Abstract

Education plays a vital role in human capital formation. It raises the productivity and efficiency of individuals and this produces skilled manpower that is capable of leading the economy towards the part of sustainable economic development.

However, the low levels of education continue to be signaled throughout as the main obstacle of higher productivity in the Municipality of Buea. We were interested in finding out what factors influence the productivity of teachers and also to examine the role of the level of education on productivity.

Cross-sectional primary data was collected through the system sampling method wherein 88 teachers were sampled. Using the Classical Linear model, the Ordinary Least Square Technique was applied to analyze the data. The results reveal that level of Education has a significant role to play as far as the productivity of teachers is concerned.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

Recent research has brought an increased awareness of pedagogy that supports the productivity of teachers based on education, which is the most important component of the school’s effect on student learning.

There is considerable heterogeneity in teacher productivity within and across schools (Rockoff, 2004, Hanushek, et al, 2005). However, education is what makes some teachers more productive than others in promoting student achievement in some secondary schools in the Buea Municipality.

Glickman (2002) said that teachers need to professionally inform in order to evaluate, construct and interact with the curriculum and create the experience with the students that will transcend knowledge and develop their potentials as meaningful participants in the society, thus, the need for teacher education which goes a long way to increase productivity.

Allen and Cosby (2000) indicated that teacher productivity is based on the educational level of the teacher. Realizing the importance of education on teacher productivity in some selected secondary schools in Fako Division, I have taken the issue as my major concern to find out whether the effect of Education has an influence on teacher productivity, or other factors like the level of education, training, etc, has an influence on teacher productivity.

Thus, for the simple reason that some teachers have high productivity because of their level of education and training, pre-service and in-service teacher training programs, will go a long way to increase the productivity of non-educated teachers who are often called PTA teachers.

The Cameroonian educational system is rather unique in Africa in that it is composed of the Anglophone and Francophone sub-system which reflects colonial heritage from Britain and France. Efforts have been underway since 2006 to harmonize these two systems notably at the basic level where primary education is today six years for both sub-systems.

The education policy in Cameroon is implemented by three ministries namely: the Ministry of Basic Education, The Ministry of Secondary Education, and the Ministry of Higher Education from Independence, the educational sector has often received the lions share of the national budget which has ordinarily been used to finance all the operating cost in public schools and 80 percent of the same cost in nonpublic schools (Boyle, 1996).

This shows the high priority, according to Education by the Cameroon government. Indeed one of the primary laws of no child left behind the law is to have a “highly qualified teacher” in every classroom. This is evident that Cameroon will reach the Millennium Development goals of Universal primary Education at the end of 2015.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

During the first teaching practice I carried out at G.T.H.S Molyko and during her teaching practice II at G.H.S Buea Town, the researcher discovered that the education of teachers has a great effect on teachers’ productivity. The poor performance of students provoked the researcher to carry out an investigation into the problem and it was discovered that the education of the teacher matters a lot on teacher productivity.

Glickman (2002) said that teachers need to professionally inform in order to evaluate, construct and interact with the curriculum and create the experience with the students that will transcend knowledge and develop their potentials as meaningful participants in society. So this necessitates the need for reflection as far as the education of teachers is concerned.

Despite all efforts that have been put in place by the Cameroon government on private and lay-private institutions to train teachers, teachers’ quality and quantity are at the center of educational problems in Cameroon.

Teacher Education and training, face a lot of problems of producing quality teachers hence little has been done to look at the productivity of these teachers this is due to some factors like overcrowded programs and the duration of the courses, do not prepare them, to handle problems of mostly secondary school students. Hence a number of teachers are not well-paid because they are not qualified and thus lack creative skills.

It will be therefore necessary to examine the relationship between education and productivity which will be reflected on the test of different earnings of teachers with different levels of education as corresponds to their productivity.

Realizing the importance of education to a teacher, the researcher took it as her major pre-occupation to find out whether the education of the teacher has an influence on teacher productivity or other factors like the level of education, training, and experience.

1.3 Objective of the Study 

1.3.1 General objective

The main objective of this study is to find out the effect of education on teacher productivity in some selected secondary schools in the Buea Municipality.

1.3.2 Specific Objectives

1. To find out if the level of education affects teacher productivity.
2. To investigate the effects of training on teacher productivity.
3. To find out if the experience of the teacher affects teacher productivity.