By Gyot, BD; Leonard, DP; Sunday, T (2023). Greener Journal of Educational Research, 13(1):1-5.

Impact of In-Service Training Programmes on Job Performance of Academic Staff of Colleges of Education in the 21st Century.

Gyot, Bitrus Dambo (Ph.D), Leonard D. Padung and Sunday Tongyolla

Federal College of Education Pankshin.

INTRODUCTION

Staff development programmes refer to opportunities provided for staff to increase their knowledge, skills, experiences and understanding thereby improving their job performances. These opportunities, according to the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE, 2008) include educational programmes such as Bachelor in Education (B. Ed), Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE), Master of Education (M. Ed), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. D), others include short training courses such as Conferences, Seminars And Workshops. Unfortunately, the practice seems to be lopsided and epileptic hence has not produced the desired and required results on the side of the lecturers.

The resultant effect is that their performance is still less satisfactory than the expected standards and consequently the rising concern over poor coverage of students’ course content, delayed examination results and missing scripts or poor administration of examinations, leading to deteriorating academic performances and reduced levels of research and publications. Very worrisome is the fact that the public and employers are not comfortable with the quality of our graduates from the primary; junior to senior secondary schools up to tertiary levels hence the need for this write up. This situation prompted the writers to find out whether lecturers are given needed training and development to carry out this task of disseminating knowledge as can be seen.

Also, over the years government through her agencies have continued to blow propaganda before the public about the spending on Education for which is far from UNESCO standard. In recent years, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has expended a lot of money on staff development in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. In 2014 alone, according to the TETFund, a whooping sum of 19 Billion naira was expended on staff development (People’s Daily (Sick) 2014). Yet public outcry is still loud, for instance, Akinyele (2000) lamented that academic staff in Colleges rarely adequately prepare students as finished products for their future position as teachers and their accompanying responsibilities.

Teachers are often blamed for the fallen standard of education, yet not many people want to find out some of the remote causes of these poor performance of teachers, thus each academic staff member is required to prove his/her credibility based on strengths and magnitude of his/her research activities, teaching and consultancy services among others. The major challenge in the view of the writers is how to combine knowledge obtained from formal programmes (Certificate) and practical field work.Their argument is to the effect that through in-service training programmes the lecturers will come to proof his/her worth better. Accordingly, the pertinent questions to guide the paper are; what is In-Service training? Why does academic staff require this training? How can organizations sustain the In-service training needs of their staff?

Clarification of issues

In-Service training programmes are programmes that enable lecturers to acquire further education or higher degrees such as masters and doctorates in their chosen fields. The programmes are obtainable from Universities within and outside Nigeria. Further training is recognized as an approach for achieving increased efficiency and performance of lecturers (FME, 2014, TETFund, 2014). According to Yakubu (2010), formal Universities provide the atmosphere for structured learning which make assimilation process easier. He further states that training in formal schools has some advantages and they include; the performance level of the study can be readily assessed through testing, ideas and concept can be standardized, it afford students from various background and experience a forum for interaction and resources are put together in one place for maximum utilization Nassazi (2013) state that the contents, duration and all the details about the training should be clear to both the organization and the individuals to be trained. Employees may undertake these courses and programmes while completely off work or alternatively are present for work on part-time basis.

Colleges of Education may have realized the benefits of lecturers participating in higher degree programmes and hence could have been supporting or sponsoring them through various methods as stated earlier.

The sponsorship is seen as an investment of some sort that brings forth dividends. It is believed that when such sponsored lecturers complete their courses their job performance would improve and they will be able to take up new responsibilities and occupy more demanding positions. Many lecturers are said to be enthusiastic about participating in higher education qualification programmes because a higher degrees is also a basis for promotion to a higher level.

In addition to the Colleges of education sponsorship of its academic staff, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) formally Education Trust Fund introduced the academic staff training and development programmes in 2005.Yakubu (2010) insist that funds are provided to tertiary educational institutions for higher education of lecturers especially at masters and doctoral levels within and outside the country, in addition to these other forms of In-Service re-training.

Many lecturers have benefitted from these sponsorships. Between 2010 and 2014, a total of about 10,363 lecturers across tertiary institutionsare said to have benefitted including more than about 385 of them who studied abroad. In particular, Bwakan (2014) reported that: Colleges of education have been beneficiaries with many lecturers currently being sponsored in Nigeria and foreign Universities respectively. The whole idea is for these lecturers to develop themselves from the level they were at graduation.

In a study carried out by the writers in the above subject matter in North-Central geographical zone of Nigeria: see details below Pg 23 of 36 the writers came to conclusion that In-Service training and re-training has a positive impact on the job performance on academic staff of Colleges of Education in North-Central geographical zone of Nigeria. This also is there position in this paper.

Impact of In-service Training Programmes on Job Performance of Academic Staff of Colleges of Education in the 21^st Century Questionnaire (ITPJPACE)

METHODOLOGY:

This is a survey research. The research design for this study is a descriptive survey design, particularly the cross-sectional survey design. This design involves gathering of data about a target population from a sample and generalizing the findings obtained from the analysis of the sample to the entire population. The design is used to describe the attitude, beliefs, opinions, behaviours or characteristics of a population based on data collected from a sample or population, (Kenneth and Abbort, 2002).The design allows for making inferences and generalizations from a representative sample of the population. The survey approach is therefore considered appropriate for this study to analyze the opinions of respondents in relation to the Impact of In-service Training on Staff Development Programmes (independent variable) on the job performance (dependent variable) of lecturers in the Colleges of Education of Nigeria.

Table 1: Responses on the Impact of Higher Education Training on Job Performance of Academic Staff of Colleges of Education in North- Central Geographical Zone of Nigeria

Items 1-8 in the questionnaire were used to examine the responses of the respondents on impact of higher education training programmes on the job performance of academic staff of colleges of education in North-central Geographical Zone, Nigeria and the result obtained are presented in table 1. Item 1 which states that through higher education training, academic staff learn new methods of teaching and this enables them to perform better in the class, has the following response 28 academic staff representing 7.1 % disagreed with the statement, 7 academic staff representing 1.8 % were undecided while 360 academic staff representing 91.1 % agreed with the statement, with the mean score of 4.20 and standard deviation of 0.788 similarly 1 management staff representing 0.8 % disagreed with that statement, 5 management staff representing 4.4 % were undecided and 108 management staff representing 94.8 % agreed with the statement with the mean score of 4.67 and standard deviation of 0.605. More so, 1 union official representing 5.3 % disagreed with the statement, 18 union officials representing 94.7 % agreed with the statement with the mean score of 4.32 with the standard deviation of 0.749 respectively. This result reveals an acceptance of statement.

Item eight (8), which through higher education training, academic staff learn how to effectively communicate has the following response. 5 academic staff representing 1.27 % disagreed with the statement, 10 academic staff representing 2.53 % were undecided, 380 academic staff representing 96.20 % agreed with the statement. with the mean score of 4.45 with the standard deviation of 0.608 2 management staff representing 1.75 % were undecided and 112 management staff representing 98.25 % agreed with the statement with the mean score of 4.59 with the standard deviation of 0.529 while 19 union officials representing 100 % agreed with the statement with the mean score of 4.53 with the standard deviation of 0.513 this result reveals an acceptance of statement.

Hypotheses Testing

This section presents the result of the hypotheses testing. One hypothesis was formulated and tested as follows:

1. There is no significant difference in the opinions of respondents on the impact of in-service training programmes on the job performance of academic staff of Colleges of Education in the North-Central Geographical Zone of Nigeria.

Table 2 Hypotheses Testing

DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS

The main issue discussed in this paper centered on the impact of higher education training programmes on the job performance of academic staff of Colleges of Education in the North-central geographical zone of Nigeria. It is one thing for academic staff to undertake higher education training and also another to improve upon their performances. In view of this, the finding implied that higher education training had a positive impact on the job performance of academic staff of colleges of Education in North-central geographical zone of Nigeria. The opinions of the respondents affirmed that through higher education training academic staff learnt how to plan their lessons well, this view was also accepted by most respondents as significant majority of the respondents also believed that through higher education training programmes, academic staff learns how to control their classes and this improves their performance in the class, it is through higher education training, academic staff master their subjects.Through higher education training, academic staff learns how to evaluate lessons, through higher education training academic staff learns questioning techniques which helped to improve their performance; this finding is in line with Alabi (2012) who specifically explained that teachers need development programmes in order to improve their instructional methodology. Suleiman (2014) also corroborated with these findings where the researcher cited that the influence of staff development on students’ achievement is through its direct effect on teachers’ knowledge and practices as this improves lecturers’ professional knowledge and classroom practices.

Summary of Major Finding

The study revealed that:

1. In-service training programmes significantly improved academic staff job performance in many areas of their duties, such as learning new strategies of teaching large classes, improving their knowledge base in the subjects among others.

Benefits of In-Service Training Programmes

1. In-Service training programmes significantly improve academic staff job performance in many areas of their duties, such as leaving new strategies of teaching particularly handling large classes, improving their knowledge base in the subjects among others.
2. It is one thing for academic staff to undertake higher education training and also another to practicalize these knowledge through In-Service retraining, academic staff come to master how to advance the lessons questioning techniques etc do this also falls in line with Alabi (2012) who specifically examined that teachers need development programmes in order to improve their instructional methodology.
3. In the event of epidemic, like during the COVID ’19 era, institutions had to resolve to online teaching, because they did not want to expose their students and lecturers through direct contact on the one hand and not willing to missed their valuable time that would be wasted while the crisis last, the implication being that the staff needed to be given basic In-Service training on handling the computers.

Need to keep updating knowledge has become obvious that is why some profession like Law, Accounting, Medicine (Nursing in particular) insist that her members subject themselves to mandatory retraining every two (2) years. So academic staff should not be left behind.

CONCLUSION

Based on the findings of the study, the following conclusion was reached:

1. In-service training had a positive impact on the job performance on academic staff of Colleges of Education in North-central geographical zone, Nigeria, that through in-service training academic staff learn many teaching skills.

Recommendations

1. In order to adequately meet the aims of staff development, employees and their management need to provide within the framework of agreed policies, a wide range of development opportunities for all categories of staff.

2. Such opportunities should include well-organized In-Service education and training in a climate in which the staff are being adequately supported in professional and resources terms.

REFERENCES

Akinyele, S. T. (2007). The impact of Nigerian training programmes on employees’ performance. Research Journal of Business Management 1(1), 11-19.

Alabi, A. T. (2012). The relevance of staff development programmes to staff performance in the school system. Ilorin Journal of Education.Retrieved December 11th, 2016.From http://www.Unilorin.edu.ng/journals/edu.

Bwakan,N. (2014,October, 10). TET Fund trains 10,363 doctorates, master’s degree holders. News watch times

Gyot, BD; Leonard, DP; Sunday, T (2022) Impact of Staff Development Programmes on Performance of Academic Staff in Colleges of Education in North-Central Zone, Nigeria.(Un-Publish Institutional Base Research Work).

Kenneth, S. B.& Abbott, B. B. (2002).Research Designs and Methods. (5^thed.). Boston: McGraw Hill.

Nassazi, A. (2013). Effects of training on employee performance: Evidence from Uganda. Business economics and tourism. Pp. 1-57 retrieved from www.theseus.fi/bitstream/…/THESIS.pdf

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