Effects of Irregular Payment of Teachers’ Salaries and Provision of Fringe Benefits on Implementation of Curriculum in Public Senior Secondary Schools in North-Central, Nigeria

This study assessed the effects of irregular payment of teachers’ salaries and provision of fringe benefits on implementation of curriculum in public senior secondary schools. The study was carried out to ascertain whether irregular payment of salaries and provision of fringe benefits for teachers influence effective implementation of curriculum. Descriptive survey design was used for the study. The population of the study comprised of 37,916 teachers in public senior secondary schools in North – Central Nigeria. Simple, stratified and systematic random sampling were used in a multi-stage procedure to select 380 teachers as respondents. A modified four points Likert – type rating scale questionnaire was used to gather data and the data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics to answer research questions and test the hypotheses respectively. Some of the findings revealed that irregular payment of salaries and irregular provision of fringe benefits for teachers influenced effective implementation of curriculum negatively in public senior secondary schools in North-central, Nigeria. It was therefore recommended that government should ensure regular payment of salaries as at when due; owing teachers’ salaries should be stopped. Government should also intensify her efforts in providing fringe benefits for teachers and other welfare packages that will encourage them to create a sense of commitment and dedication leading to an improved performance.


Introduction
It is widely believed that money helps to stimulate job efforts.This is particularly true of most of the developing countries where physiological needs of most workers are yet to be satisfied.Faluso (2021) mentioned that money is instrumental in achieving workers' desired needs such as recognition in the society, buying essential and luxury goods and services that lead to comfortable life.Sagib (2021) stated that one major reason why people work is to earn income in money terms.This is needed to meet some personal and domestic need such as clothing, feeding, rent and school fees.Salaries have a large motivating tendency in it.It is not the increase in salaries or wages that only matter but also prompt and regular payment of it (Foluso, 2021).Salary can be described as the money that an employee receives for doing his or her job.Money is believed to have a great tendency of bringing out a higher effectiveness in employee when he is adequately paid.It is believed that man is an www.afropolitanjournals.com economic being, whose attitude to work can only be influenced by money (Akinwumi, 2014).Wages and salaries paid to workers are important because with money people can satisfy their needs for status, security, recognition and affiliation.For example, in Nigeria, a person's social worth depends largely on the size of his or her earnings or acquired monetary wealth exhibited in either building raised, types of houses he or she can afford to live in and the type of car he or she uses.Ejiogu (2017) observed that what the typical low-income teachers yearn is a sizeable salary increase that would significantly enhance their commitment and effectiveness.Ejiogu (2017) equally noted that money serves as a station symbol for those who have it and spend it conspicuously or give it generously.It has status value when it is being spent and when it is being received.It represents what employer thinks of his employees which is more than mere economic terms.Fabiyi (2015) observed that of all conditions of service, salary is the best predictor of teachers' job effectiveness and that job which offers higher salary would attract more and better qualified personnel than anyone which offers a lower pay.Fabiyi further added that salaries of teachers are inadequate as it is so difficult for them (teachers) to meet the basic necessities of life, their salaries when compared with other employees with the same qualifications and experience in other sectors of economy such as bankers; site engineers and nurses can be described as unfavourable.Teachers are poorly remunerated.This was confirmed by Obanya (2012) who remarked that teachers in Nigeria are poorly motivated and dissatisfied with their living and conditions of service.This could be explained by their low wages or salaries when compared with other professionals, low status in the society, irregular promotion of teachers, inadequate fringe benefits and irregular payment of salaries.This marked the beginning of the teacher motivational crisis in Nigeria, as the public began to look down on those teachers who remained in the classroom as second-strong public servants.Obanya (2012) also opined that the growing tendency for school leavers to opt for teaching only if they are unable to find other more lucrative public or private sector employment.This further compounded the problem of employment.It has been confirmed that teaching in Nigeria today is not only confronted with the problem of non-availability of staff but that of mutability (Bamisaye, 2017 andAyeni, 2015).This means that though schools have more than enough number of teachers, most of them only use teaching job as a stepping stone or as an alternative pending the time they would be able to get a better job.This is so because the conditions of service attached to teaching are not favourable.All over the world, teachers are regarded as direct implementers of any educational programme and their role in nation building cannot be over-emphasized.Before any nation can be transformed into technological giant, teachers would be the gratified ones who would in return give back to the nation the maximum of their intellectual capacity.The pertinent question is "Why is the profession so noble in outlook be so abhorred by most people?Ubom (2012) added that lack of job satisfaction as a result of poor salary package and other conditions of service affect employees' commitment to work www.afropolitanjournals.com and contributions to the effectiveness of organisation is reduced.It has been confirmed that teaching job is devoid of action.Hence, many who find themselves in the field are there by necessity rather than by design.Therefore, most of them put on low rate of commitment while on the job.Ubom (2012) further confirmed that teachers place premium on variables such as salary, time, mode of payment and fringe benefits.Teaching has poor salary structure or earning power; salary is not commensurate with Job and is not as lucrative as other jobs.Teaching has a negative public image, low social status, lack of recognition by society and teachers are regarded as second -class citizens.Fringe benefits are collection of various benefits provided by an employment which are exempted from taxation as long as certain conditions are met (Nnenna, 2020).On the other hand, Zirra (2017) noted that they are benefits or compensation given to employees in addition to wages or salaries with monetary value such as pension, health insurance coverage, life insurance coverage and bonus.Akande (2014) viewed the organization as an exchange system in which reward (inducement) are exchange for work just as in a school, the teachers get salaries in exchange of their work.Akande (2014) explained further that an employee remains in the organization as long as he thinks the inducements are larger than his contribution.This is true because for example, a teacher may be induced to remain as the vice principal of a school, as a result of other fringe benefits attached to the post, such as free accommodation, free transportation, free medical services, and of course the social re-organization which goes with the post.Sagib (2021) mentioned that the more one rewards workers, the harder they will work and the more or the extent to which he will respond presumably with gratitude or loyalty by performing effectively on the job.Taiwo (2012) stated that in addition to provision of a fair wage or salary to employees, certain fringe benefits are essential in productivity.These include leave bonus, retirement benefits and pension plans.Adelabu (2015) expressed that cash bonuses serve as the most effective incentives that can enhance productivity most especially when such were based on productivity.Adelabu (2015) also noted that where there are no cash bonuses beside the normal wages or salaries, productivity seems to be a low level.Fringe benefits are strategies used by Government to motivate and increase teachers' job performance.Generally, fringe benefits are part of the teachers' taxable wages but there are certain fringe benefits that are exempted from this rule and one can still take an activity deduction for their cost (Lazanyi, 2015), Fringe benefits are additional compensation provided to employees apart from an agreed wage or salary.Besides helping employees, offering fringe benefits helps employers tremendously from a recruiting perspective.Similarly, employers may find it challenging to attract desired talent based on salary alone.By offering fringe benefits especially not available through a competition, an employer stands a greater chance of attracting the level of talent he or she wants.The role of fringe benefits on workers' productivity cannot be ignored in the public sector.The Nigerian secondary schools had long realized this and had placed motivation of its employees as top priority which constitute the need for using secondary schools as a case study.This www.afropolitanjournals.com motivation includes provision of leave bonus, payment of death benefits for deceased teachers, free accommodation and other welfare packages for teachers.Compensation can be offered using three types of rewards which are pay, incentive and benefits which is the basic remuneration employee receives in the form of wages or salary while incentives are rewards designed to encourage and reimburse employees for effort beyond normal performance expectation.Benefits are rewards available to employees or group of employees as part of organizational membership (Iyida, 2015).With the introduction of monetization and fringe benefits policy in 2005, civil servants have been paid certain percentage of their basic salary as fringe benefits which are added to the basic salary, meaning an increment in salary of workers.Although, there is much academic debate on the extent to which additional income is a direct motivator (Nwagwu, 2014).Teachers' experience in teaching may influence effective implementation of curriculum.Teaching experience combines developed skills, exposure and training that teacher acquired on the job.It increases teachers' confidence, identify their strength or weakness and improve their communication skills.In the same vein, Eman (2021) revealed that teaching experience improve teachers' skills and practice in English language.Therefore, this study intended to find out whether teaching experience influence effective implementation despite irregular payment of salaries and provision of fringe benefits for teachers.

Statement of the Problem
No matter how well a curriculum is planned, designed and developed, effective implementation is very important.The implementation of curriculum in public senior secondary schools in north -central Nigeria has been marred by some challenges that may hinder effective implementation among these challenges are irregular payment of salaries and provision of fringe benefits for teachers.Teachers' experience in teaching may also influence implantation of curriculum.Teachers use their monthly salaries and fringe benefits to improve themselves and it is assumed that when all entitlements due to teachers are made available and on time, they will be happy with teaching job.Teachers operate in poor conditions of service such as poor remuneration.The salary is meagre as compared to other employments and they are not paid regularly.Teachers were being owed salaries for some months.Allowances are not duly paid.This may lead to negative attitude, absenteeism, lateness to work and poor class attendance by teachers.This may destroy their moral and dedication to work.Fringe benefits such as pension after retirement are not easily obtainable or difficult to pay.There is no effective health coverage for teachers, inadequate availability of accommodation for teachers, irregular payment of leave bonus and lack of other incentives.This may lead to lack of dedication and commitment to work.These problems stated above motivated the researcher to go into this study to investigate the influence of payment of salary and provision of fringe benefits for teachers on curriculum implementation in public senior secondary schools in Northcentral Nigeria.

Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of payment of salaries and provision of fringe benefits for teachers on implementation of curriculum in public senior secondary schools in north -central Nigeria.Specifically, the study is set to achieve the following objectives; to i. find out how irregular payment of teachers' salaries influence effective implementation of curriculum in public senior secondary schools in north -central Nigeria; ii.determine how irregular provision of fringe benefits for teachers influence effective implementation of curriculum in pubic senior secondary schools in north -central Nigeria.

Research Questions
The following research questions were formed to guide this study: i.
How does irregular payment of teachers' salaries influence effective implementation of curriculum in public senior secondary schools in north -central Nigeria?ii.
How does irregular provision of fringe benefits for teachers influence effective implementation of curriculum in public senior secondary schools in north -central Nigeria?

Research Hypotheses
The following null hypotheses were formulated for testing: Ho1: There is no significant difference in mean responses of teachers with experience from 0-5yrs, 6-10yrs, 11yrs and above on how irregular payment of salaries influence effective implementation of curriculum in public senior secondary schools in north -central Nigeria.
Ho2: There is no significant difference in mean responses of teachers with experience from 0-5yrs, 6-10yrs, 11yrs and above on how irregular provision of fringe benefits influence effective implementation of curriculum in public senior secondary schools in north -central Nigeria.

Methodology
The research design used for this study was the descriptive survey.The population for the study comprised of 37916 teachers in public senior secondary schools in north -central Nigeria.A sample of 380 teachers was used for the study based on Krajce and Morgan table for determining sample size.The researcher used simple, stratified and systematic random sampling techniques in a multi-stage sampling technique procedure to select the respondents.The simple random sampling was used to select three states out of the six states in north -central Nigeria.The stratified random sampling was used to group the pubic senior secondary schools into strata according to senatorial districts and select one school from each senatorial district to form the sampled schools.Subsequently, a systematic random sampling technique was used to randomly select four teachers out of every five teachers in the sampled schools and 380 teachers were randomly selected from the names of teachers in the sampled schools.The instrument used for collection of data was titled: Investigating Teachers' Conditions of Service as Determinant of Effective Curriculum Implementation (ICSDECPJ) and was divided into sections: Section A contained demographic data and Section B had items on the research questions.The items were structured using a modified 4-points Likert-type rating scale with the following grading: Strongly Agree (SA) = 4 points, Agree (A) = 3 points, Disagree (D) = 2 points and Strongly Disagree (SD) = 1 point.The mean response is 2.5 (4+3+2+1/4).To ascertain the validity of the instrument, it was given to three lecturers in Nasarawa State University, Keffi.They made corrections and suggestions which were taken into consideration.At the second look, they adjudged the instrument valid.To establish the reliability of the instrument, it was pilot tested using 35 teachers from GSS Laminga and GC Keffi.The split half reliability method was adopted.The data collected from the pilot study was split into two halves and Pearson product moment correlation statistics was used to compute the reliability coefficient and yielded a coefficient of 0.81 which means that the instrument is reliable.Pearson's correlation was used because it's appropriate for split half reliability method.The data collected for the study were analysed using mean responses and standard deviation of teachers to answer research questions while analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses 005 level of significance.When the mean response of teachers is 2.5 and above, it was accepted in answering the research question.While the mean response of teachers below 2.5, it was rejected in answering the research questions.

Result
Research Question One: How does irregular payment of teachers' salaries influence effective implementation of curriculum in public secondary schools in north -central Nigeria?Field Survey, 2023 Table 2 presents mean and standard deviation on the responses of teachers on how irregular provision of fringe benefits for teachers influence effective implementation of curriculum in public senior secondary schools in north -central Nigeria.The table revealed that items were accepted respective of their variation in mean values and standard deviation.Items 11-20 had their mean values above 2.50 and their standard deviation ranged between 0.61 and 0.99 which showed that their responses were far apart but were accepted as a factor in answering the research question.The overall mean of 2.93 which was above 2.50 showed that all the items were accepted in revealing how irregular payment of fringe benefits for teachers influence effective implementation of curriculum.Irregular payment of fringe benefits influence teachers' functions in school.Inadequate availability of free accommodation for teachers does not improve their punctuality and functions in school.Irregular payment of retirement benefits to retired teachers does not boast teachers' performance in school.None provision of welfare packages for teachers does not improve their dedication to work.Irregular payment of death benefits for deceased teachers discourages teachers from being committed to work.Irregular payment of leave bonus affects teachers' morale in lesson delivery and attitude to work adversely.These imply that irregular payment of fringe benefits influences effective implementation of curriculum negatively in public senior secondary schools in north -central Nigeria.

Hypotheses HO1:
There is no significant difference in mean responses of teachers with 0-5yrs, 6-10yrs, 11yrs and above experience on how irregular payment of salaries influence effective implementation of curriculum in Public Senior Secondary Schools in North -central Nigeria.Field Survey, 2023 The test on Table 3 above was conducted to find out whether there is significant difference in mean responses of teachers on how irregular payment of salaries influence effective implementation of curriculum based on their teaching experience in Public Senior Secondary Schools.Since Fcal > FTab, we reject H0 and conclude that all the treatment means are not the same.This implies that teachers of different teaching experience significantly differed in their views on how irregular payment of salaries influenced effective implementation of curriculum.

HO2:
There is no significant difference in mean responses of teachers with 0-5yrs,6-10yrs,11yrs and above experience on how irregular provision of fringe benefits influence effective implementation of curriculum in Public Senior Secondary Schools in Northcentral Nigeria.Field Survey, 2023 The test on Table 4 was conducted to find out whether there is significant difference in mean responses of teachers on how irregular provision of fringe benefits influence effective implementation of curriculum based on teaching experience in Public Senior Secondary Schools in North -central Nigeria.Since Fcal < FTab, we accept H0 and conclude that all the treatment means are the same.This implies that there is no significant difference in how irregular provision of fringe benefits influenced effective implementation of curriculum among teachers with 0-5yrs, 6-10yrs, 11yrs and above teaching experiences. www.afropolitanjournals.com

Discussions of Findings
The result presented in table 1 revealed that irregular payment of salary influenced effective implementation of curriculum negatively in Public Senior Secondary Schools in Northcentral Nigeria.This is in line with Akande (2014) who found out that there is a relationship between payment of salaries and implementation of curriculum.Similarly, Sagib (2021) found that not giving salaries in time highly make workers dissatisfied leading to poor performance.Muhammad (2017) re-affirmed that payment of teachers' monetary rewards affected teachers' job performance.
The findings of the study indicated that irregular payment of salaries reduced teachers' moral in discharge of their duties as form masters. house masters, their commitment and dedication to work.This implies that irregular payment of salaries affects teachers' attitude to work.This corroborates Mohammed (2012) who revealed that payment of salary has great influence on teachers' attitude to work.The findings also showed that irregular payment of salaries discouraged teachers in discipline of students and regular writing of lesson plan.As a result of that, teachers skipped classes or lessons.It was discovered from the findings that irregular payment of salaries makes work boring, uninteresting and reluctant to teachers.Based on the hypotheses analysed, the findings also revealed that how payment of teachers' salaries influence effective implementation of curriculum differed significantly among teachers in Public Senior Secondary Schools in North-central Nigeria.
The result presented in table 2 of the study indicated that irregular payment of fringe benefits for teachers influence effective implementation of curriculum negatively in Public Senior Secondary Schools.This is in line with Nnenna (2021) who discovered that payment of fringe benefits increased the level of employee performance.The findings of the study revealed that inadequate availability of free accommodation for teachers in school does not improve their punctuality to work, irregular payment of retirement benefits to retire teachers, death benefits to deceased teachers and none provision of welfare packages does not boost teachers' performance by improving their commitment and dedication to work.
In the same vein, Zirra (2017) confirmed that none payment of fringe benefits such as health protection and retirement benefits have negative impact on employee performance.Nonpayment of leave bonus and lack of incentives for teachers reduce their moral and make them reluctant to their work.This implies that none payment of leave bonus and other incentives affects teachers' attitude to work.This corroborates Mohammed (2012) who revealed that irregular payment of fringe benefits such as leave bonus for teachers have great negative influence on teachers' attitude to work.Based on the hypotheses analysed, the findings revealed that respondents' responses on the influence of fringe benefits on the effective implementation of curriculum does not differ significantly among teachers in Public Senior Secondary Schools in North-central Nigeria.

Conclusion
This study assessed the influence of payment of salaries and fringe benefits provided for teachers on effective implementation of curriculum in public senior secondary schools in North -Central Nigeria.The result of the study has provided empirical proof that irregular payment of salaries and irregular provision of fringe benefits influence effective implementation of curriculum negatively in public senior secondary schools.It also evident based on the findings that payment of salaries and provision of fringe benefits for teachers must be improved in both quantity and quality in ensuring effective implementation of curriculum in public senior secondary schools.This has serious implication on government funding of public senior secondary schools.

Recommendations
The following recommendations were made in order to ensure effective implantation of curriculum in Public Senior Secondary Schools in North -central Nigeria.
1. Payment of teachers' salaries: Government should improve the monetary reward for teachers to enable them afford their needs.Apart from that, there should be prompt payment of salaries including all allowances accruing to teachers: salaries should be paid regularly as at when due.Also, the practice of owing teachers' salaries for some months or percentage payment should be stopped as that has destroyed teachers' commitment and dedication to work.2. Government should intensify her efforts in providing fringe benefits such as health protection, retirement package, free accommodation, transportation, leave bonus, pension, cash bonus, and other welfare packages for teachers that will encourage them to create a sense of commitment and dedication leading to an improved performance

Table 1 :
Mean responses and standard deviation of respondents on how irregular payment of salaries influence effective implementation of curriculum

Table 1
presents mean and standard deviation on the responses of teachers on how irregular payment of teachers' salaries influence effective implementation of curriculum in public senior secondary schools in north -central Nigeria.The table revealed that items were accepted respective of their variation in mean responses and standard deviation.in answering the research question.The overall mean of 2.93 which was above 2.50 showed that all the items were accepted in revealing how irregular payment of teachers' salaries influence effective implementation of curriculum.Irregular payment of salaries discourages teachers from writing lesson note frequently and discipline of students.Irregular payment of salaries reduces teachers' performance as house masters and form masters.It also reduces their moral, commitment and dedication to work.Irregular payment of salaries makes teachers sometimes skipped classes, reluctant in performing their duties and developed work dissatisfaction.It also makes teachers' work boring and uninteresting.These imply that irregular payment of teachers' salaries influence effective implementation of curriculum negatively in public senior secondary schools in northcentral Nigeria.How does irregular provision of fringe benefits for teachers influence effective implementation of curriculum in Public Senior s Secondary schools in north -central Nigeria?
Items 1-10 had their mean responses above 2.50 and their standard deviation range between 0.60 and 1.01 which showed that their responses were far apart but were accepted www.afropolitanjournals.com as a factor

Table 2 :
Mean responses and standard deviation of respondents on how irregular provision of fringe benefits for teachers influence effective implementation of curriculum N=380

Table 3 :
Test of ANOVA on difference in mean responses of teachers with 0-5yr, 6-10yrs, 11yrs and above experience on how irregular payment of salaries influence effective implementation of curriculum

Table 4 :
Test of ANOVA on Difference in Mean Responses of Teachers with 0-5yrs, 6-10yrs, 11yrs and above experience on how Irregular Fringe Benefits Influence Effective Implementation of Curriculum