The Effect of Student-Teacher Ratio on Teachers’ Performance in Basic and Secondary School: Case Study if Ghana Education Service

ABSTRACT The student-teacher ratio is very significant in addition to professional knowledge, skills, strategies, Class management, output, and input. This study was to find out the effect of student-teacher ratio on teachers’ performance in basic schools in Ghana. One research was used in the study, thus, is large class size related to teaching and learning of mathematics as a subject?, the study adopted survey method in which snowball sampling was used, the survey started with some schools in the Ashanti region and teachers were asked to forward the questionnaire to other teachers they knew in the region. Data analysis was done to ascertain the correlation and the relationship among the various factors by using bivariate correlation, T-test, and regression analysis. The result of the study showed that indeed there is a negative effect on the student-teacher ratio on teachers’ performance when the class size is large or when there are more than thirty (30) students to a teacher in a class. It also showed that large class size makes class management very difficult in the process of teaching and learning. The result indicated that there are more students to a teacher in most Ghanaian government basic schools which are around 30:1; this means that the lowest you can find is thirty students per a teacher. The study recommended that class sizes should be reduced to make teaching and learning more effective in Ghanaian basic schools or stick to UNESCO recommendation which states that, there should be thirty students to a teacher. The study also suggested that more mathematics teachers should be trained to also increase the number of mathematics teachers in the country. Keywords: Class management, Class size, Performance, output, input, student-teacher ratio.