TABLE
OF CONTENT
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Statement
of the Problem
PURPOSE
OF THE STUDY
RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
Research
Hypotheses
Significance
of the Study
Scope
and Limitations of Study
CHAPTER
TWO
LITERATURE
REVIEW
Introduction
The
Concept of Quality
Approaches
to Managing Quality
Principalship
of School Organisational Behaviour
Leadership Traits of
Principals
Characteristics
of Effective Principals
Summary
of Review
CHAPTER
THREE
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
Research
Design
Population
of the Study
Sample
and Sampling Technique
Research
Instrument
Procedure
for data collection:
Procedure
of Data Analysis
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA
ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION
Introduction
Summary
of Findings
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY
OF FINDINGS, DISCUSSION, IMPLICATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
Introduction
Summary
of Findings
Discussion
of Findings
Implication
of the Result
Recommendation
Conclusions
Suggestions for Further
Studies
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Teacher education programme is saddled
with the responsibility of nation building for the Nigerian as development
society. The quality of the products from teacher training institutions
determines the pace of the nation’s development.
Quality in the educational sector is
considered in terms of exceptionally high standards, consistency, fitness for
purpose, value for money (accountability) and transformative effects (Atanda
2007). Onuh (2006) claims that quality in education is a multidimensional
concept which should embrace all functions
and activities, teaching and academic programmes, research and scholarship,
staffing, students, buildings, facilities, equipment, services to the community
and academic environment (UNESCO 1998).
This is why the major concerns of
Nigerian educational system is how to ensure quality and high delivery.
According to Chambers Twentieth Century
Dictionary of current English, among other meanings, defines quality as “grade
of goodness, excellence or degrees (especially high degrees) of goodness or
worth”. The educational service delivery system needs substantial human and material
resources with adequate and sustained quality assurance measures in order to
live up to expectations. The expansion and upgrading of facilities and
equipment to enhance capacity utilization of information communication
technology (ICT) need not to be over emphasized.
There are five indicators of quality
measures in an organization or the school system.
They include highly trained staff; adequate
funding; Visionary leadership; Service to the community/academic environment
and Research and academic activities.
There are also some elements or
indicators of good service delivery in schools or organizations. They are
adequate staffing, population (enrolment of students), management of funds, adequate
management of infrastructure, accommodation and equipment, provision of
adequate information communication technology (ICT) in the library, provision
of adequate instructional materials, co-curricular activities, uniform input
and output evaluation procedures and provision of scholarship facilities.
In schools that are extremely good, we
inevitably found an aggressive, professionally alert, dynamic principles
determined to provide the kind of educational programmes deemed necessary no
matter what (Gold Hammer, 1986).
In another development, (Hechinger 1989)
has this to say “I have never seen a good school with a poor principal or a
poor school with a good principal. I have seen unsuccessful schools turned
around into successful ones and, regrettably outstanding schools slide rapidly
into decline. In each case the rise and fall could readily be traced to the
quality of the principal.
The above statements show that it is the
leadership of the school that makes the difference between mediocrity and
excellence.
A capsule description of the qualities
and behaviours that characterize principals in successful schools; qualities
that have surfaced again and again in the research literature, runs as follows:
(a) Effective principals have a strong vision of
what their schools can be, and they encourage all staff to work towards
realizing that vision (Gunge 1990).
(b) They hold high expectations for both students’
achievement and teacher staff performance.
(c) The observe teachers in classrooms and
provide positive constructive feedback aimed at solving problems and
improvising instruction.
(d)
They
encourage excellent and efficient instruction time and design procedures to
minimize disruptions.
(e)
They
use material and personal resources creatively.
(f)
They
monitor the individual and collective achievement of students and use the
information to guide instructional planning (Adamson 1989).
Unfortunately, many less effective
principals define their role as
managers of the building and budget, keepers of the records, chief disciplinarians
and communicators with everyone (Davis 1989). According to Willower (1982);
many less quality or effective principals leave teaching to teachers. Research on the activities and
behaviours of principals indicate that most school principals spend very little
time on curriculum and instructional matters; while few of them have been
trained and prepared for instructional
leadership.
As Goodhead
(1983) puts it, most teachers, parents and interested others are not aware of
the pivotal role an instructionally active principal can play in creating an
effective school, a school where everyone is concerned with learning and
achievement, where expectations are high
and educational improvement is a daily concern.
The daily routine of every school
principal, although routine is hardly the correct word includes activities which
are described as “varied, brief and disjointed”
Lee (1987), and “varied brief and
fragmented” by Martin and Willower
(1981); While Greenfield concluded that the activities of effective school
principals involve “an endless series
of brief interpersonal encounters and exchanges
with students, teachers, parents, supervisors and
others”.
Principals must deal with competing
values and expectations along with shortages in space, staff, funds, equipment
and materials and miss communications are common (Barnett et al, (1984) The
work of the principal is largely
verbal.
Principals dispense information about
procedures and politics to veteran teachers, new teachers, substitute teachers, special education teachers, reading
specialties, counsellors, school psychologists, maintenance staff, students,
parents and others in the community. Well-trained and experienced school
principals answer questions about the availability of aids, space, materials
and other resources and details about forth coming events in the schools where
they are found (Bloomberg 1987).
According to Morris et al (1992), the
principals’ activities are
classified into monitoring school activities, serving as school spokesperson,
disseminating information to school staff, handling resources.
Statement
of the Problem
The school principal is the arrow head
of the school system. This means that the school principal determines the pace
at which things or events move in the school. In this regard therefore, the
quality of the school principal to a large extent, determines the services
he/she renders to the school.
According to Goodhead (1983), many less
effective principals view the role they
play in the school as managers of the school building and budget keepers of the
school records and communicators with everyone. They unfortunately, leave the
teaching of the classroom teachers. Most
principals spend little time on curriculum and instructional matters. Most
principals in the school system today are poor school leaders, inefficient
administrators, who lack the required capacity and academic process to keep the
school moving ahead. They lack experience and qualification with which high and
qualitative services are rendered in the administration of the school. (Ola,
2004)
This study examined linking quality to
service delivery, a focus on administrators of senior secondary schools in
Lagos State.
PURPOSE
OF THE STUDY
The main purpose of this study is to
examine the linkage between quality and service delivery among school
principals in Lagos State, senior secondary schools.
The specific objectives of this study
include:
To examine the effects of leadership
quality on service delivery of principals in Lagos State secondary school administration.
To link efficiency with quality service
delivery among principals.
To identify the factors militating
against service delivery in schools administration.
To proffer solutions to the problems of
poor service delivery among principals in our secondary schools.
Differentiate between the service
delivery of trained/ experienced principals and the untrained/ inexperienced
ones.
Examine the service delivery of male and
female principals.
RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
The following research questions were
raised in this study.
1. Does
experience affect principal’s services delivery in schools?
2.
How
can teacher’s number of years in service be linked to their service delivery?
3.
What
are the constraints that militate against service delivery among school principals?
4.
Is
there any difference between the service delivery pattern as exhibited by male
and female principals?
5.
What
are the possible solutions to the problems of poor service delivery among
principals in our secondary schools?
6. To
what extent can service delivery of trained principals differ from those rendered by the untrained ones?
Research
Hypotheses
These research hypotheses were
formulated in this study:
1. There
will be no significant effect of experience on service delivery among school principals in Lagos state.
2. There
will be no significant gender difference in the service delivery of principals in schools.
3. There will be no significant difference
service delivery patterns of trained principals and their untrained
counterparts.
Significance
of the Study
This study will be beneficial to the
following:
This study will help school principals
have better insight on the importance of service delivery in the school. With
the recommendations and findings of this study, school principals would be more
aware of the importance of quality in service delivery.
This will enable them to imbibe the
culture of being exposed to training
and retraining in the school in order to achieve maximum quality for effective
service delivery in the day to day
management and administration.
The findings of this study enables teachers in the school system, who practice teaching on daily basis,
the opportunity of knowing that
the quality of a teacher to a large extent affect the way at which he/she delivers service in the
teaching profession. With this study,
practising teachers would be able to imbibe the culture of updating their
academics periodically as that will help them to perform their duties
creditably well. It also helps teachers to know that it pays to deliver quality
services in one’s profession.
This study would help the school
authority to be able to provide conducive environment towards the production of
personnel who will be able, available, ready and efficient in service delivery
in the school system. With this study, the school authority will be able to
make policies that would enable staff to be trained and groomed for better
performance and higher productivity in the school. The study would serve as a good and important
reference material to the public and the upcoming researchers and students in
general.
Scope
and Limitations of Study
This study will cover the linking of
quality to service delivery among secondary schools in Lagos State.
Definition
of Terms
The following terms were defined in this
study:
Quality: Quality
is defined as grade of goodness, excellence or degrees (especially high
degrees) of goodness of work.
Service
Delivery: The control and
effective management and
utilization of school population, funds, infrastructures, accommodations,
equipment, information communication
technology and so on for growth
and development of the school system.
Quality
Assurance: This refers to
the fitness of an organization in accomplishing the goals for which it is set
up, and also maintaining comparable standards.
Quality
Service Delivery: This is a situation in which services or
functions are at the apex level. This means the highest services delivered by
those expected to deliver them in an organisation or institution.
School
Administrators: This refer to
those or personnel who manage the schools as institutions of learning. The
headmasters, headmistresses, principals, vice principals are regarded as school
administrators.
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