HUMAN RESOURCES AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS

HUMAN RESOURCES AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Education is widely acknowledged to be the foundation of development. This is because the educational system is expected to produce the necessary 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 its educational level. The enormous role of education in the development process has left every government with a burning desire to improve access to education for all of its citizens. According to Ibukun (2003), universal primary education (UPE) and the more modern universal basic education (UBE) programs were largely based on education’s contribution to national economic growth and development. The assumption has been that students at lower levels

Opportunities for talent development should be made available at all levels of education.

Education is a critical human activity. It assists any society in fashioning and modeling individuals in order for them to function effectively in their environment. According to Boit, Njoki, and Chang’ach (2012), the goal of education is to provide people with the skills they need to reshape society and eliminate inequality. Secondary education is especially important for national and individual development. It is critical in developing a country’s human resource base beyond elementary education (Achoka, Odebero, Maiyo & Mualuko, 2007). The provision of quality secondary education is thus critical in providing the opportunities and benefits of social and economic development (Onsumu, Muthaka, Ngware & Kosembei, 2006). The United Nations states

According to the Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (2005), cognitive achievement is one of the quality indicators of education. Academic achievement is determined by test and examination scores or subject teachers’ grades, according to Adediwura and Tayo (2007).

The human resources (HR) department of a company includes all employees (teaching, management, and technical/support personnel) who are involved in any of the company’s operations. It is widely acknowledged that a school’s most valuable asset is its human resources. Regardless of budget constraints, there is a need to expand and reform the educational system while also ensuring its quality to meet public demand. Teachers are the most important human resource required for the educational system’s production function. This is due to their important role in facilitating the teaching and learning process. According to Adeyemi and Akposheri (2009), despite the advancement of science and technology, the role of the teacher in the classroom has not been diminished or replaced. Teachers appear to have a significant impact on a society’s social and cultural development because they instill a variety of values in their students, either directly or indirectly. It is not surprising that Chukwu (2003) and Okebukola (2010) identified teacher quality and commitment as significant predictors of educational quality. The quantity and quality of an organization’s labor force determines its success. The educator, according to Ibukun, as cited in Adegbemile (2011), holds the key to nation building. Any country’s desire to become a

A larger nation can only be realized if qualified and dedicated instructors are available to impart the necessary attitude, skills, and information.

This is especially noticeable in educational institutions, where the people required to carry out the organization’s basic functions are highly educated. The teaching staff will be the focus of this study, but 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, will receive equal attention.

A study conducted in the United States by Motoko, Akiba, Gerald Letendre, and Scribner (2004) discovered that nations with higher teacher quality produced higher academic achievement. These

Studies provide empirical, cross-national evidence of the importance of investing in teacher quality to improve national achievement. Human resource management in education thus entails coordinating the activities of staff, students, and parents in order to achieve educational goals and objectives (Adeniyi, 2004). The National Policy on Education (FRN, 2004) clarifies the broad tasks of school administration, such as teacher hiring, promotion, deployment, and discipline, among other things.

In Nigeria, successive administrations have attempted to improve human resource management in educational institutions. Although the importance of human resource management has been emphasized, little is known about its relationship with secondary school students’ academic performance. Secondary schools must hire skilled instructors, secure modern facilities, and provide adequate facilities and equipment to achieve good performance on public tests.

to facilitate teaching and learning, as well as to monitor teaching for quality control. Other entities that may have an impact on students’ academic achievement include administrators, managers, guidance counselors, Parents Teachers Association (PTA), curriculum specialists, funding agencies, non-teaching personnel, inspectors, and examination boards (Osagie & Okafor, 2012).

Any organization that fails to plan for its human resources will frequently find itself unable to meet both personnel needs and overall goals (Stoner1978). A school, for example, may decide to add new subjects to its curriculum. Unless the school makes adequate arrangements for the instructors to handle these additional courses, they will be scheduled but not taught. To emphasize this point, when the federal government launched the 6:3:3:4 education system, it made significant investments.

Investing in technical education equipment. The human resources required to run the equipment, on the other hand, were overlooked. As a result, the equipment was left to rot in the rain before being stolen by thugs (Osagie & Okafor, 2012).

According to current educational policy, supervision of teaching is the process of supervising instructors’ work in order to assist them in resolving instructional issues so that students can benefit the most from classroom activities (Igwe, 2005). This can be accomplished through the principal’s or another designated official’s regular interaction in the classroom with instructors and students to supervise the teaching and learning process. According to Nwagwu (2004), the supervisor is in charge of monitoring and analyzing all activities.

Employee actions and organizational programs are examples of both. The primary goal is to ensure that all employees follow established rules and meet stated objectives through quality assurance, standard maintenance, and quality control. This viewpoint is consistent with the National Policy on Education (FRN, 2004), which stated that supervision is a quality control technique. The school’s objectives can be met by continuously supervising the teaching and non-teaching staff.

The evaluation of staff has an impact on their performance, just as it does on students’ academic performance. In one study, Akposheri (1994) discovered a significant relationship between teachers who were highly rated during evaluation and students’ academic performance. Okafor, on the other hand (2006)

asserted that employees’ performance, not their personalities, should be evaluated with caution.

Secondary school not only plays an important role in the Nigerian educational system, but it also serves as a link between elementary and university education. Secondary school education, according to Asikhai (2010), is intended to serve as the bedrock and foundation for higher education in tertiary institutions. It is both an investment and a tool for accelerating a country’s economic, social, political, technical, scientific, and cultural development. It is unfortunate that today’s secondary schools do not meet the expected standardsştii.ştii. Public outrage has been sparked by secondary school students’ persistently poor performance on public examinations (Ibukun, Oyekakin, Akinrotimi, Akinfolarin & Ayandoja, 2012). According

According to Nwokocha and Amadike (2005), academic achievement of students is the standard for measuring a nation’s educational quality. As a result, students in secondary schools, in particular, must maintain high performance in internal and, to a lesser extent, external examinations.

Students’ declining academic performance has been blamed on a variety of factors, including the principal’s leadership style, instructor quality, home issues, government factors, and a lack of educational resources (human, material, financial and physical resources). This study, however, is limited to the provision of human resources and secondary school students’ academic achievement. Because of their importance in achieving educational goals, educational resources (both human and material) must be readily available. Human resources are an important educational input for students’ overall skill development.

acquisition and literacy development. Human resources in the educational system include both teaching and non-teaching personnel (Ekundayo, 2009). The availability of these resources is required for the system to excel. However, it has been observed that secondary schools in Lagos State lack the required number of instructors, both in quantity and quality (Ekundayo, Haastrup, Timilehin, Alonge & Hezekiah, 2010). This is evidenced by the high student-teacher ratios in the schools.

A thorough examination of Nigerian schools and their operations reveals that the majority of public schools are unable to produce positive results because they lack the necessary facilities and personnel to prepare students for West African Examination Council (WAEC) tests (Owoeye & Yara, 2011). Research into the relationship between the availability of human resources and

Human resources improve students’ academic performance, according to academic achievement. Adedeji (1998), Ayodele (2000), Adewuyi (2002), and Okandeji (2007) concluded in their respective studies that instructors play an important role in students’ academic achievement.

Adedeji (1998) and Owoeye (2011) discovered a positive relationship between material resources in schools and students’ academic achievement. Classrooms, housing, libraries, furniture, equipment, and other instructional materials, according to Hallack (1990), are among the material resources that contribute to students’ academic achievement.

So far, the evidence suggests that human resources have a significant positive relationship with academic success. As a result, the characteristics of school personnel in terms of qualification, teacher-student ratio, and years of teaching experience will be investigated as predictors of students’ academic success in this study.

1.2 THE PROBLEM’S STATEMENT

Academic success of secondary school students in recent public examinations is one of the primary criteria used by the general public to evaluate secondary school products in Nigeria. As a result, Nigeria has underperformed in its efforts to provide high-quality education to its citizens. Variables such as motivation, leadership oversight, the quality and quantity of teaching personnel, and the availability of instructional resources all have an impact on students’ academic performance (Ibukun et al, 2012). Students’ poor academic performance has been blamed on a variety of factors, including the principal’s leadership style, the quality of instructors, home issues, government factors, and a lack of educational resources (human, material, financial, and physical resources) (Ekundayo et al ,2010). However,

This research is limited to human resource provision and academic achievement in secondary schools. Disparities in performance are still identified as one of education’s many challenges. The government’s education investment was intended not only to increase enrollment, but also to improve academic performance at these institutions at the lowest possible cost. As a result, the problem of this study is the low academic performance of secondary school students, which may be due to human resource-related variables.

1.3 THE STUDY’S OBJECTIVES

The primary goal of this research is to look into students’ human resources and academic performance. Other specific goals of this research include:

i. To ascertain whether there is a link between human resources and academic performance.

ii.

To determine whether the hiring of experienced teachers has an impact on academic performance.

iii. To ascertain whether teachers’ qualifications influence students’ academic performance.

iv. To ascertain whether teachers’ teaching methods influence students’ academic performance.

1.4 QUESTIONS FOR RESEARCH

This study will address the following research questions:

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

ii. Does the use of experienced teachers affect academic performance?

iii. Do the qualifications of teachers influence students’ academic performance?

iv. Do teachers’ teaching methods influence students’ academic performance?

1.5 THE STUDY’S IMPORTANCE

The significance of this study cannot be overstated, given that excellent student academic performance cannot be achieved in the absence of adequate human resources. The findings of this study will add to the existing body of knowledge.

expertise in the subject. The study’s findings will help educational administrators and school administrators prevent brain drain in secondary schools, particularly in secondary schools in Abeokuta, Ogun State. This research will also help the government with teacher recruitment and retention. Furthermore, the study will help educational administrators develop a comprehensive human resource policy and programs in the education sector.

Furthermore, the findings of this study will aid educational managers, administrators, and technocrats in the formulation and implementation of educational policy in order to achieve overall educational goals and objectives.

1.6 STUDY OBJECTIVES

This research looks into human resources and academics.

performance of students. This study is specifically interested in determining whether there is a relationship between human resources and academic performance, whether the employment of experienced teachers affects academic performance, whether teachers qualifications affect students academic performance, and whether teachers teaching methods affect students academic performance.

Teachers and students from selected secondary schools in Abeokuta, Ogun State, will be surveyed for this study.

1.7 THE STUDY’S LIMITATIONS

As with any human endeavor, the researcher encountered minor setbacks while conducting the study. Because of the scarcity of literature on the subject as a result of the nature of the discourse, the researcher incurred additional financial costs and spent additional time sourcing relevant materials, literature, or information, as well as during the research process.

The researcher chose a small sample size to simplify the data collection process. Furthermore, the researcher conducted this investigation in conjunction with other scholarly endeavors. Furthermore, because only a small number of respondents completed the research instrument, the findings cannot be generalized to other secondary schools outside the state. Regardless of the constraints encountered throughout the investigation, all aspects were minimized to ensure the best results and most productive research.

1.8 TERM DEFINITION

Human resources are the people who make up an organization’s, business sector’s, industry’s, or economy’s workforce. A more specific concept is human capital, which refers to the knowledge and skills that individuals possess. Manpower, labor, personnel, associates, or simply: people are similar terms.

Academic achievement or academic performance refers to the extent to which a student, teacher, or institution has met their short or long-term educational objectives. Academic achievement is demonstrated by the completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor’s degrees.

Students: A student is primarily a person who is enrolled in a school or other educational institution and who is pursuing knowledge, developing professions, and obtaining employment in a desired field.