Managing Teachers’ Productivity in a Depressed Economy: Implications on Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) in Public Secondary School in Rivers State

Abstract

This paper examined managing teachers’ productivity in a depressed economy: Implications on Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) in public secondary schools in Rivers State. The study was guided by three objectives, with corresponding research questions and null hypotheses. The study adopted a correlational research design. The population of this study comprised of all the 6,893 teachers of 291 public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. A proportionate stratified random sampling technique was adopted to select a sample of six hundred and eighty-nine (689) teachers representing 10% of the entire population. Two questionnaire instruments titled: Managing Teacher Productivity in a Depressed Economy Questionnaire (MTPDEQ) and Sustainable Development Goal 4 Questionnaire (SDG4Q) were used for this study. Cronbach alpha reliability test was conducted to ascertain the reliability of the instruments, of which the reliability coefficients of Managing Teacher Productivity in a Depressed Economy and Sustainable Development Goal 4 Scale were 0.82 and 0.85 respectively. The research question 1 to 3 were answered using simple regression, while hypotheses 1 to 3 were tested with t-test associated with simple regression at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that in-service training of teachers and provision of work-life balance for teachers in a depressed economy predict Sustainable Development Goal Four (SDG4) in public secondary school in Rivers State to a high extent, while recognition of teachers in a depressed economy predict Sustainable Development Goal Four (SDG4) in public secondary school in Rivers State to a low extent. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that school management should constantly organise in-service training for teachers for attainment of sustainable development goal four considering the fact that such training is achievable in a depressed economy. Also, school administrators should always recognize the efforts of teachers whenever they do well in other to improve job productivity in their day-to-day responsibilities at school for achievement of quality education which is the hub of SDG4.