ABSTRACT
English Language is the language of instruction in Nigeria’s educational system. It is therefore important that it is properly taught in schools. This study was designed to assess the impact of provision and utilization of instructional materials on performance of public nursery pupils in English Language in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State. Four research questions were raised and three hypotheses were formulated. A sample of one hundred and twenty (120) teachers were randomly selected from the twenty (20) sampled primary schools in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State. Data analysis was carried out using chi-square of independence for the hypothesis and simple percentages for the research questions. The result showed that provision of instructional materials to schools were grossly inadequate. It was also observed that there was poor utilization of the available instructional materials by teachers in the classrooms, making the performances of pupils poor in the language with resultant low impact on the academic performances of public nursery pupils in education generally. It is therefore recommended that ‘instructional materials should be made available for the teaching of English Language and the teachers as well should ensure that the available instructional materials are appropriately utilized during the lesson delivery.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Education is an important instrument for the development of a nation’s social life, human resources, political awareness and the economy at large. It is clearly stated by the federal republic of Nigeria (1988:15) in her national policy of education that ‘education has been adopted as an instrument for effecting national development: it is in the light of this that the federal government is doing everything possible to see that illiteracy rate is reduced or totally wiped out of the nation because no country can grow beyond the educational level of its citizenry.
Nursery education or early childhood education which is the first stage of formal school system in Nigeria today forms the bedrock of an individual’s education life. This is because the quality of an individual’s subsequent educational prowess depends largely on the quality of nursery education that the individual received. Hence the broad aims of nursery education within Nigeria can be summarized as preparation and laying of strong foundation for primary school and other levels of education in future.
The federal republic of Nigeria (2004), has stated that nursery education is the education given in an educational institution to children between the ages of three (3) and five (5) prior to entering into primary school. Nursery education began as a private enterprise in Nigeria and continued until the year 2003, when the federal government and the United Nations International Children Education Fund (UNICEF) took inventory of early childhood care facilities in Nigeria and discovered that most of the facilities were privately owned. It was then that the Universal Basic Education (UBE) act (2004) included programmes and initiatives for early childhood education and development in states and local government areas. To make it more effective, the UBE programme made provision for every public school to have a nursery school linkage to cater for children aged 3 – 5 years. This is a period of growth and vulnerability in children. They are extra active at this stage, inquisitive and very curious to know the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of everything they see. It is because of this that teaching and learning process requires a sort of simulation and adequate use of instructional materials to make lessons interesting and meaningful, especially in English language.
The impact of instructional materials in teaching and learning in the school is indisputable. Teaching at any level requires that students be exposed to some form of simulation. Danmola (1992) noted that teaching resources in English language means anything that can assist the teacher in promoting teaching and learning of the subject. When the students are given the chance to learn through more senses than one, they can learn faster and easier.
Ikerionwu (2000) refers to instructional materials as objects or devices which help the teacher to make learning meaningful to the learners. Instructional materials are materials which assist teachers to make their lessons explicit to learners. They are also used to transmit information, ideas and notes to learners (Okorie 1982). He identified instructional materials to include both visuals and audio visuals such as pictures, flash cards, charts, posters, tape recorders, radio sets, video, television sets and computers among others. These materials and equipment serve as supplements to the traditional or normal processes of instruction.
The use of instructional materials provides the teacher with interesting and compelling platforms for conveying information since they motivate learners to learn more. Furthermore, the teacher is assisted in overcoming physical difficulties that could have hindered his effective presentation of a given topic to the learners. According to Lane in Larson (2001), the use of electronically medicated instruction to duplicate the traditional face to face classroom has resulted in a shift from teacher to student centered classes. In this situation, the responsibility for learning is shifted to the students. The teacher only facilitates the learning by acting as a coach, resource guide and companions in learning. The use of instructional materials therefore does not only encourage teachers and students to work collaboratively, but also results in more cooperative learning activities among the students.
The purpose of instructional materials is to promote efficiency of education by improving the quality of teaching and learning. Incorporating these tools and materials present, supports and reinforces teaching. According to ‘Aduwa Ogiegbeen and Imogie (2005), these materials and resources including audio tape recorders, video tape recorders, slide projectors, still pictures, programmed instruction, film strips, maps, charts, graph, opaque projectors, overhead projector and many more, offer a variety of learning experiences individually or in combination to meet different teaching and learning experiences.
Since the inception of nursery in public primary schools in 2005, few or no studies have been devoted to evaluating the availability and utilization of instructional materials in the teaching of English language in nursery classes in Jos North local government area. At the threshold of this new millennium, English language teachers face challenges and need to evolve strategies to engage learners in activities that are active, meaningful and challenging in the teaching and learning of the subject.
English Language is not an indigenous language to Nigerians. Since it is the medium of instruction in our schools, duty demands that the subject be properly handled, especially for the beginning readers. English language is technical in nature. The ability to assimilate meaning from text, spoken words, commands and reading of print materials is an index of good performance in English language which speeds up understanding of every other subject taught in school. It then becomes necessary to use techniques, methods and materials which will help the pupils to learn fast and happily. This fact is supported by Arisi (2000), who asserts that visual aids make lesson come alive and help students learn better. It is in view of this background that this study attempts to examine the extent to which the availability of instructional materials could advance nursery pupils performance in English language especially in reading.
Franzer, Okebukola and Jegede (1992) stressed that a professionally qualified English teacher, no matter how well trained, would be unable to put his ideas into practice if the school setting lacks the equipment and materials necessary for him or her to translate his competence into reality. Kadzera (2006), opined that English language is resources intensive and so teachers should not depend on sophisticated imported materials and equipment always rather, the need for improvising. Producing and providing instructional materials locally will reduce cost and irrelevancy.
Ogunleye (2002) and Obioha (2006) reported that there were inadequate resources for teaching English language in primary schools in Nigeria. They further stated that the available ones were not usually in good conditions. There is the need therefore for adequate provision of good teaching materials in schools. Garuba (2003), also noted that improvisation as a means of providing for the demand of adventure, creativity, curiosity and perseverance on the part of the teacher. Such skills are only realizable through well planned and administrative training programmes on improvisation of learning objectives and instructional materials.
Given the importance of instructional materials, the government does not adequately provide instructional materials to primary and nursery schools. Teachers themselves are also lacking in improvising and this could be the reason for poor performances of nursery pupils in English language. For instance, in ECWA transfer primary school, Jos, records of results have shown poor performance in English language tests and examinations consistently from 2011 to 2014. In 2011 promotion examination, the pupils had average mark of 40% in English, 2012, 35% average; 30% in 2013 and 45% in 2014. This trend of poor performance may likely be common to many other nursery schools in Jos North Local Government Area.
Based on these performances, the researcher would want to find out whether the poor performance of pupils in English language is due to inadequate availability or lack of instructional materials. If instructional materials are available, how adequate are they? And how well are the teachers using them in the course of their teaching and learning processes in the classroom.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Instructional materials play significant roles in the teaching and learning process. The federal government in its national policy on education recognizes education as an expensive social service, requiring adequate financial provision from the federal, state and local governments as well as the local communities, individuals and organization (FRN: 1998). The government cannot provide education alone. The slogan is, ‘all hands must be on deck’, yet there are pitfalls as regards financing education in Nigeria. In nursery schools, there are no instructional materials for teaching because the government is not providing them. Teachers are not helping matters due to financial constraints. This condition is capable of affecting pupil’s performance negatively. Aguwu, (2005) stated that instructional material management is a crucial component of the entire classroom control. Since the act of teaching is fundamentally concerned with passing ideas, knowledge, skills and attitude from the teacher to the learners, it will be improper to go about it haphazardly.
The problem of this study is that nursery pupils are performing below average in English language especially reading. It may be as a result of in-availability of instructional materials in schools or lapses on the side of the teachers in using the available materials in teaching. If the materials are available, then are they of good quality? Are they used by teachers at the right time during lessons? Could pupils learning capacity be enhanced by the use of instructional materials?