ABSTRACT

The study investigated the relationship between teacher quality and school climate as correlates of students’ academic achievement in public secondary schools in South East Nigeria. Ten research questions and ten null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a correlational survey research. There was 87,623 teachers and students. A sample size of 1067 teachers and students was proportionately drawn from the secondary schools in the zone to constitutes the sample. The instruments used for data collection were “Teacher Quality Rating Scale (TQRS), “School Climate Scale (SCS) and Academic Achievement Profoma used in collating students’ academic achievement. The stability of the instruments was determined using pearson`s product correlation coefficient and reliability indices of 0.82 and 0.79 were obtained for TQRS and SCS respectively. The internal consistency of the instruments were also determined and a reliability estimates of 0.86 and 0.83 for TQRS and SCS were obtained respectively. Pearson`s Product moment correlation coefficient (PPMCC) was used to answer the research questions and the p values from the pearson`s product moment correlation coefficient (PPMCC) were used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that the higher the qualification of the teacher, the higher the academic achievement of the students. It was also revealed that effective classroom management practices increases students’ academic achievement. Findings from this work showed that as the principals allow the teachers a favourable environment to operate, it will aid effective instructional delivery which will enhance students’ academic achievement. Among the educational implications of the findings was that teachers with more years of experience are well conversant with the best instructional delivery which will yield significant improvement in the academic achievement of the students. It was thus recommended among others that the government and school administrators should ensure that teachers with higher qualifications are sought after in the recruitment of teachers in secondary schools in South East Nigeria. It was also recommended that the government should ensure that teachers with higher years of teaching experience are employed are employed to teach in secondary school.