CAPACITY BUILDING, MENTORSHIP AND ACADEMIC STAFF PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC COLLEGES OF DUCATION IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIA

Abstract

Colleges of education play a pivotal role in training teachers for primary and secondary schools in Nigeria; however, the job performance of academic staff in these institutions has remained a growing concern among education stakeholders. Empirical evidence suggests that lecturers demonstrate low commitment to teaching, poor research output, and inadequate supervision of students, despite improved academic qualifications and increased government investment in education. While previous studies have focused on motivation, leadership styles, and training as factors influencing lecturer performance, the combined influence of capacity building and mentorship on academic staff job performance in colleges of education remains underexplored. Therefore, this study examined the influence of capacity building and mentorship on academic staff job performance in public colleges of education in Southwestern Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted. The population consisted of 2,876 academic staff and 17,247 Year Two students from three public colleges of education in Southwestern Nigeria, from which 274 academic staff and 1,166 students were sampled, totalling 1,440 respondents, selected through multi-stage sampling involving five techniques. Cronbach Alpha test on research instruments yielded coefficients of 0.87 and 0.78. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression were used to test the hypothesis at p<0.05. Findings revealed that teaching performance was high while research output was low. Participation in decision making (β = 0.321, p<0.05), training (β = 0.255, p<0.05), and shared experience mentorship (β = 0.240, p<0.05) significantly predicted lecturer job performance. It was recommended that college management improve research infrastructure, involve staff in decision making, and formalize mentorship programmes.