There are various factors affecting the performance of students. They are basically of two types, internal and external factors. In regards to internal factors, it could be the student’s genetic makeup, psychological disposition, etc. Meanwhile, as regards to the external factors, the teacher’s pay is one of the prerequisites to determining the level of student’s performance. Let us know more detail about ‘How Does Teacher Pay Affect Student Performance?’.
How Does Teacher Pay Affect Student Performance?
One of the mistakes done by most school management is that the administrators believe that their major source of profit is from the students and the teachers have little or no contribution to the school. Therefore the teachers should go to hell with their teaching. That’s a terrible way of thinking! Parents will never send their children to a school with poor academic records. And teachers contribute largely to this records.
The worst of it all is when a parent finds out that the teachers are underpaid while the school extorts a huge sum of money from the parent. It makes the parent feel cheated and the student’s withdrawal will be the aftermath of it.
The following steps are the areas affected by teacher’s pay:
1. Attitude of the Teacher
“If I was paid like those of our colleagues whose services are considered more relevant, I would have felt motived, encouraged to do more than enough”, said Elizabeth. This is a reaction lamented by a teacher who was grossly underpaid while her colleagues were paid two times higher in a high school like that. A teacher who is not well remunerated, by the very nature of humans, will certainly have a negative attitude towards the students.
The major feature of a good teacher is the capacity to create a warm, jovial atmosphere in the classroom. However, the teacher will not have such an anticipated good personality because of underpayment.
2. Competence and capability of Teachers
One might think, ” how can the teacher’s pay affect their competency?” The truth is that the development of competency is a constant process. The incompetent man of today is the competent man of yesterday that stop improving. When a teacher has limited income to take care of Personal needs, the possibility of mental investment like buying material to equip the mind will be zero. The teacher will make do with the available teaching material. And will never care to employ broad, deep, and unified sets of knowledge as they plan for, implement and recapitulate instructions. Of course, that’s gross incompetence.
3. Teaching Methodology
Effectiveness in teaching is a creative process. When a teacher is paid well, they are under pressure to think of better ways of managing the classroom effectively and efficiently. Sequel to the teaching methodology, there are three methods; teacher-centered methods, student-centered methods, discussion methods and problem-solving methods. The application of various methods at every point in time is the mark of a creative and effective teacher. Nevertheless, the thinking process and creativity will interfere when a teacher is underpaid. But reverse will be the case when the teacher is well appreciated.
For instance, the principal of a school approached the mathematics teacher during morning inspection. “Hello! Mr. Christian, we haven’t seen your test score sheet, the lesson plan, and exam questions. What couldn’t have been the reason for the delay,” asked the principal. ” Sir I have been working on it and to be honest, I don’t like the way you’re mounting pressure on me,” the Mathematics teacher angrily reacted. “Remember you’re well rewarded and appreciated for this work, so you have to be up and doing!” The principal responded.
The school principal believes that, as long as a teacher is well paid, therefore, there are no excuses for underperformance.
4. Teacher’s Character
The level of teacher’s pay will affect the relationship with the fellow teachers, the management, and most importantly, the students.
Concerning high pay, the teacher usually presents a courageous role image and builds a calm, composed style of communication in the classroom. The effect of a positive Personality will be picked up by the students. Students will naturally get in touch with teachers who look delighted and display ease and assurance in interpersonal communication. But when a teacher is underpaid their lack of enthusiasm to teach, frequently, creates unease or uncertainty in the students.
The truth is that it will be difficult for teachers to project an image of a magnetic pleasing personality and adopt a relaxed style of communication if they think that the payment is not worth the effort.
How Teacher’s pay affects student’s performance?
1. Lack of attention
Students have little or no influence on how teachers should be remunerated, they would rather be on the defensive side than offensive. And one of the defensive strategies used by students is to ignore whatever the teacher is teaching and focus on other things like interacting with fellow students. In most cases of underpayment, the teacher might not care to draw the attention of the students to the topics being taught. Instead prefer to carry out the assigned task at the allotted time. But when a teacher is super motivated, it will be difficult for students to pull their attention away from the teacher.
2. Learning difficulties
When a teacher has not prepared well for the class due to limited income to buy materials to equip the mind, the students find it difficult to grab the concept or follow along. Sometimes, the students might ask questions but because the teacher is not mentally ready to answer the question, he or she will tend to maneuver and keep meandering around the questions. And this poses a lot of difficulties in learning.
3. Lack of motivation
Motivation will be lagging in the classroom when the student could observe that their teachers aren’t motivated to teach. A little girl in high school asked her teacher; “Sir, why are you always looking sad in the face? There’s never a time when you put a smile on your face, why?”
” No Joy! The management doesn’t make us happy, how do you expect us to be happy?” The teacher calmly responded to the girl.
Conclusion:
Now we have learnt ‘How Does Teacher Pay Affect Student Performance?’, A positive feeling is contagious. Though other factors could affect a student’s performance, the single and most important factor is the teacher’s paycheck.
