Improving teacher performance in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem municipality

Abstract

Supervision reports from Tarkwa-Nsuaem Education Directorate showed that pupils in basic schools in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality were not sufficiently numerate, literate, nor able to solve problems that children at their grade levels were expected to solve due to unsatisfactory performance of teachers. The situation had resulted from lack of facilities for teaching and learning, inadequate staff motivation, ineffective supervision, lack of stakeholder support and co-operation, and poor attitudes of teachers among others. The research was therefore an attempt to identify the causes and solutions of the phenomenon. The basic assumption was that a solution to the challenges would also motivate teachers to be more productive, and pupils would then do better academically. The intervention included workshops, professional and material support for teachers, motivation for teachers, and deliberations at durbars and meetings. Percentages were used to analyze the research data. The population for the study was 25,260 for which purposive sampling was used to select a sample of 345 respondents in 15 schools. The main instruments used for the study were questionnaire, observation and interview checklist. At the end of the intervention, Headteachers’ monitoring of class teaching improved from 20% to 46.7%, and teachers’ output rose from 33.3% to 49%. Teachers’ use of child- centred method increased from 53.3% to 93.3% to allow pupils to participate in teaching and learning. Stakeholder support also improved. The general conclusion was that performance was relatively higher.