TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS AND STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NORTH - CENTRAL, NIGERIA.

Abstract

This investigated teachers’ professional standard and students’ academic performance in public senior secondary schools in North – Central, Nigeria. This study adopted the correlational survey and ex-post facto research designs and the target population comprised teachers, principals from the 586 public senior secondary schools in North - Central, Nigeria.  The sample size for the study consisted of 370 teachers and 226 principals.  Questionnaires and proforma Instrument were adopted for the study. The validation of the research instruments was carried out by researcher through the input of the thesis supervisors and other experts in the Department of Educational Management. Thus, face and content validity were conducted by the validators. The reliability indexes of 0.68 and 0.73 were obtained. Descriptive and inferential statistical tools were adopted for data analysis using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SSPS Version 23). Percentage, and mean scores were used to answer the research questions while linear regression analysis was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significant. The study revealed that teachers’ professional standard enhances effective students’ academic performance. The study also indicated that the teachers’ professional standard includes dimensions of teachers’ professional knowledge, professional skills and professional conduct.  Based on the findings of the study, the school principals should emphasis regular organization of professional development and in-service training programmes for teaching staff in order to enhance teachers’ professional knowledge of contemporary trends and practices in the teaching profession.