Educational - Ozean Publications

European Journal of Educational Studies 2(2), 2010Research Question 2: What were the average weekly number of periods assigned to teachers in rural secondaryschools? Table 1 revealed that in 2008/2009 school year, the 120 sampled teachers from 24 sampled rural secondaryschools, had an average weekly workload of 26 periods.Research Question 3: Were the urban secondary school teachers more utilized than their rural secondary schoolteachers?Table 1 revealed that rural secondary school teachers had an average weekly workload of 26 periods, while theirurban secondary school counterparts had an average weekly workload of 16 periods. In other words, the ruralsecondary school teachers were more utilized than the urban secondary school teachers.DISCUSSION OF RESULTSThis study examined whether teachers in either urban and rural secondary schools in Mid-Western states of Nigeriaare under utilized or over utilized. It also sought to ascertain if there were variations in their workload.The results revealed that urban secondary school teachers in 2008/2009 school year, had an average weeklyworkload of 16 periods. This was smaller than the minimum workload of 18 periods recommended by the guidelinesfor the implementation of the Nigerian education system. In other words, the teachers in urban secondary schools in2008/2009 school year were under utilized. In support of this, Aghenta (1983:64) asserted that, “It is true that a feware over worked, but when the average is taken we discover that teachers teach 15 periods out of 36-40 periods aweek.” Contrary to the finding of this study, Oyeka (2002) discovered that urban secondary school teachers had anaverage weekly workload of 20 periods. The difference may be ascribed to the unprecedented expansion that theNigerian secondary school system witnessed, which in turn led to the recruitment of more secondary schoolteachers.As regards rural secondary school teachers, this study revealed that they had an average weekly workload of 26periods in 2008/2009 school year. This workload is slightly higher than the maximum workload of 24 periods perteacher per week recommended on the guidelines for the implementation of the Nigerian secondary school system aswell as the 24 periods discovered by Oyeka (2002) in her study for rural secondary school teachers. The slightincrease in the workload of teachers in rural secondary schools may be ascribed to the excess workloads that wereassigned to the few teachers in rural schools. It is pertinent to realize that rural areas in Nigeria in general and Mid-Western States in particular are devoid of basic social amenities like pipe borne water, electricity and recreationcentres among others. As a result of the unwholesome situation, only few teachers deployed to rural secondaryschools stay. The resultant effect of this is that the few that remained, were perhaps, made to teach other subjectsthat were partly related to their areas of specialization. In consonance with this, Nwagwu (1998:189) pointed outthat, “In many states of the country today, some secondary school teachers teach as many as 30 periods a week, thatis an average of 6 periods a day.” From this, one can say that rural secondary school teachers in Mid-Western statesof Nigeria in 2008/2009 school year, were not only adequately utilized but they were over utilized, unlike theirurban counterparts.CONCLUSIONIn view of the findings of this study, the following conclusions are being made. Teachers in rural secondary schoolsin Mid-Western states of Nigeria were over utilized, while their counterparts in urban secondary schools were underutilized.91