Abstract
The main
aim of this study is to find out the influence of
teachers’ strike action on the academic performance of secondary school
students in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State. Three specific purposes and three corresponding research questions
were raised to guide the study. The literatures related to this study were
reviewed under conceptual framework, theoretical and empirical studies. The research
design adopted for this study was survey design. The population of the study
comprised 11,041 students and 24 secondary schools in Udi Local Government Area
of Enugu State. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 200
secondary school. Students were selected
from the selected five schools for the sampling. The instrument used to obtain
information was a structured questionnaire. The instrument used was validated
by two experts from the department of measurement and evaluation in Godfrey Okoye
University Enugu. The test-retest reliability procedure was adopted. The reliability
index was 0.75. The data collected were analyzed using mean. Therefore, the
findings of the study showed that
strike action delays students learning and strike action delays
completion of academic calendar. Based on the findings, the researcher
recommended that the government should stop using threats to the teachers as a
solution to strike action rather they should use dialogue to bring a lasting
solution
INTRODUCTION
Background to the study
Could
there be any meaningful transformation programme, structural adjustment
programme and many point agenda in the absence of education imperative in a
country? Education, the process that involves all round development of
cognitive, psychomotor and affective ability of individuals in the society in
order to promote the advancement of the individuals, society and the world at
large should not be relegated to the background in whatever manner. The cacophony
between the central authority and the staff unions should not be extended to
the point of jeopardizing the success of our education system which will in
turn have undesirable effects on the academic achievement of the students.
Bearing in mind, no nation can develop beyond the capacity of her citizens.
Staff industrial actions in Nigeria University, Polytechnic and College of
Education systems have become the common phenomenon with the detrimental
effects on the academic commitment and success of Nigeria students.
Despite the fact that
tongue and mouth are inseparable, clash between the two is inevitable. As long
as the academic staff union and employer (government) represented by
politicians are at
variance in belief and
philosophy there is bound to be industrial dispute between the two. The action
and counteraction of the academic staff union (ASUU, ASUP and COEASU) in recent
years to recalcitrant attitude of the federal government towards the past
agreement; conditions of service, salaries and allowances, adequate funding as
prescribed by UNESCO, University autonomy, integration of polytechnic academic
staff payroll had led to frequent industrial action by COEASU, ASUP and
specifically ASUU. These unions have resulted to employment of strike as the
last resort to balance the power between their staff and the government when
the bargaining and consultation failed to yield desirable result. Implying that
the only language understands by the government is strike action. The
counteraction of the academic staff unions to actions and inaction of the
government is not self centered but incited by the quest to resuscitate the
acclaimed fall in Nigeria education standard. The specific evidence to this
fact are the agitation by ASUU and ASUP between 2013 and 2014 which includes
improvement and provision of educational infrastructure in our dilapidated
tertiary instructions; fulfilling 26% budgetary allocation to education as
prescribed
by UNESCO so that
Nigeria education system would be able to turn out the graduates that are
capable of taking up the task of national development and be globally
competitive like in the 70’s when Nigeria graduates were accorded high esteem
at the global stage.
Furthermore,
it is incontrovertible that agitations of academic staff unions are to foster
the adequate conditions of service which would go a long way in stimulating
advantageous atmosphere for students to accomplish the prerequisite curriculum
objectives. And, this would reduce to the barest minimum if not to zero level
the half-baked graduates or functional illiterates that Nigeria tertiary
institutions are turning out lately. Unfortunately, the strike action
that is always embarked
upon by the staff unions whenever there is industrial dispute between them and
their employer (government) always put students at the detrimental conditions.
The reasons for this are not farfetched; they end up having lesser period to prepare
for academic exercises before summative evaluation hence possibility of poor
academic performance. After the whole struggle, the academic staff salaries and
allowances that were withhold during the industrial action would end up being
paid.Aside the bad reputation the strikes conferred on Nigeria education
system; delayed and extension of duration of students in school in the face of
age sensitive or discriminating Nigeria labour market which plummet the
economic value of the graduates in Nigeria labour market. And, unjust
compression of the syllabus and academic calendar which deprived students of
adequate academic
preparation and eventually have undesirable effects on the students achievement
of educational objectives as laid down in the prescribed curriculum which paved
way for the production of half baked graduates by Nigerian institutions is of great concern to the study
at hand. In view of this, the specific objective of this investigative study is
to the influence of teacher’s strike on
educational system. Student’s go to school daily with happiness, expectations
stress and ambition only to be turned back by the school authority because of strike.
This study is to investigate the influence of teacher’s strike on academic
performance of secondary school students.
Eregha (2001) have expressed his views
on the Probable Caused, and solutions have been suggested. The percentage of
repeated occurrence of strike has become the concern of parents, psychologist
and social workers and all is anxious to eliminate it. The irregular payment of
teacher’s salaries by government, which began in November 1981, which led to a
strike action, by teacher’s, demoralized and frustrated the teacher’s. The
effect of this was seen in the teacher’s borrowing money for feeding with the
hope of getting paid in a short time. This ugly situation persisted until teachers
became the laughing stock of everyone. From an oral interview carried out by
me, it
was seen that many of the teacher’s became Professionals because
according to the teacher’s, they could no longer depend on teaching alone for
their survival instead of depending on a job which will not bring positive
reward at the end of the month, many took to farming, fishing, trading etc in
addition to the teaching job.
The action (strike) usually poses a lot of negative effects
on the student’s. This is because the period that should have been used to
teach the student’s is spent at home all in the name of strike. This makes it
impossible to cover the syllabus and at the end of the day the student’s come
out of school with lesser knowledge than they ought to have acquired, thereby
making it very hard for them to compete with their counterparts that finished
from private schools. Parents are also not left out why did I say so? Because when they see their children at home
during the period of strike, they tend to be unhappy and very uncomfortable. Basically,
the influence of teachers strike on
academic performance of student can limit the knowledge of students. Educational
system in udi Local Government Area of Enugu State is adverse and cannot be
ignored because it is evident in the kind of products that graduate from our
schools these days.
. In this vein, there is the need to reduce strike and its
effect to improve on the teaching-learning outcomes in our schools.
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The influence of teacher’s strike on academic performance of
secondary school students over the years have been an issue that cannot be
overemphasized.
Huge resources are annually put into
educational expansion, as an investment intended to help reap corresponding
returns. In this type of investment students are the prime inputs, their
development is its prime objective, their attitude greatly affect its process
and in the end they are its prime output. Since student’s
play an important part in the
investment dimension of education, teachers and other parishioners in education
have the responsibility of earning effective and efficient teaching and learning
outcomes. The problems associated with this study are the lack of provision of
fringe benefits of the teacher’s, low salary, and lack of promotion, shorter
working days, political Instability and lack of government interest in
education. However there has been strike in the system, which affects
learning’s process.
The
unstable industrial relation climate in Nigeria just within the decades has
resulted in all-time record of lost working hours, unprecedented work stoppage
as a result of strike action.
By October 1981,both
federal and state government were broke, by December, seven out of the nineteen
state governments could hardly pay the salaries of their employees; by June
1982,Bendel,Rivers,Cross Rivers, Benue and Imo States were owing teachers two
to four months arrears. It was only when junior workers threatened strike
action in Cross River state and teachers actually abandoned classes in Bendel
State after not receiving January salaries as at April 1982 that both
government cleared part of the outstanding amount . Thus we are of the view that strikes
have negative influence on the learners. It is necessary that we discuss the
effect of strike and learning among secondary schools students
PURPOSE OF STUDY
The main purpose of this study is to
attract the attention of both the educationist and non-educationalist to the influence
of strike on the academic performance of students, and to also examine the
causes of strike by Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT). The following variables
shall be examined;
SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
The importance of this study is to
bring to the knowledge of the public; the effects of NUT strike actions on our
educational system. The impact of strike on our secondary schools and the
academic performance of the students by the academic staffs and the secondary
schools in enhancing socio-economic and political development of the nation.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
Strike action by NUT is not peculiar to
some selected secondary schools in udi L.G.A. alone but to all secondary school
in Nigeria. This study intends to carry out a comparative analysis of performance chart of the final year students
(SSS III) of some selected secondary school in udi L.G.A. as collected by the
examination and this study intends to carry out a comparative analysis of six
(6) years performance chart of the final year students SSS III of some selected
secondary school in Udi L.G.A. as collected by the examination and this study
intends to carry out a comparative analysis of three years performance chart of
the SS I and SS II students in Enugu College Secondary Schools in Udi Local
Government Area as collected by the examination and class teacher
records.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. Does teacher’s strike affect the academic performance of student’s?
2. Does increase in the number of school dropout, as a
result of strike?
3. Does delay in teacher’s salary lead to strike?