Associate Professor PERSONNEL DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE TEACHERS IN UYO.

PERSONNEL DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE TEACHERS IN UYO.

Abstract

 The general purpose of the study was to ascertain the need for personnel development to improve the performance of Agriculture Teachers in public secondary schools in the Uyo Education Zone in Akwa Ibom State.  Specifically, the study investigated the needed areas of personnel development to enhance teachers’ performance in agriculture lesson delivery. The population of the study comprised all the Agriculture Teachers in public secondary schools in Uyo Education Zone. The sample size of 99 subjects was randomly drawn from the fourteen (14) secondary schools in Uyo Education Zone, all offering Agricultural Science, Fishery, and/or Animal Production. The researcher structured and validated instrument with 15 items, that was used for data collection. The split-half method was used in determining the reliability of the instrument and a reliability index of 0.86 was obtained. Mean statistics was used in answering the -research questions, one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used in testing the null hypothesis at a 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed the needed areas for Agriculture Teacher professional development to enhance lesson delivery, including; ‘Professional Training Seminar on emerging lesson delivery strategies’ with the highest mean at 3.97. seconded by ‘Short courses on contents of emerging Agricultural Trades and  Entrepreneurial Practices’ with a mean of 3.95 and thirdly, ‘Workshop participation in the use of computer-aided agricultural teaching aids’ with the mean at 3.86 among others. There was no significant difference in the mean response of respondents. From the findings, it is recommended that government should host regular and periodic training and re-training of secondary school teachers to equip them on the indicated need areas.