsina State covers a total land area of about 24,192sq km. About 97% of the State population is Hausa-Fulani by tribe and Muslim by religion. Its land area is flat and it is upland area, the texture and colour of the soil varies from sandy, sandy loam and clay soil which is very fertile for agricultural production of crops such as millet, guinea corn, maize, cotton, beans, groundnuts as well as conducive atmosphere for animal rearing. (Katsina State Handbook, 2007).

 

 

Quality of teachers is a major determinant of the quality of education, because no education system can rise above the quality of its teachers. Hence the need for teachers’ skills to be molded towards promoting active learning at the primary and junior secondary school level, and this could be regarded as one of the greatest challenge for teacher educators and policy makers. Primary education is particularly important as it is the foundation on which any further education is erected therefore, teachers must be retooled (Tahir, 2003).

Teacher and teaching are both concepts that refers to human person and his strategies to impart positive behavioral changes in another individual. Incidentally, the concepts have been grossly abused in Nigeria to give the impression that everyone can be a teacher and that any process of communication in the classroom amount to teaching (Ajoa, 2011). The aims and objectives of teacher education as enshrined in the National Policy on Education (FRN, 1998) are:

1-To produce highly motivated consciences and effective classroom teachers for all levels of the education system;

• encourage the spirit of enquiry and creativity in the teacher;
• enhance teachers commitment to the teaching profession;
• help teachers fit into the social life of the society and,
• provide teachers with the intellectual and professional background adequate for their assignment and make them adaptable to any changing situation in country and world at large.

The UBE programme is a nine (9) year basic educational programme which made a provision of six (6) years in primary school and three years in junior secondary without interruption. The financing of the UBE programme is a responsibility of the States and Local governments. However, the Federal Government also contributes 2%  of its consolidated  revenue fund. For States to fully benefit from the fund, criteria were established which States are to comply, for each State to access the UBE funds, it most deposit 50% as counter-fund funds.

According to the UBE Act of 2004 provides for the establishment of the UBE and subsequently the States follow suit with the establishment of States UBEB. The UBEC was established as a world class education intervention and regulatory agency for the promotion of uniform, qualitative and functional basic education in Nigeria. It is also to operate as an intervention coordinating and monitoring agency to progressively improved the capacity of States, Local government and communities in the provision of unfettered access to high qualitative basic education in Nigeria. The objectives of the UBE programme according to the UBE Act of 2004 are to:

• Ensure unfettered access to nine years of formal basic education;
• provision of free universal basic education for every Nigerian child of school age;
• reducing drastically the incidence of drop-out from the formal school system through improved relevance, quality and efficiency and,
• ensuring the acquisition of appropriate levels of literacy, numeracy, manipulation, communication and life skills as well as the ethnic, moral and civil values needed for laying a solid foundation for life-long learning.

With the view of achieving these objectives, the Federal Government in 2006 embarked upon mass teachers’ employment for the purpose of achieving the UBE objectives. Under the scheme, 40,000 NCE holders were employed to participate in the scheme for two years which ended in October, 2008. UBEC enlisted 34,000 fresh participants in January, 2009 the 36 States of the federation and FCT have absorbed 27,000 products of the first batch into their workforce.

According to KTSUBEB statistic report (2014), Katsina State is having a total number of 19,500 UBE teachers, out of which 14,806 were male and are 4,694 females. It is believed that human beings have value and such value depreciates over a period of time. Observation shows that despite the existence of a quality assurance unit under the UBE scheme the level of teachers training and re-training were found to be very low, this could be ascertain when compare with the performance of their students in some external examinations .There were also many arguments on the best way to assess teachers performance as well as the most suitable and effective method of training and re-trainning teachers under the UBE programme. Dikko (2014) opined that, the best way to benefit and preserve teachers value is through effective staff development programmes.

One of the key concerns of actors in education is on how to update the enthuastiatic teachers in the discharge of their duties and in particular in promoting successful learning in their own context (Misbahu, 2016). Researches on teacher’s development shows that, the quality of teachers had much impact on the children’s learning, as well as on effective teaching incentives, evaluations, supervisions and management issues. Osinbajo (2016) stressed that “teacher education must be changed radically; it must become technologically driven in order to develop education in Nigeria”. Adamu (2016) submitted that, much need to be done to enhance teachers capacity in service delivery, the provision of teaching materials and infrastructure must be complimented with adequate measures of motivation through good welfare package and effective development programmes.

 

Staff training therefore, is regarded as one of keys towards effective staff motivation and retention. Observation shows that thousands of teachers are yet to register with the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN). This assertion was confirmed by the statistic release by the TRCN in early 2016 that only about 1.5million teachers teaching nationwide were registered as certified and qualified teachers, thus thousands teaching under UBE programme were not qualified to teach (Dikko, 2016).

The level of teachers training in Nigeria has become a very critical topic of discussion among stakeholders, observation shows that some State Governments were rejecting NCE certificates obtained through in-service training programme and refused to employ teachers with NCE certificate obtained from NTI through its distance learning programme, while others embarked on conducting proficiency test and exams for UBE teachers all with view of ascertaining the level of their training, knowledge, experience, skills and competency. But the arguments still remains on what and how best can the level of teachers training be improved, some were of the opinion that poor service delivery by teachers is a product of wide range of problems that includes; poor employment process, condition of service,, welfare, dilapidated infrastructure, inadequate teaching, writing and reading materials, insufficient funds etc. Others were of the view that teachers training programmes must be targeted to improve and transform the cognitive, affective and psycho-motive domains of the teachers. Therefore, assessment of UBE teachers training programme must involve the use of different and multiple methodologies. Anwukah (2017) while assessing the level of teacher training in Nigeria concludes that “ there is no point saying that those candidates going for teacher training institutions should have 100 marks in the unified Tertiary institution Exams (UTME). Rather, those going for teaching should have scored 200 and above, let’s bring the cut-off up so that quality persons can take over the teaching profession, we have to re-think teacher training, recruitment and teacher qualification in the this country”.

Unfortunately, much have not been done towards the success of UBE teachers training programme in Katsina State as observed. Hence there is the need to put in place strategies for enhancing ongoing professional development programmes for the UBE teachers in Katsina State through effective staff development programmes such as in-service, workshop, seminar, conference and mentoring.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The actual manpower required in achieving the UBE objectives and that of school education in Katsina State and Nigeria at large require sufficient development programmes in order to perform their duties effectively and professionally. Therefore, the expectation is that these teachers will be engaged in various development programmes such as In-service training, In-house workshop, Seminars etc. When teachers do not acquire the necessary training and development skills and knowledge for the execution of their job, the obvious results could be improper and amateur handling of the job which ultimately results to poor job performance and no teacher will be happy if he is not performing up to standard.

Educators, teachers, parents, curriculum experts and the general public have decried on poor performance of pupils and students in external examinations over the years, while some accuses the teachers and the learners, others put the root of the problem to government for the inconsistency between policy and practice with particular reference to funding education sector. The UNESCO International standard of 26% of developing countries annual budget to education sector is far from reality in Nigeria. Despite this accusation on the government over inadequate funding, building infrastructure would not be enough, as rightly observed by Ajoa

(2011) “no matter the efficiency of the pre-service training we give to teachers, there will necessarily be areas of inadequacies. In-service training for teachers will continue to fill these gaps and will be systematically planned so that success will be recorded”.

Poor quality of teaching and learning are a deterrent to development of education in any State. It has been observed that some UBE teachers in Katsina State are yet to meet the minimum certification for teaching (NCE) and the acute shortage of qualified teachers in the State necessitated the employment of B.A, B.Sc and Diploma certificate holders. It is obvious that they need to be provided with continuous professional development and support in order to bring them to the minimum acceptable standard in teaching profession. (Imam, 2007)

Imam (2007), explained that since the introduction of the UBE scheme in 1999 as well as the full take up of the programme in 2004, one of the greatest challenge facing the smooth running of the programme has being the acute shortage of qualified manpower who are   responsible for the implementation of the UBE curriculum at the classroom level. Upon all these challenges, Katsina State has performed far beyond expectation in terms of providing the necessary infrastructural facilities and instructional materials for the purpose of achieving the UBE objectives. This success could be attributed to the timely release of =N=500million intervention funds given annually to the board by the State Government (Imam, 2007).

It has also been observed that political interference, bias and nepotism were among the factors militating against staff development programme for UBE teachers in Katsina State. It is obvious that the UBE scheme was lunched by a civilian administration thus, political actors play a vital role not only in the area of employing education managers and teachers to serve under the UBE scheme, but also in the process of selecting those who are to benefit from a particular development programme. This has led to the recycling of training programme participants thereby living other teachers especially those teaching at the rural areas with little or no opportunity of benefiting from any form of training programme, hence undermining their performance in the classroom and could have negative impact on the achievement of UBE objectives in the State, which also has led to the collateral damage in the performance of pupils especially at the secondary school level.

Inadequate financial support from the government has adversely affects the sponsorship of teachers for in-service and other forms of training and re-training programmes as well as necessitate the reduction on the actual number of those to benefit from the development exercise. Also, the organization and conduct of some programmes could not be attainable as schedule due to insufficient funds or delay in budget approval or late release of funds due to rigorous process in the budget circle and bureaucratic principles. This problem contributed negatively to the success of the UBE scheme since the key personnel that will implement the programme at the classrooms could not be able to acquire the much needed skills and additional knowledge as at when due.

Also, it has been observed that some teachers were not committed towards the success of the training and re-training programmes, some of them abstained or only attends the opening ceremony and closing ceremony of workshops, conference and seminars, they ignore to participate in the full session of lectures and discussions but rather, they are after receiving the certificate of attendance only. Also, among those on in-service training, a quit reasonable number failed to complete their course work within the stipulated time of completion, some over stayed which at times leads to their withdrawal from a particular institution. This situation provides the UBE teachers with no additional modern experience of teaching.

       Poor organization of staff development programme has often leaded to its failure. Wrong timing, wrong choice of venue, poor selection of participants, poor communication channel, strikes by higher education trade unions, limited resource persons and materials and other logistic problems were found to be worrisome. Frequent shift of priorities, emphasis and approaches with regards to the means of achieving the UBE objectives within the MDGs now

SDGs target has seriously affected the organization of teachers development programme. This is sometimes regarded as policy summersault. Therefore, the expected capacity building programmes for the teachers could not hold as schedule or being conducted in half bake.

Ukeje in Enoh (1996), opined that we can manage with adequate classrooms, books and teaching aids, but we cannot do without good teachers. He further stressed that, the low quality of teaching personnel constitutes a serious problem in the quest for social reconstruction, the unqualified teacher is therefore a problem to social reconstruction because he lacks the power to carry those he is teaching beyond much of what they already know, hence, the educator must be first educated. Kolo (2016) pointed out that to enhanced sustainability of excellence in teacher professionalism, it has become inevitable to overhaul the present curriculum of teacher education to conform to the currents contents of Basic and Secondary education.

Looking at the various aspects which the UBE programme is expected to cover which includes the Almajiri integrated schools, girl child education and mass literacy among others, adequate training for the UBE teachers at the State level becomes paramount. From the time teachers begin any initial preparation for teaching, provisions need to be made for ongoing development of their subject matter, knowledge, concrete skills to teach, observe, assess and reflect. (Tahir, 2004).

These and many other related issues therefore, prompted the researcher as to investigate assessment of teachers training in Universal Basic Education Programme in Katsina State, Nigeria. This research is expected to provide some useful recommendations that will improve the quality of training programmes for UBE teachers in Katsina State as well as how to tackle the various problems militating against the success of the training programmes.

 

 

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The basic objectives which the study is expected to achieve with regards to the assessment of UBE teachers training programmes in Katsina State are as follows:

1. to examine the level of In-service training programme for UBE teachers in Katsina

State;

2. to find out level of Workshops programme for UBE teachers in Katsina State;
3. to identify the level of Conference programme for UBE teachers in Katsina State;
4. to ascertain the level of Mentoring programme for UBE teachers in Katsina State;
5. to assess the level of Seminar programme for UBE teachers in Katsina State;

1.4 Research Questions

The research set out to answer the following questions with regards to the level of UBE teachers training programmes in Katsina State:

1. What is the level of In-service training programme for UBE teachers in Katsina State?
2. What is the level of Workshop programme for UBE teachers in Katsina State?
3. What is the level of Conference programme for UBE teachers in Katsina State?
4. What is the level of Mentoring programme for UBE teachers in Katsina State?
5. What is the level of Seminar programme for UBE teachers in Katsina State?

 

 

1.5 Hypotheses

The research work postulated five hypotheses which will guide the research as follows:

HO₁ There is no significant difference in the views of education managers and teachers on the level of In-service training programme for UBE teachers in Katsina State.

HO₂ There is no significant difference in the views of education managers and teachers on the level of Workshop programme for UBE teachers in Katsina State.

HO₃ There is no significant difference in the views of education managers and teachers on the level of Conference programme for teachers in Katsina State.

HO₄ There is no significant difference in the views of education managers and teachers on the level of Mentoring programme for UBE teachers in Katsina State.

HO₅ There is no significant difference in the views of education managers and teachers on the level of Seminar programme for UBE teachers’ in Katsina State.

1.6 Basic Assumptions

The research work provided the following basic assumptions with regards to UBE teachers training programmes in Katsina State.

1. It is assumed that all teachers under UBE programme in Katsina State have opportunity of attending In-service training programme.
2. It is assumed that adequate funds were available for sponsoring teachers to attend national and international conference
3. It is assumed that adequate resource persons and relevant materials were made available to teachers during workshop programmes
4. It is assumed that UBE teachers performance after attending seminar improves positively.
5. It is assumed that all teachers under UBE programme in Katsina State were engaged in mentoring programme.

 

1.7 Significance of the Study

1. The study will help the UBE teachers, school managers, the officials of the Katsina State SUBEB, State ministry of education and the LEA in improving UBE teachers capacity and technical teaching skills for goal attainment.
2. The research findings will become very useful for so many contemporal researchers as a reference material upon which they can built their research work.
3. Furthermore, the research is capable of providing useful information to UBE teachers in Katsina State on the need for frequent engagement in development programmes in order to excel in their job as well as contribute towards the achievement of the UBE objectives.

1.8 Scope of the Study

The study covered the Assessment of Training Programmes for teachers of Universal Basic Education (UBE) in Katsina State. The content of the study includes the following: Staff training, types of staff training programmes, importance of staff training and evaluation of teachers training programmes. It is important to note that the target population is confined to 2,956 teachers under the UBE programme and 250 education managers drawn from 136 selected primary and junior secondary schools under the UBE scheme in Katsina and Mani

Zonal Education offices respectively. The education managers  comprise of head teachers, KTSUBEB and LEA officials. A total of 150 education managers and 342 teachers were randomly selected as sample size. The study used t-test statistical method to analyzed the data obtained from the respondents through questionnaire.

 

EVALUATION OF TEACHERS’ PREPARATION IN UNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATION (UBE) PROGRAMME IN KATSINA STATE, NIGERIA