Class size pressure: An impediment to teachers’ work quality

Osim R O, Chika. C. Uchendu, Isaac. O. Ubi

Educational Administration and Planning,University of Calabar, Calabar. Educational Foundation, Guidance and Counseling ,University of calabar, calabar.

*Corresponding author E-mail: rosemaryosim@Gmail.com

Accepted 22 May 2012

Abstract

The study examined the influence of class size pressure on the quality of work performed by secondary school teachers in Cross River State, Nigeria. The design adopted for the study was Ex-post Facto. One research question and one hypothesis were formulated to guide the study. Two sets of researchers developed instruments named class size pressure questionnaire (C.S.P.Q) and Teachers’ Work Quality Questionnaire (T.W.Q.Q) were responded to by teachers and students respectively after being validated. The C. S. P. Q with items on class size which were categorized into four Viz: below 30, 31-40, 41-50 and 51 and above were administered to 500 teachers while the T.W.Q.Q consisting of 18 items were responded to by 2000 students randomly selected through stratified random sampling technique. The data were analyzed using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The major finding of the study revealed a significant influence of class size on teachers’ work quality. Based on the findings it was recommended that government should build more classrooms and employ more qualified teaches so as to reduce students’ class population and reduce teachers’ work load. In this way, teachers’ work quality will be enhanced.

Keywords: Teachers, Secondary School, Pressure, Class size, Cross river state, Nigeria.