Relationship between Teachers’ Professional Competence and Students’ Academic Performance at Secondary Level in Dera Ghazi Khan

Abstract

Teachers are widely regarded as the single most influential in-school factor in shaping student learning outcomes, yet locally grounded evidence on how secondary school students in southern Punjab, Pakistan, perceive teacher effectiveness remains limited. This study examined students' perceptions of teacher effectiveness and its association with demographic characteristics in three secondary schools of Dera Ghazi Khan (DG Khan), Punjab. Using a quantitative, descriptive survey design, data were collected from 266 randomly selected students in Grades 7 to 10 (Center of Excellence, Comprehensive School, and Quaid School) using a 38-item, five-point Likert questionnaire covering communication, classroom management, instruction/curriculum, teaching styles and strategies, and feedback/motivation. Item-level means ranged from 4.26 to 4.60 on the five-point scale, indicating that students consistently rated their teachers' effectiveness favourably. Independent-samples t-tests found no statistically significant difference in perceived teacher effectiveness by gender (t(264) = -1.79, p = .078) or locality (t(264) = -1.33, p = .079). One-way ANOVA revealed statistically significant differences by age group (F(2,263) = 9.17, p < .001), class/grade level (F(3,262) = 8.44, p < .001), and last academic grade (F(4,261) = 8.87, p < .001), but not by mother tongue (F(3,262) = 0.97, p = .407). The findings support the view that teacher effectiveness is closely linked to students' academic standing and developmental stage, while remaining broadly consistent across gender, locality, and linguistic background. Implications for teacher training and school-level monitoring in under-researched regional contexts such as DG Khan are discussed.