Al-Hikmah University Journal

This study investigated the relationship between motivation and job performance among government day secondary school teachers in selected schools in Akko Local Government Area, Gombe State. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design of an ex-post facto type. Four research hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data were collected using a self-developed questionnaire tagged “motivation and job performance in government day secondary schools (GDSS)”. The questionnaire was validated and the Cronbach’s alpha was 0.81 while the reliability was confirmed at 0.78 using a split-half correlation coefficient. The sample size is 100 using a randomly sampling technique from three selected schools in Akko L.G.A.  Data were analyzed using Pearson Product Movement Correlation. The findings of this study reveal a significant positive relationship between teachers’ job performance and motivation in ensuring quality education in secondary schools (r = .567; p>.05). The study also indicated that reward system, professional training and development, work situational factors accounted for 10.4%, 29.1%, and 13.9% respectively of the variance in the motivation of teachers in government day secondary schools. It was therefore concluded that the importance of motivation in the day-to-day performance of teachers cannot be overemphasized, especially when it comes to being rewarded for a job done and being happy on the job.