TEACHERS’ SKILLS AND STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN O’ LEVEL NATIONAL EXAMINATIONS CASE STUDY OF KICUKIRO DISTRICT, RWANDA MACUMU Valens MED/2014/62626 A Research Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Award of Degree of Master of Education (Planning, Management, and Administration option) of Mount Kenya University FEBRUARY 2016 DECLARATION This research study is my original work and has not been presented for a degree in any other University or for any other award. Student Name: Valens MACUMU Sign ____________________ Date _____________ I conform that the work reported in this research was carried out by the candidate under my supervision Supervisor Name: DR.NTAKIYIMANA Jean Félix Aimable-Ph.D Sign ____________________ Date _____________ ii DEDICATION To my brothers Christophe DUSENGIMANA and John HARERIMANA and my sisters Rosine MUKAMANA and Fortune MUKESHIMANA for their continuous prayers and inspirations, this research is dedicated. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This current work is a result of combined efforts from different persons .I would like to thank the people who in many ways contributed to this piece of work. I am particularly indebted to my supervisor Dr. Jean Félix Aimable NTAKIYIMANA, for his patience, his inspiration and encouragement during this research. I admired the way in which he explained very difficult concepts in very simple ways. I am also indebted to all lecturers of Mount Kenya University of school of education, especially who teach at Master‘s level who all played an active role in my studies. My thanks are also addressed to my classmates to their support and advices they provided to me during my studies. iv ABSTRACT This study is entitled teachers‘ skills and students‘ performance in O‘ level national examinations (case study of Kicukiro District) .The general objective of this study was to examine the relationship between the teachers' skills and the students' performance in O‘ level national examinations, in Kicukiro district. The study was guided by the three following specific objectives, to find out the skills of teachers in secondary schools in Kicukiro District, to assess the level of performance of students in Kicukiro district in O‘level national examination and to establish the relationship between teachers‘ skills and performance of students in Kicukiro district. The findings from this study will be useful: To Rwanda secondary school managers, the findings of the study will help them establish how to enhance quality in their education. To education planners, the study findings will help them find out how school teachers play an important role in the teaching/learning process and hence to pupils' performance. To the government of Rwanda and other policy makers, as recommendation, the study findings will provide information to the quality of education and will also reveal to them that the quality is not only closed to the teachers educational level. The study was descriptive research of survey type which involved strictly on the comparative analysis of students‘ performance based on teacher‘s skills. The study used a case study and correlation research designs where by all schools were involved in the study. Therefore, the sample size was 26 head teacher from 26 schools. Data were collected using two main techniques questionnaires, and document analysis, and presented in tables and diagrams. SPSS (statistical packages for social sciences, vision 16.0) was used to analyze and interpret the data. In addition, the Pearson product moment correlation was used to establish the nature of relationship between variables. The findings of the study revealed that there is a positive relationship between teachers‘ skills in terms of formal education and students‘ performance in national examination and there is a significant relationship between teaching experience and students‘ performance. But there is no positive relationship between other independent variables and students‘ performance in national examination. From the findings, the researcher concluded that teacher‘s skills in terms of formal education and teaching experience influence the performance of students in O‘ level national examination in Kicukiro district. On the basis of conclusion, the research recommended that the government of Rwanda should invest much in quality of teachers. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ..................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ........................................................................................................ iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. v LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................... x LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... xi LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ............................................ xii DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS ...................................................................... xiii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 1 1.0. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 1.1 .Background to the study ..........................................................................................................1 1.2. Problem Statement ..................................................................................................................2 1.3. Objectives of the study ............................................................................................................2 1.3.1. General objective ........................................................................................................ 2 1.3.2. Specific objectives ....................................................................................................... 2 1.4. Research Questions .................................................................................................................3 1.5. Significance of the Study ..........................................................................................................3 1.6. Limitations of the Study ...........................................................................................................4 1.7. Scope of the Study ...................................................................................................................4 vi 1.8. Organization of the Study ........................................................................................................4 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE............................ 5 2.0. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 5 2.1. Theoretical Literature ..............................................................................................................5 2.2. Empirical Literature .................................................................................................................6 2.2.1. Teacher skills and academic performance ............................................................... 6 2.3. Critical review and Research gap identification ....................................................................... 11 2.4 Theoretical framework ........................................................................................................... 11 2.5. Conceptual framework .......................................................................................................... 12 2.6. Summary ............................................................................................................................... 14 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ....................................15 3.0. Introduction .....................................................................................................15 3.1. Research Design .................................................................................................................... 15 3.2. Target Population .................................................................................................................. 15 3.3. Sample Design ....................................................................................................................... 16 3.3.1. Sample Size ................................................................................................................ 16 3.3.2. Sampling Techniques ................................................................................................ 16 3.4. Data Collection Technique ..................................................................................................... 17 3.4.1 Data collection instruments ....................................................................................... 17 3.4.2. Administration of data collection instruments ....................................................... 18 vii 3.4.3 Reliability and Validity.............................................................................................. 18 3.5. Data analysis methods ........................................................................................................... 19 3.6. Ethical considerations ...........................................................................................................