National Journal of Educational Leadership, Vol. 3 ISSN: 2251-0303, 2016 National Association for Educational Administration and Planning IMPACT OF TEACHERS' MOTIVATION ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION KEN AYO AZUBUIKE (Ph.D) Department of Educational Foundations and Administration Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe, Anambra State. and ORJI FRIDAY OKO Department of Educational Administration and Planning National Open University of Nigeria Abstract This paper examined the impact of teachers' motivation on the academic performance of students with special interest on how it will improve school administration. Survey research design was adopted with a sample size of 300 respondents comprised of 30 principals and 270 teachers from 30 public secondary schools in Umuahia and Aba Educational Zones. Three research questions and Respondent-Based Research Questionnaire with 21 items were used for the study. Cronbach Alpha was used to discover a satisfactory reliability coefficient of 0.87 while SPSS was used to compute the Mean Statistic of each questionnaire item. The study revealed among others that teachers' motivation could impact on students' academic achievements by helping to explore, harness and develop students' cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains for the betterment of our society. Finally, it was recommended among others that teacher should be paid salaries comparable with other professions requiring a similar level of qualifications and responsibility. KEYWORDS: Teachers' Motivation, Academic Performance, School Administration Introduction Teachers were accorded due respect among other professions during the era of quality educati 1950s and late 1960s. In our contemporary Nigeria, teachers' have not been given adequate prior. as stipulated in the national policy of education (Imo, 2013). Teachers are expected toearn be intrinsic and extrinsic reward from work. It is understandable that the success or failure of a educational system depends mainly on the teachers. In line with the foregoing, Imo (2013) posit that educational goals can be accomplished by giving teachers the relevant motivation, necessa., attention and priority they deserve while they are working towards achieving the purpose of learning. It is a well-known fact that a well-motivated teacher, who is provided with working incentives, good working conditions and adequate remuneration is bound to be dedicated to his/ her teaching responsibilities so as to bring about the needed learning among learners. This is buttressed by Archibong (2013) who argued that quality education does not just occur miraculously but can be achieved through continuous and improved efforts by the stakeholders in the education enterprise, especially by enhancing teachers' motivation through several welfare packages. If the aforesaid welfare packages are well harnessed, teachers would be motivated to prepare adequately for their lessons, go to school regularly and punctually, attend classes as scheduled, teach the students well and carry out the necessary academic performance assessments both within and outside their respective schools. 91