CLASS SIZE AND TIMETABLE LOADS AS DETERMINANTS OF TEACHERS’ JOB PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Every professional teacher is usually saddled with some teaching and administrative workloads. However, the weight of these loads could affect the teacher’s job performance which is often a source of argument among stakeholders in education. The study investigated the extent to which class size and time-table loads influenced teacher job performance in Lagos State public secondary schools. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. A total of 2808 respondents from 117 public secondary schools were proportionately selected for the study. This comprised 20 classroom teachers and four (4) heads of departments from four core subjects. The Teaching Workload Questionnaire (TWQ, r=0.75), The Administrative Workload Questionnaire (AWQ, r=0.70) and The Teacher Job Performance Questionnaire (TJPQ, r=0.75) were used for data collection. Three hypotheses were formulated while six research questions were answered. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, path analysis, ANOVA and multiple regression at 0.05 level of significance. Class size and time-table loads had significant positive contributions to teachers’ job performance. However, class size made a significant negative contribution. The implications of this study for curriculum development and policy making are that class size and time-table loads might be reviewed so that adequate manageable loads would be carried by teachers in secondary schools. Class size should be reduced through construction of more classrooms to improve teachers’ job performance