Relationship between Teachers’ Academic Qualifications and Students’ Achievement in Agriculture in Junior Secondary Schools, Yola-North, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Junior Secondary education in Nigeria is an important tier in the hierarchy of education system in the country. It is the halfway between primary and senior secondary schools which last for three academic years. The purpose of this study was to find the relationship between teachers’ academic qualifications and students’ academic achievement in Agriculture in junior secondary schools in Yola North, Adamawa state, Nigeria. The study was guided by human capital theory developed by Theodore Schultz and Gary Becker. The study adopted a quantitative research approach positioned in the post-positivism worldview and employed a cross-sectional descriptive survey research design.  The study sample was 437, comprising of 80 teachers and 357 students of junior secondary schools. Closed ended Questionnaires were used to collect data from the teachers and the students, whereas document analysis was used to review documents on academic scores of the students in the Basic Education Certificates Examination from 2018-2022. Data analysis was carried out using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Mean and Spearman rank order were used for the analysis. Content, construct, and face validity of the instruments were tested and reliability was measured using Cronbach’s alpha. The findings revealed that there was no significant relationship between teachers’ academic qualifications and students’ achievement in Agriculture (r=0.07, p =.05). Therefore, it was concluded that, increase in teachers’ qualifications beyond certain level has no strong correlation with students’ academic achievement in Agriculture. It was recommended that the government should give priority to teachers with NCE qualification during recruitment, organize teachers’ professional development programs, establish a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation system, review teaching practices, course content, and assessment strategies, implementation of performance-based-incentives for teachers. The findings of this study are hoped to benefit employers of labour, the Ministry of Education, teachers, students, and parents who constitute the major stakeholders in education.