TEACHERS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND ANXIETY AS DETERMINANTS OF TEACHERS' JOB PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

At the senior high school echelon, biology functions as a foundational scientific discipline undertaken by the vast majority of the student body. It acts as a mandatory prerequisite for advancing into specialized scientific vocations, including nursing, pharmacy, surgery, and general medicine. Despite the recognized importance of this subject, learner outcomes in standardized evaluations—specifically those administered by the National Examinations Council (NECO) and the West African Examinations Council (WAEC)—continue to fall drastically short of educational expectations. These persistent academic struggles suggest potential shortcomings in pedagogical efficacy, implying that instructors are inadequately equipping their classes for these critical external appraisals. Consequently, an empirical investigation is necessary to explore how instructional trepidation and emotional intelligence collectively shape educator productivity within Lagos State, effectively addressing both a demographic void and a noticeable scarcity of prior literature. To conduct this inquiry, a correlational survey framework was deployed. The target demographic encompassed 800 professionals instructing biology within government-funded high schools across the Lagos region. From this extensive pool, a cohort of 350 instructors was isolated, guided by the sample size parameters established by Krejcie and Morgan in 1970. The participant selection process relied upon a multi-stage sampling methodology. Data acquisition was facilitated by three primary psychometric tools: the Teachers Job Performance Scale (r = 0.632), the Teaching Anxiety Scale II (r = 0.802), and the Emotional Intelligence Scale (r = 0.867). Analytical procedures involved multiple regression techniques alongside Pearson product-moment correlations, with all proposed hypotheses rigorously evaluated at a 0.05 significance threshold. The analytical outputs indicated a lack of any substantial correlation between an educator's occupational execution and their level of emotional intelligence. Instead, the observed association was minimal and inversely proportional. Similarly, instructional apprehension demonstrated no statistically meaningful linkage to workplace productivity. This specific dynamic was characterized as weak, albeit direct. Ultimately, neither instructional distress nor emotional intelligence emerged as significant predictive determinants of professional efficacy. The inquiry deduced that both independent variables yielded negligible associations with occupational success. Therefore, they should not be viewed as foundational components when formulating strategic interventions to elevate the professional standards of secondary educators within Lagos State.