Abstract
The major purpose of this study was to investigate job satisfaction amongst accounting teachers in senior secondary schools in Kaduna state. Five research questions were raised and four null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population for the study consisted of 110 accounting teacher made up of 71 male accounting teachers and 39 female accounting teachers drawn from the 74 public secondary schools in Kaduna state. The study adopted descriptive survey design. A structured questionnaire consisting 54 items was developed and used for data collection. The questionnaire was face-validated by three experts from Department of vocational technical education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Crombach Alpha reliability test was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument and yielded a reliability coefficient of .74 Data were analyzed using mean statistic for the research questions and t-test was used to test the null hypotheses. The major finding were it will provide reliable information to government agencies such as ministry of education and zonal inspectorate offices with requisite facts with regards to job satisfaction of accounting teachers, it will enable them to improve the working conditions of their staff so as to derive job satisfaction. Furthermore, the results of this research work will proved the necessary information that will serve as guide to managers and proprietors of schools as it would expose them to the need for improved funding to acquire useful teaching materials for efficient operations. More so, the outcome of this research will afford parents the opportunity to know that job satisfaction has a great influence on teacher’s performance. This will make them provide rewards in the form of gift and donations. It will also make stakeholder in education industry to come up with important and reasonable policies that will make accounting teachers have job satisfaction in their various endeavours. Base on the finding of the study conclusion were drawn which include: the level of availability of instructional materials, funding of accounting education, supervision and monitoring of accounting instructions, appraisal and promotion, interpersonal relationships considering its obvious important in job satisfaction of accounting teacher serve as an ingredient that motivate the teachers to put their maximum attention to pursuit the objective of his profession. Finally, the following recommendations were made: The government should continue to improve on the condition of service, salaries and job security of accounting teachers to ensure that they remain satisfied with their job. The government should increase the provision of necessary condition that will ensure job satisfaction of accounting teachers which include further training, promotion and remuneration for extra work . Lastly, the government should as a matter of urgency provide the necessary instructional materials, equipment, facilities in classroom and workshops, office space and give the teachers free hand to operate.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Accounting is one of the subjects offered in Business Education at the tertiary education levels in Nigeria. At the senior secondary school level, Accounting is offered as financial accounting. Accounting is the process of recording, summarizing, analyzing, interpreting transactions which are financial in nature to facilitate decision making by users of the information. Anao (2009) described accounting as a set of concepts and techniques that are used to measure and report financial information about an economic unit. The economic unit is generally considered to be a separate enterprise from its owners. The information is potentially reported to a variety of different types of interested parties. A good accounting system is therefore necessary to enable users of accounting reports who include management, investors, and tax authorities among others to make informed decisions for the attainment of desire objectives. Accounting is a discipline which records, classifies, summarizes and interprets financial information about the activities of a concern so that intelligent decisions can be made about the concern. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA, 2011) defined accounting as a service activity that provides quantitative information, primarily financial in nature, about economic entities that are intended to be useful in making economic decisions, that is, reasoned choices among alternative courses of action.
In every business establishment, be it government establishment, parastatals, private companies, banks and other financial institutions, the importance of accounting cannot be overemphasized. Umunnah (2007) explained that accounting education is regarded as an area of study that equips the youths with knowledge, skills and attitude necessary for efficient financial calculation required for occupational competence, and economic activities of an organization are measured, recorded and communicated to
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interest parties for analysis and interpretation. Book-keeping and financial accounting are the two aspects of accounting taught at the secondary school level.
Book-keeping is part of accounting and is concerned with the recording of transactions which is often routine and clerical in nature whereas financial accounting performs other functions viz: measurement and communication besides recording. An accountant is required to have a much higher level of knowledge, conceptual understanding and analytical skill than is required of the book-keeper. An accountant designs the accounting system, supervises and checks the work of the book-keeper, prepares the reports based on the recorded data and interprets the reports. Nowadays, he is required to take part in matters of management, control and planning of economic resources. Osuala (2004) believes that book keepers are employed in various business and industries including government agencies. The author stressed that book-keepers perform the following duties: make entries in ledger accounts, use the telephone, make journal entries, use the adding and calculating machine, examining or sorting of business papers, prepare operating or financial statements, prepare trial balance, type bills, invoice and statements, balance cash daily, keep inventory records, prepare cheques, reports and payrolls. However, beyond the book-keeping activities is the financial accounting.
Financial accounting deals with the maintenance of books of accounts with a view to ascertain the profitability and the financial status of the business. Accounting is globally useful most especially in international trade where business transactions in the world market is being recorded, analyzed and interpreted to parties concerned (Osuala, 2004).
The objectives of financial accounting is to ascertain the results (profit or loss) of business operations during the particular period and to state the financial position (balance sheet) as on a date at the end of the period. Financial accounting is the oldest and other branches have develop from it. The objectives of financial accounting, as state above, can
be achieved only by recording the financial transactions in a systematic manner according to a set of principles.
Students offering Accounting have wider employment opportunities either for self- employment or paid employment. The students use the skills for their personal and future family life. Accounting is not only important and useful to the person training to become an accountant but it is useful to other professions, such as typist, filing clerk, sales persons, person planning to operate his own farm, workshop and management of any business (Osuala, 2004). Accounting like any other skilled subjects in Business education required special methods and teaching technique in teaching the students.
A teacher is someone who teaches, guides, directs, controls, counsels, manages, and diagnosis his students needs etc (Oguegbune-Olwuenu, 2008). The accounting teachers must be knowledgeable in accounting and have the teaching qualification requirements. Though many people teach accounting without the teaching qualification requirements, such teachers have diploma or B.Sc in Business subjects. Such teachers are regarded as “interlopers” (Osuala, 2002). The teachers are expected to have an NCE or B.Sc (Ed) in Business education or B.Sc in Accounting with a post graduate diploma in Education (Osuala, 2002 and Aliyu, 2001). The functions of accounting teachers, according to Osuala (2004), are: playing the critical role in making accounting viable and visible in the community, delivering high-quality accounting programme that are equal to any academic offering in the school system, playing the role of an agent of change in accounting and identifying problems facing the learning and teaching of accounting as well as being able to speculate solutions to the problems. A qualified accounting teacher can teach accounting at any level of education including secondary school.
Secondary school education is the education children receive after primary education and before the tertiary stage (NPE, 2013). In specific terms, secondary education shall provide all primary school leavers with the opportunity for education at a higher
level, irrespective of sex, social status, religious or ethnic background; provide trained manpower in the applied science, technology and commerce at sub-professional grade; provides technical knowledge and skills necessary for agricultural, industrial, commercial and economic development among others (NPE, 2013). To achieve the stated goals, secondary education shall be of six years duration given in two stages; junior secondary school stage and at the senior secondary school stage of three years duration each (NPE,
2013). The teachers in the secondary school like their counterparts in other educational institutions teach for job satisfaction. The accounting teachers in the secondary schools also need to be satisfied on the job to improve their own performance and that of the students.
Job satisfaction is the level of contentment a person feels regarding to his or her job. This feeling is mainly based on an individual’s perception of satisfaction. According to Muncreif in Egbule (2008), job satisfaction appears to be the most important ingredient in the success of any enterprise. It is composed of complex factors which range from satisfaction with the material and non-material aspects of the job through inter-personal relations to specific behaviour such as efficiency, productivity and dependability of workers. Within the framework of job satisfaction and work adjustment, the ability of a specific job to fulfill an individual’s vocational need is a determinant of an individual’s job satisfaction. Kumar, K.S. (2011), reported that job satisfaction depends upon the extent to which an individual finds adequate outlets for his abilities, interests, personality traits and values as well as the individual’s establishment in a type of work or work situation in which his growth and exploratory experiences have led him to consider congenial and appropriate. In the secondary schools for example, a high level of job satisfaction must act as a motivating factor in order to increase performance. Similarly, Parmer and East (2010) describe job satisfaction as relating to individual’s feeling or emotion towards work. The happier people are with their jobs, the more satisfied they will be. Eneasator (2009)
asserted that of all the major plans which administrators must develop, none is as critical to success of the undertaking as those affecting satisfaction and psychology of the people responsible. The satisfaction of workers as well as teachers of accounting can be based on the material and social economic provisions available in the work place. Aliyu (2001) opineds that job satisfaction of accounting teachers in secondary schools can be influenced by the facilities and materials that are available for teaching, level of funding, the interpersonal relationship that exist in the work place, the teachers’ appraisal and promotion among others.
Instructional resources which are educational inputs are of vital importance to the teaching of any subject in the school curriculum. A teaching resource is a material which a teacher uses to facilitate the learning, understanding and acquisition of knowledge, concepts, principles or skills by his students. These instructional resources are meant to aid teaching and learning of accounting. Wale (2011) asserted that the use of instructional resources would make discovered facts glue firmly to the memory of students. Instructional resources include all the devices employed in the teaching-learning for the purpose of facilitating learning. Ali (2008) defined resources as produced objects of information or instruction. These materials and devices are representation of real life situations as media of communicating ideas. Thus resources help to convey the intended message effectively and meaningfully to the learners. There importance are : Instructional resources serve as the channel between the teacher and the students in delivering the instruction, it’s also serve as the motivational on the teaching- learning process, Use to get attention of the students in order for them to experience boredom.
The desire to learn financial accounting is compelling and must be satisfied, but this cannot be without the necessary resources for the teaching and learning of the subject. Although, the importance of learning resources in effective teaching and learning of financial accounting has been highlighted, there are notable problems hindering the
procurement of the needed resources by the accounting teachers. Duru (2007) asserted that teachers in general want to make learning interesting and meaningful, so they are concerned with tools which are available to make them perform the job satisfactorily. He further emphasized that if a teachers lacks these vital materials he will be frustrated and dissatisfied with his job. Adeogun (2006) observed that low levels of instructional resources available in public schools are starved of both teaching and learning resources. The author opined that effective teaching cannot take place within the classroom if basic instructional resources are not present. This is most especially important in the teaching of accounting courses. Examples are Bank statement, cardboard illustrations, payment vouchers, receipts, invoices, waybills, promissory notes, debits and credit notes, samples of final accounts of organizations.
Funding of secondary education in Nigeria has been a topical issue due to the present bleak in economy arising from the global inflationary trend and economic down turn. In spite of the effort of the different governments to provide funds for education, educational institutions still lack the necessary funds to implement various programmes.
Many researchers have the consensus opinion that the most nagging problems facing the procurement of the learning resources in secondary schools seem to be finance. Finance is considered as an obstacle to improvement of education. Mkpa (2005) sees finance as one of the major factors militating against the procurement of instructional materials by teachers. This is because most of the equipment for financial accounting are costly to buy. By their nature, secondary schools lack the internal means of generating revenue to procure some of the necessary but expensive instructional materials such as projector, computers, generating sets, accounting projected films and so on. Moja (2008) asserted that building of classroom has not kept up with increase in enrolment in all levels of education. The most affected are primary and secondary schools where classes are offered in the open air. In several secondary schools, as many as four classes are
accommodated in one classroom and these are classes that are already over crowded and in poor state of repairs (Moja 2009). The poor funding and the absence of the necessary facilities cause resent and dissatisfaction on the job. Another factor of the school that can affect the teacher’s satisfaction is supervision.
Supervision is one of the major aspects of school administration technically viewed as an effort to create awareness and provide professional assistance to teachers so as to make teaching and learning situation easy and meaningful for students. Nwaogu (2005) also defined supervision as the process of bringing about improvement in instruction, by working with the people who are working with students. From these definitions, one can deduce that supervision of instruction is a process of helping people to use the right procedure in teaching. In other ways, it is concerned with ways of making pupils learn, so that the school can achieve goals for which it is set for. Supervision is very much needed in Nigerian secondary schools because of the astronomical increase in the number of secondary schools within the last decades. As a result there is inadequate but also poor quality teachers who need supervision so as to improve their performance on the job so as to derive job satisfaction. According to Afianmagbon (2008), supervision relates to guiding and coordinating the work of teachers and all concerned with school work in such a way that students’ learning is facilitated. The author emphasized that supervision aims at facilitating learning through creating awareness and offering professional assistance to teachers, releasing teachers’ potentials so that teachers willingly improve the learning situation. Supervision is based on the assumption that every human being has a potential to do some work. It is the sole purpose of supervision to discover these potentialities in the supervisee and bring about improvement in their job. In supervision, teachers’ ignorance is dispelled while their skills are upgraded. Teachers are helped during supervision to attain a recommended level of professional competence through guidance and direction by the supervisors to improve instruction.
Furthermore, the issues of appraisal and promotion of teachers has become very critical factor among teachers job dissatisfaction. Appraisal according to Okoro (2006), is the assessment of the worth or value of a thing or action, and the making of an appropriate decision on the basis of such appraisal. Appraisal is used to assess the quality of performance for the purpose of promotion. Promotion is one of the sensitive issues in every employee’s life. Through promotion, a employee get recognition of his or her performance, and is motivated to continue in this way. According to Pigors and Myers (2010), promotion is an advancement of an employee to better job in terms of greater responsibilities, more prestige or status, greater skill and specially increase in salary. Promotion is a movement to a position in which responsibility and prestige are increased. Promotion involves an increase in rank ordinarily. The promotion system within the teachers is not fair and transparent that will make teachers to derive satisfaction in the job. The variety of tasks involved, the interest and the challenge the job generate determine how happier teachers are with their job.
The more satisfied teachers are with their system of appraisal and promotions other working conditions, the more likely they are to stay on their jobs. Teachers satisfaction can also affect students outcome, as more satisfied teachers are likely to be more motivated to improve and deliver good teaching. Most teachers are happy with their jobs but perceive the teaching profession as undervalued by the society. There is a growing consensus that the nature and quality of relationship within teachers and students play a critical and central role in motivating and engaging students to learn (Wentzel, 2009). Effective teachers are typically described as those who develop relationships within themselves that will create an enabling environment for job satisfaction. However, these relationship qualities are believed to support the development of students’ motivational orientations for social and academic outcomes, aspect of motivation related to emotional well-being and a positive sense of self, and level of engagement in positive social and academic activities.
They also provide a context for communicating and high expectation for performance and for teaching students what they need to know to become knowledgeable and productive citizens.
The influence of gender on job satisfaction has been established because many research findings have revealed that significant differences exist between male and female workers in organizations. For example, Kumar (2011) asserted that female teachers are more satisfied than their male counterparts. According to the author, male teachers have more responsibilities to attend to and the salary being paid is not enough. Motivation plays a vital role in the performance of a given task. Fabumni (2000) observed that in any organization, the goal of production was usually the major task of the leadership. The educational goal depends to a great extent on how well the teachers were motivated to effectively discharge their duties. The issues of motivation and job satisfaction of teachers has become very critical and topical in recent times. Every written document about teachers extols the roles and the importance of teachers in the education process yet when it comes to the questions of how to improve and motivate them, those whose duty it is to manage and administer teacher’s motivation fail to do so (Horng, 2009). It can, therefore, be argued that if these teachers are not properly motivated and sustained on the job, it means that government should look into the only profession that tends to give them economic, social and political development and do better implementations as private schools cannot run free education. The best way to make accounting teachers effective in the performance of their duties should be to motivate them through a harmonization of their conditions of service, provision of teaching and instructional facilities, fringe benefit and in- service training and promotion (Nwogu, 2007). Teachers need to be motivated so that they could execute their duties with high level of enthusiasm. This will go a long way to helping enhance job satisfaction and optimize productivity in their endearvours.
Statement of the Problem
The satisfaction of teachers in their job would ultimately increase their interest and productivity, which will by extension increase the student’s academic achievement. However, the cases of unpaid salaries and allowances, strikes, teachers truancy and anomalies witnessed in schools indicate that the teachers, including accounting teachers may be dissatisfied on the job. The absence of commitment and dedication to duty, general apathy towards teaching, indiscipline, poor conditions of service, absenteeism observed in schools nowadays could signified teachers dissatisfaction which would contribute directly or indirectly to the falling standard of educational system.
On the other hand, the poor performance as shown in Kaduna State SSCE final accounting results for years 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, is enormous ( Kaduna state education resource centre ( 2014). For instance, in 2010/2011 it was revealed that out of 7456 candidates who sat for the WAEC examination, only 40% passed with credit. In
2011/2012 out of 8148 candidates that sat for the examination, only 36% passed with credits. Furthermore, in 2012/2013 out of 6987 candidates sat for the examination, only
28% passed with credits in 2013/2014 out of 7000 candidates sat for the examination, only
32% passed with credits. This general failure includes candidates who sat for financial accounting. Ladd (2011) observed that lack of interest and commitment by teachers makes them produce secondary schools leavers who do not have the basic knowledge, only to show ignorance and poor performance in their further education or at the work place .Therefore the problem of this study posed a question; Are accounting teachers satisfied with their jobs? If they are to what extent are the teachers satisfied with their job? Purpose of the Study
The major purpose of the study is to determine the job satisfaction of accounting teachers in secondary schools in Kaduna State. Specifically, the study seeks to determine the job satisfaction of:
1. accounting teachers with regard to the availability of instructional material in senior secondary schools in Kaduna state.
2. accounting teachers with regard to funding of accounting education in senior secondary schools in Kaduna state.
3. accounting teachers with regard to supervision and monitoring of instructions in senior secondary schools in Kaduna state.
4. accounting teachers with regard to staff appraisal and promotion in senior secondary schools in Kaduna state.
5. accounting teachers with regard to interpersonal relationships with colleagues, administration and students in senior secondary schools in Kaduna State.
Significance of the Study
This research work will be of immense benefit to accounting teachers, school administrators, government, parents, students researchers and the society at large.
The findings of this study would benefit accounting teachers when government and education authorities through the knowledge of the findings of this study begin to improve on the provision of all instructional materials that make teachers satisfied with the job. The findings of this study will also provide clues to accounting teachers on how to showcase their maximum potentials in their chosen profession, and make them improve their performance and proficiency.
The findings of this study will be of immense importance to managers and proprietors of schools as it will equip them with better understanding on how to motivate and increase the teachers interest through incentives, good salary structures and working conditions in their endeavors. Hence, it will serve as a guide in planning and implementations. The findings of this study on funding would be of value to managers and proprietors of schools as it would expose them on need for improved funding of the schools and the activities of the schools funds to acquire useful teaching instructional materials for efficient operations.
Prospective investors in the school business will also benefit from the findings of this study. When the findings of this study is communicated to managers and school proprietors through workshops and seminars, they will be able to improve the working conditions of their staff so as to derive job satisfaction by improving the conditions of the service.
The findings of this study will be of immense benefit to government agencies such as the ministry of education and zonal inspectorate offices as it would furnish them with information that will agitate their minds to come up with informed decisions especially when planning grants that will be disbursed to schools. It will also stimulate government interest in giving considerate attention to teachers through adequate provision of materials facilities and funds for improving teaching and it will assist the teachers satisfaction.
The findings of this study will also help parents to know that job satisfaction has a great influence on teachers’ performance. This will make them provide rewards in the form of gifts and donations. These findings will also expose parents who are administrators on issue of teacher’s job satisfaction. When this finding is communicated to parents through workshops and radio jingles, it will motivate parents to strive more to provide the basic learning and requirements of their wards that will improves the teachers satisfaction.
The findings of this study will be of importance to researchers and academics as it will provide empirical evidence on which further researches on job satisfaction could be anchored upon. The findings of the study would also have theoretical significance as it will gave more support to the two factor theory of Frederick Herzberg. This theory states that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction is a product of different factors: motivation and hygiene. Motivation is seen as an inner force that drives individuals to attain personal and organizational goals.
Research Questions
1. To what extent are accounting teachers satisfied with the level of availability of instructional materials used in teaching accounting in senior secondary schools in Kaduna State?
2. To what extent are accounting teachers satisfied with the level of funding of accounting education in senior secondary schools in Kaduna State?
3. To what extent are accounting teachers satisfied with the level of supervision and monitoring of accounting instructions in senior secondary schools in Kaduna State?
4. To what extent are accounting teachers satisfied with the mode of appraisal and promotion in senior secondary schools in Kaduna State?
5. To what extent are accounting teachers satisfied with the level of interpersonal relationships with colleagues, administrators and students in senior secondary schools in Kaduna State.
Hypotheses
The following null hypotheses will guide the study and will be tested at 0.05 level of significance:
H01: There is no significant difference in the mean responses of male and female accounting teachers on their job satisfaction with regard to the funding of accounting education in senior secondary schools in Kaduna State.
H02: There is no significant difference in the mean responses of accounting teachers on their job satisfaction with regards to the supervision and monitoring of accounting instructions in senior secondary schools in Kaduna State with respect to teachers qualification.
H03: There is no significant difference in the mean responses of accounting teachers on their job satisfaction with regards to the interpersonal relationships with colleages and students in senior secondary schools in Kaduna State with respect to teachers grade level.
H04: There is no significant difference between the mean responses of accounting teachers on their job satisfaction with regards to the availability of instructional materials in senior secondary schools in Kaduna state with respect to school location.
Scope of the Study
The study is delimited to all the public secondary schools in Kaduna State. It will also be delimited to accounting teachers and students in the twelve (12) education zones of the state. The study will determine the teachers job satisfaction based on the availability of instructional materials and facilities for teaching accounting, funding of accounting education in the schools, supervision and monitory of instruction, appraisal and promotion as well as the interpersonal relationship with colleagues, administrators, and students in the area of study.
This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research
JOB SATISFACTION AMONGST ACCOUNTING TEACHERS IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KADUNA STATE>
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