Quality of Teachers: Effective Teaching and Learning of English Language in Secondary Schools, Akoko North West Local Government Area, Ondo State

This study examined qualities of teachers as a panacea to effective and learning of English Language in selected secondary schools. The study population comprised all the public secondary school teachers in Akoko South West Local Government Area of Ondo State. Out of this a sample of 150 teachers was selected through simple ramdon sampling technique. Two instruments were used to collect data. The data collected were analysed using frequency counts, percentages and chi-square. The findings reveal that there is significant relationship between teacher’s quality and students’ academic performance in English Language in Secondary Schools; there is significant relationship between teacher’s experience and students’ academic performance in English Language in secondary schools; there is significant relationship between teachers’ qualification and students’ academic performance in English Language in secondary schools; there is significant influence between teacher’s qualification and experience on students’ academic performance in English Language. Based on the findings, it is recommended that Ondo State Government should intensify more efforts in the training of teachers in order to acquire higher qualification; teachers should bring their wealth of experience in teaching students that would enhance the internal efficiency in secondary schools in the State.


Introduction
In Nigeria school system, teacher quality should be examined in various ways. It could be examined in term of teachers' qualification and teachers' competence. It could also be examined in terms of teachers' status, teachers' teaching experience and teachers' dedication to duty (Adeyemi, 2007). It could as well be examined in terms of teachers' integrity and teachers' job performance (Wilson & Pearson, 1993;Ayodele, 2000). In this regard, the teaching force seems to be a major variable in determining the quality of a school system. Teachers as one of the inputs into educational process constitutes an important aspect in pupils' learning. Considering this point, Umeasiegbu (1991) argued that "The level of performance in any school is intimately related to the quality of its teachers" while "the quality of any school system is a function of the aggregate quality of teachers who operate it" Teachers touch lives of all children from a variety of backgrounds, including those from families that exhibit a wide range of cultural and linguistic diversity. They also touch the lives of children with varying ability levels, including those with significant disadvantages, such as poverty, parental and societal neglect, as well as intellectual, social and physical disabilities. Generally, quality teachers are those teachers that students remember and cherish forever. Such teachers have long-lasting impacts on the lives of students. They have good classroom management skills and ensure good student behaviour, effective study and work habit. They also possess the knowledge of the subject matter they teach, and are equally prepared to answer questions thus making lessons interesting for students.
Nevertheless, some teachers tend to leave the teaching profession for other jobs or transfer from one school to another. Putting those most vulnerable children and youths at risk of failing to realize opportunities afforded them through quality education. Understanding why teachers leave is the first step in getting them to stay. Most times, teachers leave when they encounter environments that lack essential professional supports. These includes: job dissatisfaction; poor working condition and low salary, inadequate support from parents, administration, colleagues and the public; poor motivation of students; and lack of space for teachers to participate in key decisions affecting the school. Another reason is lack of induction and mentoring programmes for new and experienced teachers (Ingersoll and Smith, 2004). The complexity of issues embedded in retaining high quality teachers, made administrators find addressing these essential issues to be a daunting task. It is therefore paramount to assist administrators in planning, implementing, and evaluating a high quality teacher retention initiative that will help keep the best teacher in their schools.
Quality teachers, as studies have consistently shown, are teachers who are better trained, more experience and licensed in the subject they teach (Mayer, Mullens & Moore, 2000). In terms of competence, researchers have argued that teacher competence is a function of teacher qualifications (Aghenta, 2000). How competent teacher could be in teaching seems to depend largely on teacher's qualification. This contention supported Teacher quality focuses on teachers' skills rather than on their morality or personality traits (Sawchuk, 2011). Teachers are central to any consideration of schools, and a majority of education policy discussions focus directly or indirectly on the role of teachers. There is a prima facie case for the concentration on teachers, and administrators emphasize repeatedly the fundamental role that teachers play in the determination of school quality. Yet there remains little consensus among researchers on the characteristics of a good teacher, let alone on the importance of teachers in comparison to other determinants of academic performance.
Teacher quality is the concept that embodies what the teacher does and they can do in term of their assigned roles in the school. Related to the concept of teacher quality is teaching quality and it has been observed that one way of determining the quality of teaching in school is by looking at the immediate outcome of student performance (Sanders, 1999). There are several ways to evaluate a student's quality attributable to formal education, but the most tractable indicator is how he or she perform in tests (World Bank, 2003).
Successful teaching depends on many factors, including the level of instructional resources available, staffing levels, continuing professional development, and support from administrators and parents (Johnson, 1990). The school and community forces that shape teachers' practices and student learning are numerous important.
Another definition of teacher quality emphasizes a broader range of personality and character traits such as curiosity, enthusiasm and compassion. Interest in personality trait are especially widespread in the decades immediately following World War II, partly in response to psychoanalytical theories and partly response to concerns that America needed to ensure that it would not be susceptible to the totalitarian influence that have captivated other countries (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950;McGee, 1955). Each personality has its own rationale, and each was the subject of a variety of efforts to develop measures that could be used in screening candidates for teaching.
Even so, the specific characteristics that constitute an effective teacher are hotly debated, in large part because teacher quality is extremely difficult to measure. As a result, most studies resort to measurable proxies, such as certification, academic degrees, and years of experience. Most of these characteristics bear some relationship to student scores, but on the whole, they explain only a fraction of teacher quality perhaps as little as three percent of the overall variation in students' test scores (Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 2005;Goldhaber, & Brewer, 1999).
Of the measurable characteristics isolated for study, teaching experience has consistently been linked to student scores. On average, beginning teachers produce smaller learning gain in their students compared with more seasoned teachers. Most of the studies show that teachers grow in effectiveness over at least the first five years on the job, though the benefits of experience are less clear after that point (Nye, Konstantopoulo, & Hedges, 2004;Clotfelter, Ladd, Vigdor, 2007;Harris & Sass 2007).
In general, most teacher-quality issues, including preparation, certification, tenure, evaluation and licensing, continue to be the provenance of states and districts. In America, the first major federal foray into teacher-quality standards came with the passage of the federal. The law requires every teacher of a core academic subject defined in the law to be "highly qualified".
To meet that designation, a teacher must be certified and have demonstrated proficiency in his or her subject matter by having majored in the subject in college, passing a subject knowledge test, obtaining advanced certification in the subject, or using an alternate, state-determined method. The highly-qualified teacher rules have generally been criticized for having few effects overall on teacher practices (Keller, 2007).

Teachers' Effectiveness and Student Performance
Teachers' effectiveness has been accepted as a multidimensional construct since it measures a variety of different aspects of teaching such as; subject mastering, effective communication, lesson preparation and presentation (Onyeachu, 1996). The effectiveness on the learning outcome of students as measured by students' academic performance has been the subject of several studies (Adediwura and Tayo 2007;Adu and Olatundun 2007;Lockhead and Komenan 1988;Schacter and Thum 2004;Starr 2002). The above studies suggest that effective teaching is a predictor of students' academic achievement. Therefore, effective teachers should produce students of higher academic performance.
Poor academic performance of students in Nigeria has been linked to poor teachers' performance in terms of accomplishing the teaching task, negative attitude to work and poor teaching habits which has been attributed to poor motivation (Ofoegbu, 2004). It has also been observed that condition that would make for effective teaching such as resources available to teachers, general conditions for infrastructure as well as instructional materials in public secondary schools in Nigeria are poor (Oredein, 2000). Other factors that may contribute to teachers effectiveness include: relationship between students and the teacher; teachers' teaching experience and qualifications. The prevailing conditions would definitely show a positive or negative influence on instructional quality in secondary schools, which may translate to either good or poor academic performance, attitude and values of secondary school students.
Ijaiye, (1998) concurred that improving the quality of teaching force in schools is key to raise student achievement, consequently Lassa (2000) and Guya (1998) claimed that education cannot be provided by just anybody, it requires a teacher who plans and delivers the lesson or instruction in such a way that objectives can be achieved. Corroborating this,  stated that government should find all possible means to retain veteran and experienced teachers who are still willing to serve so that they can contribute their wealth of experience to improve the system. Although teachers' strong effect would significantly influence students' academic achievement, other factors such as socio-economic background, family support, intellectual aptitude of student, personality of student, self-confidence, and precious instructional quality have been found to also influence students' examination scores (Stan, 2002) either positively or negatively. To this end, (Blankstein, 1996) had stated that students' grades and test scores are not good indicators of quality of teachers' instruction. In support of this view, a study carried out in Nigeria by Joshua and kritsonis (2006) showed that Nigerian teachers condemn the use of student achievement scores as indicators of teachers' competence, performance or effectiveness.
According to Ukeje (1966) teaching is a conscious behaviour that makes learning more probable and more efficient and teachers still remain architects of all professions. This means that extra care should be taken in the recruitment and posting of teachers to urban and rural secondary schools. There should be equal distribution of teachers in these areas for greater productivity.
On the quality of teachers, Itotoh (1977) affirms that the quality of teachers is important in any meaningful presentation of educational transactions. Quality of teachers is essential to the achievement of the great National aspiration.
In support of the above statement, Obasi (1982) has also said "the concept of education cannot be properly defined or conceptualized without reference to those who impact the knowledge. In other words, teachers are the pillar and life wire of educational sectors". Thomas (1988) in his book titled "Teachers for the schools of tomorrow" said that the best school is not one that is necessarily housed or equipped;though they do facilitate school work, but, what is most important is the quality of the teaching staff meaning that schools must be plentifully staffed with well-qualified teachers.
In the National policy on Education, it was said that the purpose of teacher education should be "to provide teachers with the intellectual and professionals, adequate for their assignment and to make them adequate in any changing situation. If teachers and the authorities responsible for education can pay attention to this objective, the problem of staffing in our schools, both in urban and rural areas will be minimal.
Emezi (1987) in one of his articles "Teachers Education in post Independent Nigeria" said "The teacher is in all educational system the central figure and the sources of all educational reform depends on him". This strengthens the fact that all secondary schools in the state should be adequately staffed with the right caliber of teachers. This will make it possible for the students to be on the same footing academically and not minding where the school is located.
The National Policy on Education (2004) stresses that in order for this function to be discharged efficiently, a cadre of staff is required both in quantity and quality at the different operational levels in the local, state, and federal institutions. And there should be an ensuring quality-control in the school It is necessary to have good teachers.
Since students' academic scores are not the only predictors of teachers' effectiveness, researches have sought other fairer ways of evaluating teachers' effectiveness. Students, administrators, colleagues and teachers' self-evaluation have been used to evaluate teachers' effectiveness. Students' competence in the evaluation of the effectiveness of their teachers has been of great concern to researchers in education. However, studies have shown that students' rating are valuable indicators of teachers' effectiveness (Barnett, Matthews and Jackson, 2003;Imhanlahini and Aguele 2006;Pozo-munoz et al. 2000). Despite the fact that there are researchers' reports in support of students' rating, their teachers' effectiveness, Nuhfer (2004) and Pozo-munoz et al. (2000) warned that students rating should be one of a comprehensive evaluation system and should not be the only measure of teachers' effectiveness. Ekwesili (2006) however, opined that students' success depends on the amount of learning that takes place in the classroom. The school administrators' evaluation used to evaluate teachers' effectiveness has been studied. Jacob and Lefgren (2006) found a positive correlation between a principal's assessment of how effective a teacher is at raising students' achievement and that teacher's success in doing so as measured by the value-added approach. The above study suggests that administrator's rating may also be one of a comprehensive evaluation system to measure teachers' effectiveness in secondary schools. Bangbade (2004) found out that teachers' attributes have significant relationship with students' academic performance. Such attributes according to him include teachers' knowledge of the subject matter, communication ability, emotional stability, good human relationship and interest in the job. Rena (2000) explained that for students to perform well in any examination, one of the pre-requisites is that their teachers must know them and have profound knowledge of their state of physical, intellectual and psychological readiness.  Vol.9, No.2, 2019 In many countries, teacher's qualifications that are considered to be related to student learning have become desirable targets of the teacher education reform. Some of these reforms call for the professionalization of teacher's education by making it longer, upgrading it to a graduate programs, and regulating it through mechanisms of licensure, certification, and promotion align with standards (Thorenson, Darling-Hammond and Berry, 2001;Darling -Hammond, Chung and Frelow (2002). Professional development activities can be conducted by many different organizations, in schools and out of school, on the job or on sabbatical leave. On these occasions, practicing teachers update their content knowledge and teaching skills to adjust to the introduction of new curricula, new research findings on teaching and learning, changes in the needs of students, population etc.
Studies by Wenglinsky (2000), found a positive effect of professional development on students' achievement. Studies on the effect of teacher experience on student leaving have found a positive relationship between teachers' effectiveness and their years of experience. The evidence currently available suggests that inexperience teachers are less effective than more senior teachers (Rivkin, Hanushek, and Kain, 2000).
The quality of education depends on the teachers as reflected in the performance of their duties. Over time pupils' academic performance in both internal and external examinations had been used to determine excellence in teachers and teaching (Ajao 2001). Teachers have been shown to have an important influence on students' academic achievement and they also play a crucial role in educational attainment because the teacher is ultimately responsible for translating policy into action and principles based on practice during interaction with students (Afe 2001). Both teaching and learning depends on teachers; no wonder an effective teacher has been conceptualized as one who produces desired results in the course of his duty as a teacher (uchefuna, 2001).
Considering governments' huge investment in public education, the output in terms of quality of students has been observed to be unequal with government expenditure. Consequent upon the observed deterioration in the academic achievement, attitude and values of secondary school students in public secondary schools, one wonders if the high failure rate and the poor quality of the students is not a reflection of the instructional quality in the schools. In other words the ineffectiveness of teachers in classroom interaction with the students could be responsible for the observed poor performance of students and the widely acclaimed fallen standard of education in Nigeria (Uchefuna, 2001).
In recent years, research on effectiveness of teaching has reported a direct relationship between its quality and student learning (Darling-Hammoned & Young, 2002), Odden, Borman, and Fermanich (2004), indicated that teachers have a significant influence on student learning. However, the definition of teaching effectiveness is not clear and, in fact, is operationalized in terms of teachers effects which are more easily quantified in research studies. Based on the literature discussion by Odden, Borman, and Fermanich (2004), the following teacher factors or effects are specifically identified. What are found to be different degrees, associated with student achievement include: (1) years of teaching (Goldhaber & Brewer, 1997), (2) major of undergraduate study, particular for mathematic and science teachers (Monk, 1994), (3) ACT or SAT test scores (e.g., Ferguson, 1998), (4) course work or degree obtained (Rowan, Chiang, & Miller, 1996), (5) quality of high school (Goldhaber & Brewer, 1997), (6) earning of a license (Darling-Hammond & Young, 2002) and (7) verbal ability (Ehrenberg & Brewer, 1995). Oden et al. 2004 suggest these variables should be defined further especially for the variables that show mixed effects. Porter (2002) found that pupils make more academic gains when instruction is effectively connected to assessment. Clearly, teacher effectiveness or effective teaching can be operational in different ways but they are much less straightforward than measures of "teacher effects".
Summarizing from the studies, Sanders (1997) stated: "differences in teacher effectiveness is the single larger factor affecting academic growth of populations of students". Wright, Horn and Sanders (1997) stated: "Effective teachers appear to be effective with students of all achievement levels, regardless of the level of heterogeneity in their classrooms. If teacher is ineffective, students under that teacher' tutelage will achieve inadequate progress academically, regardless of how similar or different they are as regards their academic achievement". However, what seemed to be missing in these analyses was the most important factor defining "teacher effectiveness". The study reported the regression coefficients for teacher variable, which was the most significant variable in the model for predicting a gain score between two tests. But the studies did not clearly define teacher effectiveness, nor did the studies indicate what the general notion of "teacher variable" meant. In addition, the studies hypothesized the relationship between teacher effectiveness and student gain, but what teacher effectiveness indicated was unclear and not defined. Thus, their claim about teacher effectiveness and students' achievement could not be supported by the data.
Thus, the relationship between teacher effectiveness and students' achievement need to be further examined carefully. Although there is a theoretical basis for such a relationship, the evidence is far from convincing. In addition, the data on teacher effectiveness are often provided to researchers by the universities or schools. Thus, before making any policies regarding teachers (e.g., teacher salary) based on student achievement gain, especially a long-term gain (e.g., over entire elementary school, middle school or high school), more study is  Vol.9, No.2, 2019 necessary to fully examine the issues involved.
Odden (2004) suggests a multilevel educational model study teaching effectiveness and its relationship to students' achievement on tests. The goal of this model is to estimate the effect of a particular variable as one of several variables included in a multilevel analytical and nested model of school, teacher and student.
Whereas this is a useful model in studying effects of school and classroom on student learning, especially from the multilevel analytical perspective. One major flaw is that it does not clearly define teacher effectiveness and how teachers' effectiveness interacts with other variables such as teachers' characteristic variables. In addition, the model does not explicitly articulate the interaction among schools, teacher, and student. That is, the model ignores the active role the students and their family and community play.
The findings from these studies support the idea that student learning is an interactive process in which students' characteristics do influence the outcomes of their own learning. In other words, effective teaching is conditioned on students' characteristics, just as students' learning is conditioned on the effective teaching. The effort to search for one-size-fit-all kind of teaching effectiveness, regardless of the student characteristics, is of questionable value to educators and students. Although effective teaching is fundamental to learning, over emphasis on the importance of teaching methodology in the process of learning may imply that we should ignore the dynamics learning process in which students are significant players, not just teachers. For example, a study conducted by Malinowski (2004) analyzed teacher performance and student achievement.
Malinowski (2004) found that when students' characteristics are ignored, the degree to which students do better or worse than expected depends on the prior learning level of student. Just as a patient's quality of health is a characteristic affected by many complex and interrelated variables and cannot be entirely attributed to the type and quality of physician's medical practice, students' achievement is a result of a variety of factors. These can include teacher effects, teacher effectiveness (when clearly defined), student motivation, parental involvement, funding, the work and dispositions of all involved and quality of leadership of school administrators.

Teachers' Qualifications and Students' Academic Performance
Teacher quality involves the level of qualification and research on the value of a teacher's advanced degree is mixed: some studies show that while additional teacher education has a positive correlation with student achievement in some cases, others find that it negatively affects achievement (Greenwald, Hedges, & Laine, 1996;Hanushek, 1986). Goldhaber and Brewer (1997) found that a teacher's advanced degree is not generally associated with increased student learning from the eighth to the tenth grade, but having an advanced degree in math and science for math and science teachers appear to influence students' achievement. The same results were not found to be true for teachers of English or History. In the same way, Goldhaber and Brewer (1997) suggest that the findings of other studies about the impact on student achievement of teachers' advanced degrees are inconclusive because they consider only the level of the degree and not the subject of the degree, which may affect student achievement in different ways than the degree level. Nevertheless, result from all the studies seem to imply that there is not a positive correlation between teachers having advanced degree in subjects other than those they teach and student achievement.
A number of studies carried out had indicated the need for teachers' academic qualification in their various teaching subjects. Such studies include those of Swan and Jones (1971), Rubba (1985), Ivowi (1983Ivowi ( , 1984, Akintola (1985), Soyibo (1985), Abimbola (1986) and Otuka (1987). Swan and Jones (1971) finding was that teachers should receive appropriate training in the subject matter area so that their classroom instruction could be above board. Rubba's (1981) study indicated that teachers have needs according to the science discipline taught. Ivowi, Akintola, Soyinbo, Abimbola, and Otuka found out misconception in students which can be traced to misconception held by their teachers. All the above study prove that training of prospective teachers in the subject matter areas should not be taken lightly by science educators.
Furthermore, Fajemidagba (1986) identified four important variables in teacher education. The variables are teaching behaviour, subject matter, learning behaviour and the setting. According to him the subject matter constitute pedagogical concepts, generalizations, prescriptions, theories from relevant field of psychology, philosophy and so on. This prompted Fajemidagba to study the need for the inclusion of geometry in the education of Mathematics teachers in Nigerian universities in 1987. His result revealed that the majority of secondary school Mathematics teachers had little exposure to geometry at the university level. Nearly all the study sample agreed that geometry should be included in the programme for the pre-service Mathematics teachers. Kinyomi (1982) from his study found out that study sample indicated that they needed improvement in the areas of English composition, Africa literature, Literary Research Methods and Creative Writing to enable them function better in their teaching. Etim (1985) carried a similar study on graduates from the B. A Education (English) programme of the University of Jos. When the teachers were asked to indicate the most important skill they gained from their preparatory programme, responses of seventy-five percent of them showed that they gained enough information to be able to teach English at any level of secondary school. Participation in in- service training programme can also improve teachers' classroom interaction pattern. This revelation was made by Igwebui (1985) when he determined the effectiveness of the Associate Certification in Education (ACE Sandwich) training programmes of the Institute of Education, University of Benin. Too little knowledge about subject matter can be a danger since the teacher may be propagating error. In addition, too much specialized theoretical knowledge could lead teachers to make course content unnecessarily theoretical and impractical.
A major concern in teacher knowledge should therefore be directed to practical, everyday examples of phenomena being taught as this is the objective of the 6-3-3-4 system of education in Nigeria. These are the implications from Butzow abd Qureshi's (1978) study "Science Teachers' Competences. A practical Approach" conducted on twenty-one science teachers selected by a stratified random sampling technique. Their revelation was supported by the finding of Odunusi (1981) when he carried out a study titled "Science Educators' Perception of Competences Necessary for Secondary Science Teaching". Okatahi (1981) also carried but a study on professional competences neede by teachers in Agricultural Colleges of Northern States of Nigeria.
Abe and Adu (2013) and Wiki (2013) opined that, a teaching qualification or teacher qualification is one of a number of academic and professional degree that enables a person to become a registered teacher in primary or secondary school, such qualifications include, but are not limited to, the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGDE). The Professional Diploma in Education (PDE), Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) and Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE). In Ondo state, teachers who are academically qualified and those that are professionally qualified are engaged to carry out instructional process (Ahiazu and Princewill , 2011).
Academically qualified teachers refer to those who have academic training as a result of enrolment into educational institution and obtained qualifications such as HND, B.Sc. B.A. and M.A. and so on; while professionally qualified teachers are those who got professional training that gave them professional knowledge, skills, techniques, aptitudes as different from the general education (Edu and Kalu, 2002). They hold degrees like, B.Ed., B.Sc. Ed, B.A. Ed, and M.Ed. and so on. On the other hand, there are studies that have found no significant relationship between teacher educational qualification and students' academic achievement. For instance, Igwe (1990) investigated the influence of teacher's qualification on academic performance of students in science subjects in Kano State. The researcher found no significant relationship between teacher's qualification and students' performance.
While Adeniji (1999), Osokoya (1999) and Oladele (1999) found out that teacher's qualification contributed minimally to the variance with students' cognitive achievement and Bilesanmi (1999) and Okonwa (1999) found that teacher's experience was highly significant on students' academic achievement in mathematics. Coonery (1990) opined that students do not understand mathematics when it is taught by an ineffective teacher. Izumi and Eves (2002) buttressed this by saying that teacher quality is the most important among other critical factors like quality curricula, funding, small class size and learning situation. George (2004) attributed poor achievement of students in mathematics to teacher qualification, inadequacy of materials as well as administrative factors in teaching mathematics. Adesina (1982) and Fafunwa (1985) opined that with an exception of holders of minimum of B.Sc. in mathematics, many other teachers would be confronted with problem of teaching secondary school mathematics syllabus effectively. Hence, Lussa (1985) argued that no one gives what he/she does not possess. He further said that no matter how good a course curriculum is, if we do not have well trained, qualified and motivated teachers, we may not achieve the desired goals. In view of this, a teacher is someone who has been exposed to a good measure of training in a teaching subject area as well as in professional education: such professionally qualified teachers may according to according to the Federal Ministry of Education (2004) fall into a number of academic categories. Mkpa (1987) regarded the trained teacher as someone who underwent and completed his education in a formal teacher training institution or in a planned program of training. Among such areas of training may include principles and practice of education as well as being exposed to an observed period of internship either after or as part of the period of training. People who fall within this category should under normal circumstances be able to fulfill the various functions expected of teachers within and outside the four walls of the classroom. Furrigia (1987) perceived a professional teacher as the one who possesses professionally based knowledge in the theory and practice of education as well as find job satisfaction in the belief that he/she is making an important contribution to the social, cultural and economic development of his/her country. Such a teacher should equally, be able to understand students' ability to exploit educational benefits of the social context within which he/she lives. He/she should be able to assist students to reach their full intellectual and social potentials.
According to Adieze (1986) non-qualified and non-professional teachers in teaching profession are killing the profession because they are not really teachers. He regarded them as "bird" of passage that create unnecessary vacuum whenever they see greener pasture and better prospect in the profession they are original trained for. The comparison of students' scores in mathematics achievement test based on teachers' qualifications becomes necessary in order to know if formal teaching methods as any significant effect/influence on students' performance in mathematics or not.
Teaching is not just a matter of teachers talking and students listening, effecting teacher involves interactive communication patterns that are skillfully directed. In developed and developing countries, the quality of any worker in any organization is generally measured through obtained certificates are epitomized by output (Asuku, 1999). This simply means that the quality of the producing industry. After all, one gives out what one has. He who has nothing practically gives nothing. In the teaching industry therefore, we can safely infer that high quality students, no doubt, might pass through an equally high quality group of teachers in their corresponding high quality supporting instructional materials.
The trend of outcry in the Nigerian educational system is that the teaching profession has been made a dumping ground for all categories of job seekers and a stopover camp for teachers seeking more lucrative employment. This has led to a "fall" in the standard of education. During the universal primary education era in 1976, more than 50% of primary school teachers then were unqualified and the situation was even worse at secondary school level where mediocre teachers were building upon shaky foundation laid by un-informed and barely literate primary school teachers. This shows that the quality of information and knowledge imparted to the students through teaching.
The federal government realized this fact and therefore stated in the National Policy on Education (FRN, 2004) that "teachers already admitted into the profession without the pre-requisite qualification must qualify within a stipulated time or leave the profession and NCE must be minimum entry qualification for teachers in Nigeria". Also, it further stated that all teachers in our educational institutions from primary level to university will be professionally trained. The quality of students in every school is largely the reflection of the quality of the staff in that school.
Each and every literature reviewed so far has emphatically stressed the importance of qualified teachers to students' quality education. There is no disagreement among various authorities cited in the quality of students as reflective of teacher quality or qualifications. Several writers have individually and severally express the view that for any solid foundation for education in any country, teachers must be appropriately trained. It is only after this that on can consider the relationship between teachers' qualifications and students' academic achievement, especially in secondary education level, Teachers' Experience and Students' Academic Performance. Murnana and Kile (1978) defined teaching experience as all activities undertaken by the teacher in his pre and post teaching training exercise; it also includes participation in professional development activities geared towards equipping teacher for better service delivery. This aspect of teacher quality has not been given adequate attention because it is generally believed that any one that can talk convincingly will do well as a teacher, not minding if he or she has pedagogy. Soelein (2010) and Fafunwa (1975) found a positive correlation between teacher experience and students' outcome. Imogie (2007) identified some areas of teacher experience to include: Pedagogical studies, Content studies, Instructional technology and Post teaching training among others.
On pedagogical studies, he opined that teachers are able to harmonize the minds and emotions of their students in class and this produces students with higher academic achievement as he defined instructional technology as the use of various media such as electronic, print and improvised materials in transmitting vital information to students. Recent studies revealed that teacher with both content knowledge and instructional ability achieves a higher percentage of students' outcome then teachers without such experience. He is of the opinion that teachers post-teacher training is aimed at acquisition special skills and experience that will enhance quality-service-delivery which in turn has a direct impact on the students' achievement.
There is a wide range of findings on the relationship between years of teaching experience and students' outcomes. Haunshek (1986) found that fewer than half of the 109 previous studies on the estimated effects of teacher experience showed that experience had statistically significant effect on students' achievement; of those 33 studies found that additional years of experience had a significant positive effect, but seven found that more experience actually had a negative impact on student achievement. Other studies show stronger positive relationship between teacher experience and student outcomes in some, but not all cases they reviewed (Greenwald, Hedges, & Laine, 1996). Murnane (1995) suggests that the typical teaching learning curve peaks in a teacher's first few years (estimated at year two for reading and year three for Maths).
Teacher absenteeism, an observable indicator of teacher effort and performance, has been the focus of several recent studies. Chaudhury et al. (2000) report on surveys in six developing countries that yield observational data on absence of teachers and health workers: India, Uganda, Peru, Ecuador, Bangladesh and Indonesia; averaging across the six countries, they found an absence rate of 19 percent among primary school teachers. Teachers' absence predicts lower scores of pupils in tests in general.
Being still on human resources concern, various educators for example, Ukeje (1970) and Fafunwa (1969) have written extensively on the prime importance of teachers to the educational development of any nation albeit simple, complex, developed or developing. From the writings of these educators, one can infer that whatever facilities are available, whatever content is taught, whichever environment the school is situated and whatever kind of pupils are given to teach, the important and vital role of teacher cannot be over-emphasized. Assuming Developing Country Studies www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-607X (Paper) ISSN 2225-0565 (Online) DOI: 10.7176/DCS Vol.9, No.2, 2019 20 that necessary facilities are adequately provided for, the environment is conducive to learning, the curriculum satisfies the need of the students and the students themselves have interest in learning. Learning cannot take place without the presence of the teacher. Fagbamiye (1977) noted that school with stable, experienced and qualified teachers usually have better school facilities in terms of school buildings, books and equipment than those schools which have difficulty in attracting experienced and qualified staff. Teachers' conditions in private primary schools of Nigeria seem to be better than those of their counterparts of public primary schools and thereby, their motivation differs accordingly; therefore, this has an effect on pupils' academic performance.
In the same vein, attempts have been made by several writers and researchers to correlate experience and productivity in any human organization, including educational institutions. Most of these studies focus mainly on leadership role and experience. Studies conducted by Blumbers and Campbell (1980) and cited by Asuku (1999) have divergent opinion on whether or not that administrative effectiveness is positively correlated with years of experience in an executive post such as principal-ship of schools and colleges. Some of these cited studies empirically and out-rightly disprove the conception that experienced teachers and principals are more productive and effective than young and inexperienced ones. Specifically, Gross and Harrist (1995) discard the notion that more experienced principals and teachers demonstrate greater executive and professional responsibility than less experienced ones or that the length of teaching experience positively correlated with productivity or age of the teacher is a determinant of efficiency and effectiveness.
On the contrary, however, Tuppen (1991) found out that teachers' length of teaching and administrative experience are not consistently related to students' performance. The researcher however concluded that it is preferable to embark on advanced training and retraining programmes for teachers since experience alone does not necessarily make one a more effective teacher. Anderson (1991), in his own study titled "Production of Academic Achievement as a Function of Teachers Experience and Salaries", came up with the findings that teacher's experience is an important factor in students' academic performance. However, most of these researchers do not use or test other teacher variables to convince us that there is absolute un-relatedness between teaching experience and effectiveness in the classroom. One may meet principals or teachers who might have spent comparatively less number of years in training or in classroom exhibiting and employing exceedingly more brilliant administrative techniques and teaching strategies than some of their counterparts who nearly spent most part of their teaching career periods either in administrative capacity or practicing classroom teachers.
From all the aforementioned discussions, it is obvious that it is possible for one to have taught for five years and have just one year's experience. This refers to some teachers who, despite the long years they have put into teaching, continue using and repeating the same notes for the students year in and year out, and who have refused to develop themselves academically and professionally but continue to quote out-dated principles of teaching and using archaic or obsolete methodologies. On the other hand, there is that teacher who have spent just five years or less in teaching but who is very innovative, dynamic, pragmatic and democratic, and who is applying and using different methods in teaching, matching methods with the current situation and circumstances, thinking ahead, projecting and forecasting for improved effective teaching and learning. This teacher can be described as an 'experienced' teacher as a result of his progressive mind.
From the ongoing discussion on the relationship between teaching experience and effectiveness with particular reference to classroom teaching and output, students' academic achievement seems to be controversial. So far, there is no dichotomized line being drawn between the two variables.
Previous works conclude that experience cannot be devoid of effectiveness in classroom depending on the individual's intelligence, acquired skills, supporting instructional materials, the environment itself and students themselves.

Teachers' Attitudes to the Teaching Profession and Students' Academic Performance
Attitude as a concept is concerned with an individual way of thinking, acting and behaving. It has very serious implication for the learner, the teacher, the immediate social group with which the individual learner relates and the entire school system. Attitudes are formed as a result of some kinds of learning experiences. They may also be learned simply by following the example or opinion of parent, teacher or friend. This is mimicry or imitation, which also has a part to play in the teaching and learning situation. In this respect, the learner draws from his teachers' disposition to form his own attitudes, which may likely affect his learning outcomes.
In his observational theory, Bandura (1991) demonstrated that behaviours are acquired by watching another (the model displays it and the learner observes and tries to imitate it). Teachers are, invariably, role model whose behaviours are easily copied by students. What teachers like or dislike, appreciate and how they feel about their learning or studies could have a significant effect on their students. Unfortunately, however, many teachers seldom realize that the way they teach, behave and interact with students can be more paramount than what they teach. In a nutshell, teachers' attitudes directly affect students' attitudes. Teachers' attitudes are in turn influenced by their culture and belief system. Teachers' attitudes towards their students must be favourable enough to carry students along. When the learners exhibit the expected behaviour or response, the value attached determines very significantly the effectiveness of the learning processes in any aspect of education.  Vol.9, No.2, 2019 Many research evidences have indicated that the disposition of teachers towards teaching as a profession and, in many cases, coupled with subject matter, has a marked influence both on student attitudes and academic performance. It does follow that teachers with positive disposition are always hardworking, committed and dedicated to their jobs, often ready to make extra effort realize his aims and objectives within the classroom. But teachers with negative attitudes behave contrarily. It has been observed that teachers teach science in a way that merely requires the pupils to listen, read and regurgitate. This depicts negative attitude to teaching. Several research findings have confirmed the hypothesis that teachers' attitude either towards science or towards science-teaching affect their students' achievement in and attitude towards science. Okpala (1995) found that effect of teachers, attitude towards assessment practices on students' achievement and their attitude towards Physics was positive. In the same vein, Onocha (1995) reported in one of his findings that teachers' attitude towards science is a significant predictor of science pupils' achievement as well as their attitude. Teachers' attitude towards the teaching of Mathematics plays a significant role in shaping the attitude of students towards the learning of Mathematics. Ogunniyi (1992) found that students' positive attitude towards science can be enhanced by the following teacher related factors: (a) Teachers' enthusiasm; (b) Teachers' resourcefulness and helping behaviour; (c) Teachers' thorough knowledge of the subject matter and their making science quite interesting; From the above, it is clear that the role of the teacher as the facilitator of learning and his contributions to students' achievement is enormous. Bajah (1999) was of the opinion that the success of our science programme depends greatly on the classroom teacher as he is the one that translates all our thoughts into action. Ejiogu (1999) was of the view that in order to improve on any aspect of education, it is imperative to involve a well-articulated teacher education programme that will prepare teachers for the leadership role they are expected to play. The nations' overall development is inextricably tied to its educational system. If we accept these views, then there is the need to introduce quality into the system. Most educationists believed that there can be no meaningful socio-economic development without the right type and appropriate quality of education. To become an educated person requires the combination of several factors and processes. The teacher is the most indispensable factor in the effective administration of any education system.
The importance of teacher education in the meaningful education at all levels is reflected in the National Policy on Policy (2004) as it declares that no educational system may rise above the quality of its teachers. This declaration in the policy document underscores the need for teachers' effectiveness in our schools. Eso (1998) conceptualizes teachers' effectiveness as the managerial skills essential for enhanced classroom control and discipline. It is the teacher's competence, ability, resourcefulness and ingenuity to efficiently utilize the appropriate language, methodology. School inputs make little difference in student learning; a growing body of research suggests that schools can make a difference and a substantial portion of that difference is attributable to teachers.
Teaching as a profession demands many qualities which may tell very much on the teacher. Such qualities are (a) Good personal fitness; (b) Good memory and high intelligence; (c) Skillfulness and ability to adjust oneself to conditions of the society; (d) Love of the job and ability to solve simple problems in the school. The appointment of teachers these days are made haphazardly and superficially because not enough is known about the psychology of a teacher, or the record of his health, temperament, moral, social and emotional behaviour to prove him fit for the job. He is just selected on the basis of his academic qualification which he probably obtained by a stroke of luck or by other means best known to him. When he gets to the classroom and meets a little difficulty he becomes easily frustrated. To combat frustration and promote good work, to achieve high standard and breed good intellectual students in our country, we must develop teacher psychology as we have children psychology. The chief motives for undertaking the teaching profession should be a love for public service and love for children.
Popular teachers are outgoing, intelligent, emotionally more stable, sober, conscientious, venturesome, tough-minded, shrewd, placid, controlled, relaxed and have favourable attitudes towards teaching. In comparison to ineffective teachers, effective ones have better personality adjustment, more favourable attitude towards teaching, more emotionally stable and less authoritarian (Chanya, 1994). They are warmer, adventurous, more self-controlled, less suspicious, less apprehensive, more imaginative and more experimenting.

RESEARCH METHOD Research Design
This adopted descriptive survey research design that involved the determination and description of teachers' quality and students' academic performance. It will investigate how teacher's qualifications and experience Developing Country Studies www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-607X (Paper) ISSN 2225-0565 (Online) DOI: 10.7176/DCS Vol.9, No.2, 2019 affect the training that involve teachers' effectiveness on students' academic performance in schools.

Population
The population consists of all senior secondary school teachers in public secondary schools in Ondo state. A sample of one hundred and fifty (150) teachers in public secondary schools of the state are used for the study. Teachers were selected using stratified random sampling technique. The teachers were drawn from ten (10) public secondary schools in Akoko South West Local Government Area of Ondo State.

Sample and Sampling Techniques
Stratified sampling was used to select 10 secondary schools in Akoko North West Local Government Area, Ondo State. Stratification ensured an even distribution of subjects used in the study. Because of the large population sampling fraction in each of the towns and villages, the population was divided into stratum and was used to select the 150 teachers from the Local Government Area of Study. Instrument Two instrument titled "Teachers Quality Questionnaire (TQQ)" and "Academic Performance Questionnaire (APQ)", are used to carry out this research. The Teachers' Quality Questionnaire seeks information about the quality of teachers; teachers' qualification and teaching experience while Academic Performance Questionnaire (APQ) seek information on students' academic performance.

Data analysis
Percentage and Chi-Square analyses were used to answer the research questions.

Results and Discussion
Research Question 1: What is the quality of secondary school teachers' in teaching and learning English Language in Akoko South West Local Government Area of Ondo State?  Table 1 indicated that majority respondents affirmed the statement that Teacher academic qualification influences the performance of the students. This was such that a total of 94.6% agreed while 5.4% of the respondents disagreed. Also indicated that teacher quality is determined by their qualification, this was such that 74.7% of the respondents agreed, while 25.3% disagreed. Most teachers in secondary school have teaching certificate affirmed by majority 68.6% of the respondents, while 31.4 disagreed. The table also revealed that most of the respondents 65.3% agreed that Students' academic performance reflects the quality of the teachers in the school, while 34.7% of the respondents disagreed. Conclusively, chi square value (X2 = 84.133, df =10, p < .05). Thus, there is significant relationship between teachers' quality and students' academic performance in English Language. Research Question 2: what are the experiences of secondary school teachers in teaching and learning English Language in Akoko South West Local Government Area of Ondo State? The result in table 2 indicated that 67.3% of the respondents agreed that Teachers who taught for more than five years teach better, while 32.7% disagreed. It was also noted that teachers who have taught for more than five years are better able control the students, this was such that 68.7% agreed, while 31.3% disagreed. In a similar trend, older teachers are more understanding in dealing with students than younger ones. The response was such that 61.3% agreed while 38.7% disagreed. Majority of these respondents 56.7% agreed that Teachers who have taught more than five years evaluate the students properly, while 43.3% disagreed. In summary (X2= 80.267, df = 10, p < .05) indicated that there is significant relationship between teachers' experience and students' academic performance in English Language in secondary schools. Research Question 3: What is the relationship between teacher's qualification and students' academic performance in English Language?  Table 3 revealed respondents' opinions on relationship between teacher's qualification and students' academic performance in English Language. The findings showed that 73.3% of the respondents agreed that teachers with first degree and above are more effective in the classroom, while 26.7% disagreed. In a similar trend, 70.0% of the respondents agreed that teachers with first degree and above do not demonstrate good mastery of the subject matter, while 30.0 disagreed. Also, 54.6% of the respondents agreed that Teachers with high teaching qualification do not teach the students better, while 45.4% disagreed. It was noted that Teachers with high teaching qualification keep students record better. This was with 61.3% agreement and 38.7% disagreement. Lastly, majority of 66.0% agreed that Teachers with high teaching qualification do not evaluate their students better, while 34.0% disagreed.
Chi square (X2 = 98.387, df = 10, p < .05) revealed that there is a significant relationship between qualification and students' academic performance in English Language in secondary schools.
Research Question 4: What is the relationship between teachers' qualification and experience on students' academic performance in English Language?   Table 4 indicated that most of the respondents 66.0% affirmed that students' records are better kept by highly experiences teachers than less experience teachers, while 34.0% disagreed. It was also affirmed by majority 70.0% that students taught by highly experience teachers do not perform better than students taught by less experience teachers, while 30.0% disagreed. In concordance, majority 50.7% agreed that less experience teachers are less interested in the job than highly experience teachers, while 49.3% disagreed. In addition, it was noted that 58.0% of the respondents agreed that less experience teachers are not as energetic as highly experience teachers, while 42.0% disagreed. The table showed that 52.6% of the respondents agreed that highly experienced teachers do not work hard than less experienced teachers, while 47.4% disagreed.
The findings also revealed that secondary schools' teachers experience does not affect students' performance with majority 54.6 agreed, while 45.4 of the respondents disagreed. Lastly majority 54.6% of respondents agreed teachers' level of experience increase students' academic performance, while 35.3% disagreed.
In conclusion, it was noted that (X2 = 161.600, df = 10, p < .05). this implied that there is significant influence of teachers' qualification and experience on students' academic performance in English Language.

Conclusion and Recommendations Conclusion
This study has shown a positive and significant relationship between qualityof teachers and students' academic performance and motivation to learn. This shows that teachers competency and adequacy is a panacea for attainment of educational goals and objectives. It is therefore not out of place for the N.P.E (2004) to have equivocally stated that no educational system can rise above the quality of its teachers.

Recommendations:
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made; 1. Ondo state government of Nigeria should intensify more effort in the training of teachers in order to acquire higher qualifications that would enhance the internal efficiency of primary schools in the State. Seminars and workshop could be organized for teachers in order to acquaint them with the modern methods of teaching and improve the level of internal efficiency of the schools. 2. Government should attempt to improve the attitude of students to academic work by providing libraries and laboratories for science practical to enable learning experience of the students become more meaningful and at the same time interesting. 3. There is the need to build more classrooms and make more adequate provision for seats especially in urban schools to ease the problem of overcrowded classrooms and poor sitting arrangements that presently make teaching and learning difficult in public secondary schools. This will further improve effective classroom-control for better teaching and learning to take place in the schools. 4. School principals should endeavour to make necessary instructional materials available to teachers when needed. The staff rooms should also be conducive for teachers to do better in their interaction with fellow teachers and students. Teachers should be encouraged to embark on regular professional development.
5. Finally, teachers should bring their wealth of experience in teaching to the level of the students'aptitude to make classroom interactions more interesting so as to arouse the interest of the students to academic excellence. This would assist in solving problem of poor academic performance of public secondary school students and improving widely the acclaimed fallen standard of education in Ondo State, Nigeria.