The study surveyed the extent of competence needs among senior secondary schools science teachers for planning of science instruction in Taraba State. One research question and two hypotheses guided the study. A survey research design was adopted for the study. A total population of 589science (biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics) teachers in senior secondary schools was used, out of which 360 sample sizes was drawn for the study through multi-stage sampling procedure. An adapted instrument for data collection was a 10-item questionnaire titled Assessment of Competence Needs Index for Planning of Science Instruction Questionnaire (ACNIPSIQ).The reliability coefficient of 0.89 was obtained for the instrument using Cronbach Alpha method. Mean, standard deviation and formulated improvement needed index (INI) were used to answer the research question and t-test analysis was used to test the hypotheses at 5% level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that building of competence development is highly needed among science teachers for planning of science instruction to ensure an effective science teaching and learning in senior secondary schools. It was recommended among others that science teachers should be engaged in competence development programmes by updating their knowledge on the usage of result-oriented teaching strategies, appropriate instructional materials and deepening of their content knowledge to avoid a disservice to teaching profession.

Keywords: instructional planning, science teachers, competence, need index, gap analysis