Abstract
This paper examines the link between job satisfaction and productivity of public primary school teachers in Nigeria. It is usually said in Nigeria that teachers generally receive their rewards in haven and not here on earth while they are still alive. This statement is based on the very well-known fact that teachers are shabbily treated and poorly remunerated by the government. Teachers in Nigeria especially those in public primary schools are generally not satisfied with their job as a result of various factors ranging from poor remuneration to poor work environment, delay in payment of salaries, delay in promotion, difficulties associated with accessing retirement benefits and neglect by government. Under this kind of condition, it is difficult for them to be productive. It is already a proven fact through various researches that when workers are not motivated their morale is usually at the lowest ebb and this negatively affects productivity. In Nigeria, public primary school teachers are not motivated and this has led to job dissatisfaction and low productivity. The quality of teaching in public primary schools in Nigeria has dropped drastically thereby negatively affecting the quality of the pupils. Instead of paying adequate attention to public primary schools in terms of funding, government has rather encouraged proliferation of private primary schools. Parents now prefer to send their wards to private primary schools as a result of drop in the quality of teaching, absence of teaching and learning materials and poor work environment in Public primary schools. This paper therefore contends that unless government retraces its steps and begin to improve on the funding of public primary schools in Nigeria as well as improve on the welfare of the teachers, productivity will continue to be low. Teachers need to be adequately motivated in order to make them to be satisfied with their job and put in their very best for higher productivity. The public primary schools are now meant for the children of the very poor in society who cannot afford to send their children to private primary schools. The theoretical thrust of this paper is the equity theory developed by Stacy Adams in 1963. The paper among others recommends that government needs to deliberately formulate policies geared towards improving on the funding of public primary schools in Nigeria as well as the general welfare of teachers.