In
recent time, secondary schools organizations have described the declining
productivity on the part of their teachers. This has in many questions been
attributed to lack of motivation on the part of the management of the secondary
school.
The year 1950s and 60s recorded a
state of wellness to the secondary school teachers. Then most students aspired
to become teachers. Parents were always advising their wards and children to
aspire to be like their school teacher.
Apart from the societal recognition,
teacher’s salaries were regularly and promptly paid. Car loans were given to
them. It is safe to say that they were like “Kings”. Parents were even happy
having teachers as their sons-in-law. It was the period of great flourishing to
the teachers.
Teachers enjoyed all the privileges
of their job with conducive learning environment, remuneration, allowances,
recognition, and regular payment of salaries etc until the late 90s when their
ship was wrecked by the problem of insufficient of funding of schools. It was
indeed an eye sour compared to the early teachers experienced.
Over the years, successor’s governments
have stressed the needs for a sound education of our leaders of tomorrow.
Ironically, however these same politicians seemed to have neglect teachers and
education sector as a whole to the lowest ebb. The cornerstone of any educational system is
the teacher. Unfortunately, most teachers don’t earn up to the minimum wage,
poor welfare packages and are often relegated by the society.
Noticeably, there are indices of low
job performance among teachers in Nigeria Local government area as a result of
their unfair treatment; most teachers in Nigeria have lost their zeal,
interest, motivation, enthusiasm and pride of teaching. The profession now
appears to be an alternative in place of the preferable.
Teaching is one of the most
predominant professions in the society. It is actually the word through which
other professions are birthed. Teaching is the process of inculcating
knowledge, relevant skills, attitude, and norms into the learners to bring about
desirable behaviors or change.
Ada (2010) opined that to a layman,
a teacher is anybody who handles chalk, talks to the learner in an organized classroom
situation and transcribe his speech in a note form for the students to copy.
The teacher is that individual saddled with the responsibility of training,
instructing, directing and guiding the activities of the learners or students
towards the actualization of the set learning objectives.
Motivation is a major tool in jobs performance
of teachers. According to Akpakwu (2008), motivation may be defined as anything
the educational manager or administrator does to sprew staff and students to
put in more or extra efforts in the performance of their responsibilities.
Denga (1996) in Akpakwu (2008) view
motivation as the inner ability that ignite, energize, direct, propel and
induces the individual towards goal achievement.
Motivation can be internal and
external. Internal motivation comes as a result of a drive to satisfy a need
while external motivation is the external force by someone else on another
person to act as directed. For instance teachers are motivated to teach more if
promptly paid their entitlements. Generally people are satisfied with their
jobs if they are more lightly motivated. Zatzik and Iverson (2006).
Job satisfaction is a positive
emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experience; it
is the indicator that individuals are committed to work. Job satisfaction is a
very complex and multifaceted concept, which means different things to
different people, but it could be associated with a personal feeling of
achievement either quantitative or qualitative, it regards to ones feeling or
state of mind regarding the nature of the work. It could be intrinsic; when
workers consider only the kind of job they do and its task, while intrinsic is
when workers considers the conditions of the work.
Teacher are made satisfied when all
the level when there are adequately motivated, promotion, pay etc. this of course
will consequently result in higher productivity.
Working environment refers to the
facilities available to facilitate and yield a positive outcome on teacher’s
performance and satisfaction. Availability of economic facilities like adjustable
chairs, shelves, neat rest rooms, appropriate lightening level, and other
school plants make the teaching job interesting. Quality security should also
be ensured. This makes the teaching environment conducive and attracting to the
teachers thereby making them to teach comfortably.
The impact of motivation on the job
satisfaction of teachers cannot be overemphasized. It was Utulu (2008) who
maintained that, motivation is crucial for teachers. If teachers are to put in
their best and remain in the teaching profession, they should be highly
motivated. It is very important because it improves the skills and knowledge of
teachers and directly influences their actions and behavior towards achievement
of educational goals and objectives.
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