Work hazards and job performance of business studies teachers in secondary schools in auchi educational zone of edo state.

WORK HAZARDS AND JOB PERFORMANCE OF BUSINESS STUDIES TEACHERS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN AUCHI EDUCATIONAL ZONE OF EDO STATE.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

Every profession, trade or occupation is prone to some hazards which more often than not are not explained to the employee during his/her employment. The question of work hazards hinge upon workers’ health and safety which, of course, if not properly managed and put at minimal level would result in very low employees’ job performance and poor organizational turnover. In recent times, the citizens of Nigeria have come to embrace the obvious fact that teaching as a profession has sundry risks which are neglected and not compensated for by employers. According to Onumbu (2005), many of these risks or hazards associated with works are not explained to the employee during his/her employment. This of course, constitutes a “big negligence” legally speaking on the part of the employer of labour. According to Peretemode (1992), a teacher is a person trained or recognized and employed to help learning in classroom situation in order to achieve set educational goals. These Business Studies teachers have their qualifications as Nigeria Certificate in Education (N.C.E), Bachelor of Science in Education (B.Sc. Ed.), Masters of Science in Education (M. Sc. Ed.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). Their years of experience range from one year and above till their retirement age.

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According to Onumbu (2005), teaching hazards is work place danger or work related danger, conditions or systems which have the potential of causing harm, injury or loss to the workers or employers or both of them. According to Arscott (1980), work hazards are those potential mishaps, handicaps, harms, diseases, pollutions or misfortunes that could be encountered by members of a profession or an organization while discharging their official duties. It is a physical situation which has the power to cause human injury, destruction to properties and environment or some combination of these. Therefore, hazards are described as a situation that in particular circumstances could lead to harm. In view of the above, the effects of work hazards are sometimes so drastic that it can affect the achievement of the organizational objectives and the lives of the workers. If workers confront work related hazards, there is the tendency that some of them will suffer serious ailments, physical injuries or get marred due to poor working, environments/conditions of services.

It is obvious that Business Studies teachers in secondary schools are exposed to chemicals, electricity, machines and tool work hazards in the classroom, laboratory, supervision, fieldtrips and co-curricular activities in the course of performing their jobs. These teachers inhale some offensive gases, dust, vapour and combustible materials or substances. They sometimes develop cough, catarrh, cold, headache, chest-pain and loss of appetite as a result. All these are dangerous to the lungs and damaging to the body system and clothing as the teachers work in an environment that requires them to meet multi-expectation from students, parents, principals, communities and educational authorities. They are facing a lot of work hazards and still try to achieve target entrusted to them.

The work hazards associated with the classroom according to Onwuru (2010), refer to those life threatening equipment/facilities that can pose a great threat to the teaching and learning process in the class. In view of this, Ani (1997), stated that no matter how laudable the school programme may be, no matter how decorated the buildings may be, if the safety of lives and properties in the schools are not guaranteed, such schools will not win the patronage of the public, especially the teachers and students. These work hazards associated with the classroom include; the wrongly connected fuse, poor facilities arrangement, students rioting and blackmailing, hanging items to obstruct classroom emergency exit doors, storing inflammable or combustible materials in an unapproved location, insecure fastening of the bulletin boards to the walls, hanging instructional items from classroom ceiling, blocking classroom exits with cabinet that open into the exit path and keeping cleaning chemicals in the classroom.

A teacher spends most of his/her working time in the classroom which usually holds 30 to 40 students. If the classroom is not adequately ventilated, body odour and other contaminants can easily accumulate to a level that causes discomfort and even illness. Communicable diseases that are transmitted through air e.g. tuberculosis, german measles and flue will easily spread under such condition. The drawback also are noise nuisances from inside and outside the classroom. Hence, the quality of teaching and learning would be affected.

The laboratory work hazards which are dangerous to the Business Studies teachers include- placing fire alarm pull station behind the door, plugging power strips into an extension cord, overloading of electrical circuit, broken tiles floor, pouring of water on the laboratory floor, connecting extension cords in place of permanent wiring and wrong connection of ceiling fan. In some schools, laboratories are often managed by the laboratory attendants. Despite their presence, the safety rules of the laboratory are not completely adhered to. Therefore, there could be harmful disaster occurring in the laboratory. According to Baba, Galperin and Lifurchy (1999), the laboratory work hazards there present can greatly affect the teaching and learning process. The work hazards associated with the laboratory according to Komoly (1992), stated that “the more rapid are scientific advances, the more hazardous laboratory should be equipped with automatic fire and explosion protection and detection devices and as a result first aid should be involved.” He emphasized that the more important objectives by a laboratory project or design is to produce a safe working environment.

Most teachers are greatly exposed to dangers (hazards) during supervision of both internal and external examination, test and other duties assigned to them. Onwuru (2010), opined that teachers are often exposed to great dangers during supervision of duties. In view of the above, the supervisory teacher is exposed to such work hazards as some students who find it difficult to maneuver their ways in cheating during examination and tests, often resort to harassing, bullying, intimidating and victimizing the teachers in order to enable them cheat during the examination. The supervisory teachers are exposed to related accident, bringing in unapproved materials to aid performance in examination hall, physical attack from students because the teachers follow the strict rules of supervision, students opposition to proper seating arrangement, impersonating in the examination hall, offering bribe to the teachers in the examination hall and dishonest tearing away of answer scripts only to complain of missing scripts.

Another great aspect where the teachers are exposed to work danger is during field trips. Bassey (2004), opined that field trip is the process of giving the students firsthand information about the concept of interest by visiting industries, places of notes to practicalise their learning process. The work dangers that the teachers would be exposed to at this level of field trip is the rate of accidents or death might occur and other industrial related work hazards at the factory. During field trip, so many careless students have hurt themselves to the detriment of the school. Other work dangers to the teachers during fieldtrip include; inability of the students to identify a point in the motor park if they are lost, the bad nature of our road networks as a great impediment, going on a fieldtrip in rainy season without appropriate safety equipment, having a habitual drunkard as a driver to man the transport vehicle, horse playing by the students in the motor park/camp ground, exposure to bad weather conditions or diseases in an unhealthy environment (no fumigation), highway armed robbery, lack of communication between the teachers on the field and the administrative headquarters, savage dogs, lightening equipment required for the safety and comfort of all the participants (teachers) in the fieldtrip/campground and no means of accessing medical and emergency services (first aid) in campsite.

Too many co-curricular activities or functions which the teaching work imposes on the teachers can be sources of work hazards (dangers) which are cumbersome to him/her. According to Onwuru (2010), the following are other functions of the teachers. Such as heavy teaching load, too many classes and classes which are large to teach and control, close supervision of teachers by administrators, setting of examination questions, marking of the scripts, guidance and counseling, give test, educational advices and project supervision. In view of these, teachers work still centre on students enrolments, attending to educational meetings, release and submit results, participating in social development and issues, reporting daily attendance, writing work recommendation, doing activities in the school compound e.g  labour and sport, participating in community relation services and discussing about the school organizational structure during Parents/Teachers Association (PTA) meetings. While working, key items which are work hazards to the teachers are related accident, teaching illness, losses that required repair or replacement, any “near misses”, lack of parents information on their wards’ health conditions which can be a great hindrance against their able participation, lack of promoting a save, supportive and productive environment, non-provision of safe condition (first aid kit) for the learners, inadequate training of principles to ensure competent participation, lack of qualified instructors for effective/ efficient delivery, flouting safety precautions that protect the trainees and poor human relationship or relations among teachers of the same school can cause work hazards.

It is really sympathetic to note that when these things occur the Business Studies teachers are often at the receiving end by the parents, public and school management/authorities. Similarly, these teachers have several sources of work hazards in the workplace. According to Mgen Foundation for Public Health (2012), teachers are more susceptible to certain types of infection than other workers. No wonder the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2014 shifted the resumption dates for schools (public and private) to a new date. This is to avoid the speedy transmission of ebola virus disease to students and teachers during the outbreak of ebola virus disease in some parts of the country. In countries where ebola virus has hit, schools were closed indefinitely in order to avoid rapid spread. As recorded by the American Psychological Association (2012), reported that

appropriately 7% of teachers in the world are threatened with work hazards each year. These threats are more in urban high schools while female teachers receive more than twice as many threats as male teachers.

According to Uzoro (2010), ergonomics involves fitting the work environment to the employee instead of forcing the employee to fit the work environment. Employees raise the principles of ergonomics to reduce work hazards problems. Teachers spend much of their time standing. They may have to bend, stretch and lift to use educational aids and equipment such as blackboards and projectors. This puts them at risks of injuries including sprains, strains, pulled muscles and back injuries. For teachers who spend a lot of time using a computer, the risk of developing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) and Hand Arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) are also a concern. Although every teacher reacts to work hazards differently, too much work hazards can lead to headaches, chest-pain and physical health. According to Bekleen (2009), work hazards can lead to headaches, chest-pain and muscle pain. It can also cause anxiety, irritability, depression, anger, drug or alcohol abuse, social withdrawal and changes in appetite.

Work hazard presents itself to the teachers at all ramifications from the school problems to the risk posed by male representatives in the school. There are instances where a teacher who fails to pass a male student in the class is sent dangerous text messages to the teacher to persuade him to change the grade. Some others may resort to blackmail resulting to the teacher being in constant risks. According to Bassey (2014), every teacher needs a considerable amount of protection and coverage from the law enforcement activities to enable them discharge their jobs effectively. At times, these teachers are exposed to cult related victimization, beaten and injured during students unrest (riot) resulting to a low level job performance and brain drain. These have made some teachers who are strict disciplinarians to bend low at times in order to survive in the profession.

The deduction from the overall discussion is that the lives of the Business Studies teachers (male and female) are surrounded by work hazards. These hazards are present in the classroom, laboratory, supervision, fieldtrips and co-curricular activities where the teachers work everyday. According to Ekpo (2000), there are lots and lots of work hazards that are present to the teachers.

1.2       Statement of the Problem

Secondary school teachers in Auchi Educational Zone are generally exposed to adverse working environments and condition of services. These working places have related work hazards confronting the Business Studies teachers and other teachers in their health leading to low job performance. The sources of the problems therefore borders on identifying the work hazards associated with classroom, laboratory, supervision, fieldtrips and co-curricular activities to these teachers.

The work hazards associated with the classrooms include overcrowded classrooms with students and cabinets, broken classroom floors, dilapidated classroom buildings, chalk dust, hanging classroom roofs, water logged classroom, unprotected staffrooms/offices, delayed in remuneration (salaries)/promotion and overgrown grasses around the school draw the presence of harmful snakes, mosquitoes and insects.

A popular point to note is the dangers confronting the Business Studies teachers in the school laboratory. Dangerous chemicals, machines substances like dust, fumes and gases in the laboratory posed a lot of work hazards to the teachers when they conduct  practical work for the students. The teachers are also exposed to work hazards such as, plugging extension cord permanently, placing items that block exist way, placing combustible materials on the laboratory floor, non-identification or consideration before attempting to fight fire and no fire extinguisher.

During supervision of duties, the teachers face related dangers as psychological problems – intimidation, bullying, victimization, assault, harassment, hostility, shouting, aggression and distrust treatment from students and parents as the students may fail if not allowed to cheat in the examination hall. The extortion of money from the students to leak examination papers and going into the examination hall with cell phone are work hazards facing the teacher.

On fieldtrips period to riverine areas for instance, the teachers are faced with the problem of inability to check the condition of the canoe before sailing, provision of suitable equipped first aid kits and lack of appointing a certified personnel to be in-charge of the fieldtrips. In view of the co-curricular activities, the teachers face a lot of work hazards but without any hazards allowance and medical care. There is also problem of insufficient physical and medical awareness from parents about their wards’ health and lack of special way to identify students who are not cultist.

These unfavourable conditions of service affect the teachers emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally, psychologically and morally. They equally affect the teachers’ efficiency/effectiveness, productivity/performance, commitment to duty and morale. Not much literature is found in this area and how work hazards are related with the job performance of Business Studies teachers in Auchi, Edo State. It is against this background that this study is conducted to determine the relationship of work hazards on the job performance of Business Studies teachers in secondary schools in Auchi Educational Zone of Edo State.

1.3       Purpose of the Study

The major purpose of this study was to determine the work hazards and job performance of Business Studies teachers in secondary schools in Auchi Educational Zone of Edo State;

Specially, the study sought to:

1. determine the relationship between work hazards associated with classroom and job performance of Business Studies teachers in Auchi Educational Zone of Edo State.
2. determine the relationship between work hazards associated with laboratory and job performance of Business Studies teachers in Auchi Educational Zone of Edo State.
3. determine the relationship between work hazards associated with supervision and job performance of Business Studies teachers in Auchi Educational Zone of Edo State.
4. determine the relationship between work hazards associated with fieldtrips and job performance of Business Studies teachers in Auchi Educational Zone of Edo State.

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