Teachers’ Proficiency as Correlate of Students’ Performance in Secondary Schools in Ekiti State, Nigeria

The researcher investigated the relationship that existed between teacher proficiency and students’ academic performance in secondary schools in Ekiti State, Nigeria. This research work took after survey research design. The population of this study was all teachers and students of the 219 public schools in Ekiti State. Systematic and stratified random sampling techniques were used to select 5 secondary schools from each of the three senatorial districts in Ekiti State. In each school, four teachers teaching the core subjects and ten students for each teacher were selected using simple random technique totaling 45 teachers and 145 students of senior secondary school three (SS3). All the 120 students used for this study were students who offered the four core subjects. Two instruments were used. They are; Teachers’ Proficiency Questionnaire (TPQ) and Students’ Academic Performance Inventory (SAPI). The instruments were validated by experts in Text and Measurement who ensured face, construct and content validity of the instruments. Reliability of TPQ was realized using test-retest reliability which yielded 0.65 level of significance. The data collected from the respondents were tested using Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Statistics at 0.05 level of significance. The results of this research indicated that there was relationship between teacher proficiency and students’ academic performance in secondary schools in Ekiti State, Nigeria. All the variables of teacher proficiency have relationship with students’ academic performance. It was recommended that teachers should be given opportunities to engage in professional development such as workshops, conferences and coursework so that they could improve their subject matter knowledge and teaching skills. Also, those without degree certificate should be encouraged to engage in further studies.