Enhancing teacher accountability through technology-based attendance monitoring in public senior secondary schools in Niger state, Nigeria

Teacher absenteeism is a key factor attributed to poor performance of student in Nigerian public secondary schools. This study investigated teacher accountability through technology-based attendance monitoring in -funded senior secondary schools within the Niger state jurisdiction of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining descriptive surveys design, interviews, and observations. The population comprises of all the 254 government-funded senior secondary schools within the Niger state jurisdiction of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. A sample of 350 participants was choosing which comprised of 50 principals, 50 vice principals, 100 teachers and 150 students which were selected using random sampling technique. A Random sampling methodology was employed to identify a representative sample of 50 government-funded senior secondary educational institutions that will give a better focus of the research while a deliberate selection methodology, based on predefined criteria, was employed to determine the precise number of participants because the researcher felt the participants will provide accurate response to the research questions. The instrument for data collection was researcher’s structured questionnaire title: Integration of Technology for Monitoring Teachers’ Attendance Questionnaire (ETATTBAM). The questionnaire ETATTBAM was a 4 points Likert scale: Completely Concurred (CC), Partially Concurred (PC), Partially Disagree (PD) and Completely Disagree (CD). The validity of the instrument was ascertained by the experts in measurement and evaluation to established face and contents validity. The reliability index for ETATTBAM, using test-retest and Cronbach's alpha, yielded a value of >0.79, indicating that the instrument is reliable. The data collected was analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer research questions and t-test was used test null hypothesis one and PPMCC to test null hypothesis two at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of this analysis revealed among others, that there was significant improvement in teachers’ attendance after the implementation of technology-based attendance monitoring in government-funded senior secondary schools within the Niger state jurisdiction of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The student learning outcomes shows positive relationship with technology-based attendance monitoring because teachers are always on ground to attend to their students. It was recommended that more emphasis be placed on monitoring of teachers so that the standard of education is improved in the state.