Teachers’ Professional Development and Efficiency of Public Primary Schools in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined teachers’ professional development and efficiency of public primary schools in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. It was guided by three research questions and one hypothesis was tested. The population of the study comprised 5,332 primary school teachers from 547 public primary schools. The Krejcie and Morgan sampling table was employed to randomly select 271 teachers as sample for the study. Instrument used for data collection was a 15-item questionnaire divided into three parts titled “Teachers’ Professional Development Programme and Primary School Efficiency Questionnaire (TPDPPSEQ) with reliability coefficients of 0.75. The reliability was determined using Cronbach Alpha technique. Analysis of data collected was done using mean scores to answer the two research questions while regression analysis was used in testing the hypothesis at 0.05 alpha level. Findings revealed that professional development programmes are available to public primary school teachers in Bayelsa State, level of teachers’ job performance in the state is moderate and teachers’ professional development programmes significantly influence the efficiency of public primary schools in the state. Based on the findings, the study recommended among others that policymakers should expand access to professional development programmes tailored to teachers’ specific needs as well as providing/encouraging online and digital learning platforms to enhance accessibility, training should be focused on innovative teaching strategies that will impact on teachers’ job performance for effective classroom management and record-keeping to further improve the efficiency of the schools and schools should monitor and evaluate professional development outcomes and involve parents and stakeholders in supporting teachers’ growth.