Teachers’ Competence and Students’ Academic Performance in Secondary Schools in Rwanda

Abstract

The level of teachers’ competence plays a significance role in the promotion of students’ performance especially in academic perspective. The school leadership and educational practitioners have to improve the level of teachers’ competence so as to improve the level of students ‘academic performance which is proportional too.  The purpose of this study therefore, sought to establish the relationship between teachers' competence and students’ academic performance in Gakenke District in Rwanda. This study used a correlation research design to investigate the relationship between teachers' competence and students' academic performance in secondary schools in Gakenke District, Rwanda. Data was collected through questionnaires and interviews from a sample size of 329 respondents out of a target population of 1839, and statistical analysis using SPSS software was performed, including correlation and regression analysis to determine the relationship between variables. The findings showed the overall mean of 4.19 is between Agree (4) and Strongly Agree (5) which indicates that almost students agreed that their academic performance is good. On correlation between teachers' qualification and students’ academic performance, the results presented that there is a statistical significance high degree of positive relationship between teachers’ competence and students’ academic performance with P-value = .000 which is less than 0.01 as the level of significance and Pearson coefficient of correlation r = .848 which is high and indicates that there is a relationship correlated to the teachers’ qualifications and students’ academic performance. The study concludes that the competence of teachers, expertise, teaching methods and students’ participation in lessons and good instructions at schools successfully promote the students’ academic performance. The recommendations from the study include regular quality checks by the Ministry of Education to ensure teachers' competence and the provision of appropriate skills to students, schools organizing effective instruction and hiring qualified teachers to improve academic performance, teachers personally developing their competence through further studies and training to enhance the quality of skills imparted to students, and students actively attending lessons and adhering to school guidelines to achieve better academic performance. Keywords: Competence, Teachers’ competence, Academic performance, students’ academic performance &nbsp