5.3 CHALLENGES TO HIGHER LEARNING INSTITUTION LEADERSHIP IN ASSURING QUALITY OF EDUCATION
5.3.3 Inadequate qualification and competence of instructors
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some instructors’ offices, most of the time they are not available in their office at the scheduled time (ST4).
During observation, the researcher also noticed that many staff members did not have private offices. As noted during interviews with academic staff and students, none of the sampled HLI offered organised, consistent or planned tutorial services to students with academic deficiencies. An interviewee from the top leadership pointed out:
Students with low academic performance are not supported as they should be. We arranged tutorials for those students; however, this arrangement incurs additional payment for instructors which involves a lot of cost for the institution; therefore, we failed to materialise our plan (TLL2).
The major challenges noted in the four sampled HLIs regarding the teaching and learning process can be summarised as 1) lack of pedagogical skills and teaching experience on the part of some academic staff members; 2) frequent exercise of teacher-centred teaching methodology by most of the instructors; 3) inadequacy of teaching and learning facilities and resources; and 4) lack of inspiration for teaching and learning on the part of instructors and students. The lack of continuous supervision and follow-up by HLI leadership in the teaching and learning process also raises questions about the efficiency of the leadership.
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Statistics collected from the four sampled HLIs show that the proportion of academic staff members with PhDs, master’s and bachelor’s degrees is 12%, 80% and 8%
respectively (Table 5.8), indicating that the majority possess master’s degrees. In the case of the public HLIs, the oldest higher learning institution, AMU, is in a better position than WKU. Table 5.8 shows that the academic level of teaching staff in the four HLIs is far below the standard set by MoE which demands 30% PhDs, and the remaining 70% master’s degrees.
In terms of academic rank, most of the staff (68.8%) are lecturers (see Table 5.9). From these figures, it can be seen that most of the academic staff members are inexperienced and novice graduates. The shortage of experienced and qualified academic staff is a major problem across the four HLIs.
Table 5.8: Number of academic staff by academic level in the four HLIs HLI Employment
type
Academic level
Bachelor’s Master’s PhD Speciality Total ADU Permanent 0 252 (83%) 52 (17%) 0 304
Part-time 0 151 (75%) 50 (25%) 0 201
Total 0 403 (80%) 102 (20%) 0 505
AMU Permanent 77 (6%) 1095 (80%) 190 (14%) 0 1362 HRU Permanent 0 152 (89%) 19 (11%) 0 171
Part-time 66 (35%) 101 (53%) 24 (13%) 0 191 Total 66 (18%) 253 (70%) 43 (12%) 0 362 WKU Permanent 107 (11%) 791 (82%) 47 (5%) 23 (2%) 968 Total 250 (8%) 2542 (80%) 382 (12%) 23 (1%) 3197 Note: public HLIs do not have part-time academic staff members
Table 5.9: Number of academic staff by academic rank in the four HLIs HLI Employment
type
Academic rank
Prof. Assoc.
Prof Ass. Prof Lecturer Ass.
Lecturer
Graduate
Ass. Total
ADU Permanent 0 2
(1%)
50 (16%)
252
(83%) 0 0 304
Part-time 0 0 50
(25%)
151
(75%) 0 0 201
Total 0 2
(0%)
100 (20%)
403
(80%) 0 0 505
AMU Permanent 14 (1%)
58 (4%)
286 (21%)
958 (70%)
46
(3%) 0 1362
HRU Permanent 1 (1%)
4 (2%)
18 (11%)
78 (46%)
41 (24%)
29 (16%)
171
Part-time 0 2(1%) 22
(12%)
105 (55%)
40 (21%)
22 (12%)
191
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Total 1
(0.3%) 6 (1.7%)
40 (11.0%)
183 (50.6%)
81 (22.4%)
51 (14.1%)
362
WKU Permanent 0 6
(1%)
182 (19%)
654
(68%) 0 126
(13%) 968
Total 15
(0.5%)
72 (2.3%)
608 (19.0%)
2198 (68.8%)
127 (4.0%)
177
(5.5%) 3197
To substantiate the findings above, further analysis of interview data was conducted.
The analysis confirmed that the leadership of the four institutions, instructors, students, and officials from the ETA agreed with the finding that a shortage of competent and qualified academic staff is critical across the HLIs. As one of the interviewees put it:
Most of the instructors recruited at our university are fresh graduates and lack experience in transferring knowledge to their full capacity. They are inexperienced in guiding us to explore essential teaching materials from different sources. Most of the time they focus more on their lecture notes (ST2).
Another interviewee added that “the instructors’ teaching skills, motivation and interest in teaching are low. Moreover, they have the perception that students’ learning capacity is low” (ST4). Similar views were expressed by instructors regarding the prevailing problems with academic staff competency and qualification. An interviewee noted that
even though it is not sufficient, our university is working hard to upgrade the educational qualification level of instructors by providing long-term (PhD) training in domestic and foreign universities. However, still, the instructors’
ability to teach and conduct research is not satisfactory (AS4).
The leadership across the four HLIs expressed their concern about the shortage of qualified and experienced academic staff in their institutions (TLL2, TLL3, TLL4, MLL1, MLL2, MLL4). In this connection, MLL3 said:
At our university, we have a sufficient number of academic staff that matches the minimum requirements of ETA. However, their qualification level and experience are not satisfactory. The number of academic staff with PhD qualifications and long-term experience in teaching is low. Even though we advertise vacant posts, it is hard to recruit permanent, experienced and PhD- holders from the market (MLL3).
In addition to the low proportion of qualifications in the mix, the motivation of instructors in the teaching process is also not satisfactory. Most instructors from public HLIs relate the low motivation of instructors to the existing low remuneration scale of the government. MLL4 explained that
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the problem observed in academic staff is not only on their professional incompetence but also on their low teaching motivation. The motivation of academic staff to teach is low because they are unsatisfied with the existing scale of remuneration (MLL4).
From the results discussed above, it can be noted that the competence, qualification, and motivation of academic staff at the HLIs is inadequate. In such conditions, it is difficult to assure the quality of education and produce competent graduates for the world of work. These findings suggest the need for more intervention by the institutions’
leadership and other concerned bodies to improve the academic competence of the instructors.