Improving performance of students of St. John's Grammer school through teacher appraisal

Abstract

This research work set out to answer the question of what could be done to help students of St. John's Grammar School to improve on their performance in both internal and external examinations. Certain problems facing teachers which might have had negative effects on student performance were identified. In all, fifty-four members of staff were requested to answer questions on whether their work had been appraised before and on their perception of performance appraisal. They were also made to identify problems facing them as teachers some of which were lack of adequate supervision by GES officials, and ineffective conduct of internal performance appraisal. Other deficiencies included inadequate preparation of teachers before lessons, ineffective use of instructional time, inability to regularly assign and mark exercises of students, large class sizes and insufficient motivation. The inability ofteachers to fully participate in co-curricular activities and to carry out delegated assignments was apparent. As a result of these findings, samples of respondents were taken through a performance appraisal exercise. After this intervention, there was a positive change in the attitude of teachers towards their professional duties. In order to sustain this change, it is recommended that performance appraisal should be carried out more often to ginger up teachers. Then if teachers are expected to do their work properly, management must ensure they are well motivated.