ABSTRACT
This study focused on determining the competency improvement needs of financial accounting lecturers in colleges of education in North-West Nigeria. This study adopted a descriptive survey design. The population for the study comprised of all the 36 Financial Accounting Lecturers currently teaching in the public Colleges of Education in North West Nigeria out of which 28 were male and 8 was female. There was no sample and sampling because of the manageable size of the population hence the entire population was studied. A structured questionnaire titled, “Financial Accounting Lecturers Competency Improvement Needs Questionnaire, (FALCINQ)” was used for collecting data for the study. FALCINQ was an 82- item questionnaire developed by the researcher in line with the literature reviewed and the research questions. The questionnaire was subjected to face validation by three experts in Business Education Department, Faculty of Vocational Technical Education. Cronbach Alpha reliability method was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument which yielded a reliability index of .87. The data collected were analyzed using mean and Improvement Need Index (INI). The competency improvement needs of the Financial accounting lecturers were determined as follows: the difference between the two means was calculated ( Xn – X p ). This gave the value that indicated whether competency improvement was needed or not in each item. This is referred to as performance Gap (P.G) that is PG = Xn – X p . Thus: where the difference was zero ( Xn – X p = 0) that is neutral, it means that there was no need for competency improvement on the item because the level at which the item was needed was equal to the level at which the lecturers could perform the item. Where the difference was positive Xn – X p = +), it indicated that competency improvement is needed on the item because the level at which the item was needed was greater than the level at which the lecturers could perform the item. Where the difference was negative ( Xn – X p= – ), it means that competency improvement is not needed. Data analyzed revealed that improvement is needed in the area of instructional planning competency skills, instructional delivery skills, class management skills and instructional evaluation skills possessed by financial accounting lecturers in Colleges of Education in North West Nigeria. It was concluded that financial accounting lecturers need competency improvement and therefore recommended that Workshops and seminars should be organized by NCCE in collaboration with the Ministry of Education to enlighten institution administrators on the need to organize retraining programming for the lecturers on a regular basis so as to assist them develop their desired competencies in teaching and learning.
