Appraisal practices and teacher performance in the secondary schools of Nansana Town Council, Wakiso District.

Abstract

The study set out to establish the effect of appraisal practices on the performance of teachers in secondary schools of Nansana Town Council, Wakiso District. The specific objectives of the study were to investigate the effect of appraisal practices in secondary schools of Nansana Town Council on (i) the participation of teachers in school activities (ii) Quality of teaching and (iii) the involvement of teachers in school administration. It has been reported by the DEO, Wakiso (2007) that teacher morale and motivation to work in secondary schools in Nansana Town is very low; that many teachers often absent themselves from classes and teachers come late to school; that teachers leave the schools unattended to; and seem not to be satisfied with their work as they do not complete the tasks assigned to them in time. These indicated poor performance by the teachers. Therefore, this prompted the study.

The study was a descriptive survey, precisely the cross- sectional survey design in which both qualitative and quantitative approaches of data collection were employed, involving a total of 163 teachers with 43 teachers from government- aided schools and 120 teachers from private owned secondary schools. Primary data were collected using interview guide for head teachers and self administered questionnaires for the teachers. In this study, three hypotheses were tested using the ANOVA technique. From the findings, the study did not establish a significant relationship between appraisal practices used in secondary schools of Nansana Town Council on the participation of teachers in school activities. However, the study established a significant relationship between appraisal practices used in Nansana Town Council on the quality of teaching and the involvement of teachers in school administration.

The study concluded that, appraisal practices used in secondary schools of Nansana Town Council do not significantly affect the participation of teachers in school activities. However, the study also concluded that, appraisal practices used in secondary schools in Nansana Town Council significantly affect the quality of teaching and the involvement of teachers in school administration.

From the findings and conclusions, the following recommendations were made: the head teachers in the secondary schools should endeavor to spell out what, who should be appraised, the methodology employed and most importantly the feedback got from appraisal should be communicated to teachers in time for the purpose of improving the participation of teachers in school activities. Educational administrators should endeavor to put in more effort in organizing workshops and seminars on appraisal practices geared towards improving the quality of teaching in schools and policy makers should endeavor to establish more concrete policies that encourage open and participatory appraisal practices that emphasize collegial and teamwork in regard to the involvement of teachers in school administration.