Teachers’ Workload and Class Size as Correlate of Students’ Academic Performance in Selected Secondary Schools in Singida Urban

Abstract

The study sought to establish the relationship between teachers’ workload, class size and students’ academic performance from five selected secondary schools in Singida urban. The study was guided by three objectives and three research hypotheses. The study employed correlational cross-sectional design. A sample size of two hundred nighty four respondents was randomly chosen from five secondary schools. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information from respondents. The collected data were analysed by Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) using Karl Pearson’s Linear Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression Analysis to assess the correlation between teachers’ workload and class size and students’ academic performance. The study results indicated that, there was no significant relationship between teachers’ workload and students’ academic performance in surveying secondary schools in Singida Urban at the five percent level of significance. Further, the findings show that class size was positively correlated with students’ academic performance in secondary schools in Singida urban. Also, there is a significant difference between teachers’ work load and class size in relation to students of academic performance in selected secondary schools in Singida urban. Based on the study findings, it is recommended that, emphasis should be directed at improving class size if teachers and education stakeholders in Singida urban have to increase students’ academic performance. The study concluded class size is found to be the best predictor of students’ academic performance in the surveyed secondary schools in Singida Urban.

School heads’ clinical supervision practices and emerging teacher emotions in Tanzania secondary schools

“…With this, school heads experienced difficulty managing teachers in all professional delivering, including regular one-to-one teaching and learning supervisory discussions. The findings were consistent with previous studies [ 128 , 132 , 133 , 134 ] that limited infrastructures hindered teachers from practising their professional accordingly. [ 132 ] adds that the shortage of housing services in newly built schools in Tanzania and shared teaching staff offices were among the factors that declined teachers’ confidence and ability to teach.…”

“…These findings suggest that lower secondary schools have failed to teach students according to competence-based education whereby a maximum teacher-students ratio is 1:40 [ 66 ]. Two reasons are highlighted; one is that the Tanzanian government is increasing students’ enrolment as compared to teachers’ recruitment [ 3 , 124 , 125 , 126 ], and two teachers are assigned with non-teaching professional activities such administrative tasks [ 127 , 128 ]. Significantly, clinical supervision was negatively affected as it was hard for school heads to guide teachers in fulfilling participatory teaching and learning practices.…”

Relationship between teachers’ work load and students’ academic performance in senior secondary schools in Irepodun Local Government, Kwara State, Nigeria.

“…Teacher's workload includes teaching subjects, administrative duties, supervision of students and other activities. The maximum teaching load is thirty periods per week while minimum is twenty-two periods per week, while others may have more than maximum particularly science subjects, however, this policy is not strictly adhered to (Valentine, et. al 2020).…”

“…However, a shortage of instructional resources and a poor state of learning infrastructure hamper a good teachinglearning process. The ideal of profit-making above the school benchmark among numerous private education investors with their wrong understanding of "that when the population of students grows, the higher the capital acquired" with slight consideration for instructional knowledge and sufficient figure of qualify teachers obstructs the value of education (Valentine, et al 2020). The recognized gaps signify severe risk for the education system and possibly been accountable for the shortfalls in performance of teachers in their instructional responsibilities and poor academic performance of students in secondary schools in Nigeria.…”