Class Size and Teaching Quality in Public Junior Secondary Schools in Lagos State

This study examines the effect of class size on teaching quality in public junior secondary schools in Lagos State, South West Nigeria. Lagos State hosts the largest urban school population in Nigeria, and chronic overcrowding in public schools has raised serious concerns about the quality of instruction that teachers can deliver to large classes. While national guidelines recommend a maximum of forty pupils per class, actual class sizes in many Lagos public schools routinely exceed eighty. A descriptive survey design was employed, with data collected from 200 teachers across 20 junior secondary schools in Alimosho, Surulere, and Kosofe local government areas. Class size was documented from school registers, while teaching quality was assessed using a structured observation tool administered during unannounced classroom visits by education supervisors. Pearson correlation and regression analysis were applied. Findings reveal a significant negative relationship between class size and teaching quality scores. As class size increased beyond fifty, individual attention to learners, use of varied teaching methods, and lesson pacing quality declined significantly. Teachers in large classes relied disproportionately on lecture methods and reported difficulty monitoring student comprehension. The study concludes that overcrowding materially undermines teaching quality in Lagos public secondary schools. It recommends that the Lagos State Ministry of Education accelerate classroom construction and implement a structured school transfer policy to redistribute enrolment more equitably across schools and reduce overcrowding below the nationally recommended threshold.

Keywords: class size, teaching quality, junior secondary school, Lagos State, overcrowding.