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Greener Journal of Education and Training Studies
Vol. 7(1), pp. 16-22, 2024
ISSN: 2276-7789
Copyright ©2024, the copyright of this article is retained by the author(s)
https://gjournals.org/GJETS
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.15580/gjets.2024.1.110724160
Tetfund Centre of Excellence for Innovative Teaching and Learning in Primary and Early Childhood Education (T-CEIPEC). Federal College of Education, Pankshin.
Type: Research
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DOI: 10.15580/gjets.2024.1.110724160
The study examined the impact of unified examination on pupils’ achievement in numeracy: Teachers Perception and its implication on basic education in the state. The research was guided with three research questions and one hypothesis. The study employed survey and ex post facto research designs. The population consisted of 225 primary five (5) pupils and 25 numeracy teachers in the public central primary schools within the Central Senatorial District Local Government Headquarters of Plateau State. The sample size was 50 primary five pupils and 10 numeracy teachers within the study area. The instruments for data collection were questionnaire and proforma while data were analysed using mean, standard deviation and ANOVA. The finding revealed no significant difference in the pupil’s performance in the three termly unified examination conducted but, there was slight increase in the average performance of the students over the period under consideration and the teacher perception of the unified examination was not too impressive due to the facts their involvement was not considered in the formulation of the policy. Also, the study found that the policy will improve basic numeracy education in the state if properly implemented with the consideration of the teachers. The study therefore, recommended that, the teachers should be adequately involved and always use the scheme of work provided in the teaching and learning of numeracy in the primary schools which will eventually improve the quality of numeracy knowledge among primary school pupils.
Published: 30/11/2024
Falade Job Olakunle
E-mail: falade.olakunle@ yahoo.com; obadiadalong@ yahoo.com
Education is a process of inculcating ideas and values to an individual or group of individuals for the purpose of being self-reliance and to better the society where they live. Education is a lifelong activity and it ends when one ceased to exist. There is no individual or group of individuals that ever exist without any form of education be it formal or informal. Education for all, was designed to guide in learning of culture, moulding behaviour in the ways of adulthood, and directing them toward their eventual role in society. However, a formal education is the one that the knowledge or ideas to be acquired are determined and structure towards the desirable goal of the planner through a planned structure of activities called curriculum. Formal education corresponds to the systematic, organized education model, structured and administered in accordance to the given set of laws and norms, presenting a curriculum in terms of objectives, content and methodology (Radhika, 2019).That is, education of a certain standard delivered to students by trained teachers or personnel based on a guided structure. Formal education is classroom-based learning processes where everything a student learns comes in books and other educational materials/resources with the sole purpose of educating the concerned students. Also, in a formal education, all teachers are trained and licensed to teach and they are the same teachers the students will see every day to keep their education and training consistent. Teachers participate in school improvement by developing strategies that promote effective learning, monitoring and assessing pupils, providing feedback on pupils learning, and managing classroom and school activities (Mugenyi, 2015).
Basic education is kind of education that is exceptional because is provided at the early stage of the child and it serves as the background of educational processes. Basic education is the foundation of any educational level (Kanno & Onyeachu, 2015). This foundational education from inference, determines the stability of the entire educational process that anyone can have. Basic education comprises of education provided right from early years up to lower secondary education in Nigeria. This includes the early childhood, primary and junior secondary educational system. This is basic because, it forms the foundation of the knowledge needs by the pupils against the future that is ahead of them. These begins from early years to an appreciably years of the child’s life and for further education which will be based on an informed decision (Salihu & Jamil, 2015). The above speaks on the essentiality of the basic education in an individual life, society and the nations at large. However, in Nigeria, there are lots of policies introduced by the government or educational stakeholders to improve the quality of the education especially, at the basic level of educational system. These policies are to ensure improvement in equal accessibility, proper monitoring and good quality of the products.
These policy makers on education often change or make policy to redirect the educational system/process towards particular set objectives. This is to guide the operations of educational process to bring about quality of the products towards achieving the set goals. No matter how good the policies, its impact through implementation process needs to be assessed continually to know if any progresses are made. It has been established that in Nigeria, there are sound educational policies but Lack of continuity, poor implementation of the policies and improper assessment of the workability are factors preventing effectiveness of the policies, (Ogunode & Adah, 2020). The workability of educational policy through effective implementation supposed to be pursued rigorously because they are clear term for action. Ogbonnanya (2010) sees educational policy as the specific goals arrived at, that must be pursued through effective implementation of the policies. Sometime, these policies are like a proposal, or on-going programme, or major decisions directly imposed on the existing educational structure in order to redirect the objective or to improve the output of the educational product. One of the objectives of any educational policy is to see that, educational product academic achievement improved to a set standard that can drive the social economy of the individuals and the society. Also, among the learning activities that can drive the social economy of any society, is the numeracy skills acquired by an individual. If a nation is to develop technologically, improved numeracy knowledge is required as it formed the bedrock of any technological advancement. There is this general believe that mathematics is difficult, this has kept many from the knowledge of numeracy. Educational stakeholders all over the world are always at their toes to find solution to poor numeracy skills of their subjects.
Numeracy skills are one of the most important skills required by an individual to accomplish certain task effectively. Numeracy is the ability to understand and work with numbers which involves the ability to apply simple numerical concepts on daily basis and it involves the comprehension of fundamental arithmetic like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division (Falade, Dalong & Gyot, 2020). Numeracy skills emerge right from when children are exposed to different quantitative in everyday activities. This entails understanding numbers as representation of a magnitude. The above submission established that, numeracy knowledge is important in individual child’s development. A good knowledge of numeracy helps individual to develop logical thinking and reasoning strategies in their everyday activities. These therefore support the idea of promoting early competencies in numeracy because of its relation to life skills which enhance self-reliance. Improving pupils’ achievement in numeracy right from basic education cannot be overemphasized based on its importance. Therefore, policy direction to enhance pupils’ performance will be of greater benefits to be adopted by any lover of education especially at the basic education level.
The yearning for quality in basic education products prompts the introduction of unified examination for primary schools’ pupils in plateau state by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB). This was aimed at enhancing the improvement in quality of teaching and learning, the products and to improve the primary school educational system. Observably, is the poor learning process at basic education level due to poor facilities, quality of the teachers, and pupils’ attitude to learning and poor implementation of the policies that guide the educational system (Ishola, 2016). These observations have brought a lot of modification into educational structures especially at the basic education levels. One of such modification is the introduction of unified examination in schools in some states in Nigeria such as Lagos state, Ekiti state etc. In Ekiti state Jimoh and Adewuni (2020) in a study, establish how the unified examination was significantly predicts students’ performance in Economics in WASSCE and NECOSSCE positively, in the light of this the system was introduced by plateau state to replace the age long termly teacher made examination. Unarguably, there are problems with teacher made examination which has been long used in most schools. Some of the test made by the classroom teachers were of low quality in terms of comprehensiveness, reliability and validity as well as not effective enough to promote good learning capability required from the pupils (Falade, Dalong, Pofi, & Wanlor, 2022.).
Although, many factors led to these poor practices, this includes large class size, inadequate teachers and teachers’ attitude in some public primary schools; teachers’ poor knowledge in developing suitable assessment that can motivate learners and persistent endemic poor facilities in schools .Nicolaidou and Philippou in Mata, Monteiro and Francisco (2012) established that negative attitudes are the result of frequent and repeated failures or problems when dealing with mathematical tasks and these negative attitudes may become relatively permanent. In whole of this, teacher view cannot be neglected because they are the prime mover of any educational system. Like any human being, teachers are holding unto different perception of government policy and this cannot be separated from factors of success of any policy in educational settings. The frequent changes in government and persistent improper attention given to primary school education due to Politics have negatively affected the implementation of Policy on Education in Nigeria (Odukoya, Bowale & Okunlola, 2018). This improper attention has further generated to poor attitude of teachers in public schools and the entire societies are driven away from patronizing the public primary schools. The teachers have seriously been neglected to their faith in many aspects such as professional development, remunerations, care and protection against poverty in Nigeria in which Plateau state public primary schools are not exempted. Unarguably, teacher perception of the policy government introduces to educational system to an extent determine the effectiveness in the implementation and quality of pupils’ performance which is the aim of the policy, (Phillips, Halder, Campbell & Phillips, 2020)
The poor performance of pupils in primary schools which has generated to poor quality of the primary school products in the state as observed by stakeholder sat various level of educational system prompt the introduction of different policy in school system. Therefore, this study wants to examine the impact of the policy of unified examination across the public primary schools in the state as it affects pupils’ performance in numeracy. This study was conducted with a focus on how classroom numeracy teachers perceived the policy, performance of the pupils in the termly numeracy examination and the implication of the policy on the quality of basic education. It is expected that the study will establish if the policy is in the right direction for continuity and possible extension to secondary school education in the state.
What is the perception of numeracy teachers on the termly unified examination policy of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB)?
What is the average performance of the pupils in numeracy based on the termly unified examination conducted for primary five pupils?
What is the implication of the policy on the quality of basic education in the state?
There is no significant difference in pupils’ performance based on the termly unified examination conducted for primary five pupils in numeracy across the selected schools.
The study employed descriptive survey and ex post facto research designs. The designs were used to blend qualitative and quantitative information that will provide relevant answers to the research objectives. Hence, the study investigated facts based on the opinions/perception of the teachers and the existing record of the pupils’ termly academic performance in numeracy examination to further substantiate the impact of the policy. The study population was 25 numeracy teachers and 225 pupils in primary five (5) of the public schools within the Central Educational Zone of the state. The sample size for the study was 10 teachers and 50 primary five (5) pupils. Primary five pupils were choosing based on the fact that they have had substantive learning experience in the school system. The data were collected using questionnaire and proforma, the questionnaire contained teachers’ perception while the proforma extract the pupils’ termly academic performance based on the unified examination conducted. Descriptive and inferential statistics specifically, frequency, mean, and chart as well as ANOVA employed in data analysis using first term result as a factor for the study analysis. A 3.00 decision point was set to reject or accept the questionnaire items while the hypothesis was tested at the 0.05 level of significant.
Research question 1: What is the perception of numeracy teachers based on the termly unified examination policy of the state universal basic education board (SUBEB)?
Table1: Mean Score of Numeracy Teachers’ Perception of the Unified Examination
5
4
3
2
1
The table 1 presents the frequency and the mean to the participants’ response of the perception of primary school numeracy teacher on the impact of the unified examination policy of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB). Ten question items were presented to the respondents in the study; three of the items were accepted based on 3.00 decision point set in the study. The accepted items include teachers are satisfied with the internal assessment of the unified examination questions, the examination is considered to be better than the teachers made assessment and teachers are convinced with standard of the questions. Seventh of the question items were rejected which include, classroom teachers were involved in the development of the unified examination questions, teachers were equipped for the implementation of the policy, unified examination capture details of what teacher taught in the classrooms among others. The overall mean was 2.73; this implies that teacher perception of the unified examination was not too good. Though the policy was seen to be good but certain things are not well done towards implementation and this makes teacher perception about the unified examination to low.
Research question 2: What is the average performance of the pupils in numeracy based on the termly unified examination conducted for primary five pupils?
Table 2: Average Mean Score of the Pupils performance in Unified Numeracy Examination
78.00
The table 2 presents the average performance of the pupils in termly unified numeracy examination conducted for primary five. The first term recorded an average performance of 47.06 with 22 minimum and 70 maximum scores among the pupils. Second term recoded an average of 48.98 with 22 and 75 as minimum and maximum scores respectively. Finally, the third term had an average score of 51.44 with 32 and 78 as minimum and maximum scores respectively. The result revealed a steady increase in pupil’s performance in numeracy but the increases were seen to be within mid-way to 100%. It can be observed that the performance was not impressive as the pupils are far away from 100% however; there was a steady improvement from first term to the third term though there is still room for more improvement. The result was also presented in the chart below.
Figure 1: Chart showing pupils’ performance in unified numeracy examination
Research question 3: What is the implication of the policy on the quality of basic education in the state?
Table 3: Mean Score of Implication of the Unified Examination on Quality Education
The table 3 presents the response of the participants on the implication of the unified examination policy on the quality of basic education in the state. Seven items were presented; five of the seven items were accepted based on 3.00 decision point set in the study. The accepted question items are; the policy will have good impact on the educational system, the unified examination is preferable to classroom teacher made test, teacher effectiveness will be promoted among others. The rejected items are, proper monitoring was initiated and the policy has brought improved facilities to the system. The overall mean was 2.86, which implies that policy is good and it will improve the quality of basic education in the state if, the implementation was proper and sustained.
Hypothesis 1: There is no significant difference in pupils’ performance based on the termly unified examination conducted for primary five pupils in numeracy across the selected schools.
Table 4: One-way ANOVA result on the Significant Difference in Pupils Performance in Unified Examination
First term as a factor
The table 4 presents the significant difference in the primary five pupils’ performance in the unified numeracy examination conducted for three terms. The hypothesis was accepted since the p-value of 0.908 and 0.861 was greater than the 0.05 significance level using first term examination as a factor to determine the differences in the performance over the period under consideration. The result revealed that the pupil’s performance in numeracy has not been greatly improved since the introduction of the unified examination policy.
The research question one established that teacher perception of the unified examination was not too good due to some necessary process for implementation that was not done. Though they feel that the policy is good but certain things such as not involving classroom teachers in the process, inadequate facilities that can facilitate learning and structure of the question to cover details of what teacher covered in a term this make teacher perception about the unified examination to be low. However, teacher perception of the unified examination was that the policy is good as the examination was considered to be better than the usual classroom teacher made assessment. Hence, since the teachers were convinced about the quality of the unified examination questions it was considered a good policy geared towards quality basic education in the state. The finding was in agreement with Phillips, Halder, Campbell and Phillips (2020) which sees how teacher perception enhance implementation of policy towards quality performance of the pupils in the classroom
Also, the research question two which capture the pupils’ performance in the unified numeracy examination established that the performance was not high as the results obtained from the termly examination was rallying around 50% out of 100% and there is no significant difference in the pupil’s performance in unified numeracy examination conducted. However, there was a steady point of improvement in the termly pupils’ performance as observed form the pupils mean scores which can predict how pupils will perform in the long run. The finding was in agreement of Jimoh and Adewuni (2020) where the researchers found that the unified examination predict pupils’ performance in SSCE economics.
Finally, the policy if properly implemented and adequately monitored will eventually improve the quality of basic education in the state as it will put teacher on their toes to effectively teach and ensure pupils understanding such a way that they can pass expectedly. However, there is need for teacher adequate training and their involvement should be included in the process of the unified examination for primary school pupils, this will enhance their capacity in lesson preparation and teaching and learning process in the classroom throughout the entire state. This was also in the view of Mugenyi (2015) where the researchers opined that teachers participate in school improvement by developing strategies that promote effective learning, monitoring and assessing pupils, providing feedback on pupils learning, and managing classroom and school activities.
On the whole the introduction of the unified examination policy in the primary school system in plateau state was considered to be good and it’s expected to steadily improve pupils’ performance if it is well implemented. The policy will enhance the basic numeracy education products as well as an improved educational system. Though teacher perception does not go well due to certain criteria required for proper implementation of the policy but this can be properly addressed by putting the classroom teachers in its rightful place in the educational system based on their relevance to the quality of expected in educational processes.
Teachers most especially at primary school level, should be adequately included and involved in the formulation and implementation of any policy by the State Universal Basic Education Board
Teachers needs to properly taking into cognizance the scheme of work and ensure all subject contents are taught with high expectation that pupils can do well whenever they are faced with any examination most especially, external assessments.
The policy maker should have in their mind the factor of implementation of any introduced policy towards the quality is supposed to produce.
The researchers appreciate Tetfund Centre of Excellence for Innovative Teaching and Learning in Primary and Early Childhood Education (T-CEIPEC), Federal College of Education, Pankshin, for financing this research work.
The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest in the research work.
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