Improving Teaching Staff Management in Federal Government Colleges

ABSTRACT The main purpose of the study was to evolve ways of improving staff personnel management in federal government colleges in South East Nigeria. The study used a descriptive survey design in which five research questions and five null hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study comprised twelve principals, twenty-four inspectors and nine hundred and seventy-six teachers in twelve federal government colleges in five states in South East Nigeria. No sampling technique was adopted in the study. A questionnaire of five-point scale was used as instrument for data collection. Mean and standard deviation scores were used to answer the research questions while one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the findings showed that the ways of improving staff recruitment include, obtaining from the principals of the colleges the number, qualification and subject areas of staff required, widely advertising for recruitment of teachers, select candidates with relative ability, select qualified candidates with little consideration to ethnicity and religion, subjecting the selected candidates to physical, oral and written test among others. On ways of improving the welfare of staff, findings showed prompt and regular payment of teachers’ salaries and allowances, priority to be given to staff job security, staff promotions should be given as at when due, fair treatment should be given to teachers, teachers should be given opportunity to participate in decision making, residential accommodations to be provided for teachers among others. Teachers should be appraised periodically, involve teachers in seeking ways of improvement on their work, principals should consider appraisal exercise as a normal aspect of their work not as an opportunity for victimization of staff, feedback should be given to teachers after appraisal exercise, where weaknesses are identified efforts should be made to assist the teachers to overcome them are ways of improving staff appraisal practices. Effective participation in school activities, provision of leaves of absence for teachers’ for further studies, supporting teachers to share information, experience and resources among themselves, management should grant study leave with pay for teachers, management should arrange refresher courses for teachers from time to time are ways of improving staff development/in-service training practices. Counseling teachers with disciplinary problems, rewards, reprimand and punishment to be adopted in controlling staff disciplinary problems, staff with disciplinary problems should be placed under peer mentoring arrangement, professional misconduct by any teacher should attract disciplinary action, teachers should be entitled to a fair hearing among others are ways of improving staff discipline practices. There were significant differences in the mean ratings of respondents with regard to the ways of improving staff recruitment and development/in-service training practices. There were no significant differences in the mean ratings of respondents with regard to the ways of improving staff welfare, appraisal and discipline practices in unity schools. Based on the findings of the study the researcher recommended that advertisement for teaching vacancies should be openly and widely made to the public on recognized national dailies, radio, television and internet that have wider coverage, government should drastically improve on the condition of service of teachers to enhance their welfare, staff appraisal feedbacks that positively influence the productivity of staff should be encouraged, government and school management should give priority attention to staff development and discipline.