Abstract
This study examined school
supervision and quality assurance in education District I, Lagos State. The
study employed a survey research design. An instrument titled: school
supervision and quality assurance (SSQA) was used to collect relevant data for
the study. The nine secondary schools involved were selected based on simple
random sampling technique and the statistical tools employed to analyse the
data collected were percentages, means scores while the T-test statistical and
Chi-square statistical tool were used to test the stated hypotheses at 0.05
level of significance. The sample size were used for the study comprised of 144
participants. Four research questions and 4 research hypotheses were formulated
to guide study. The survey results revealed that there is a significant
relationship between supervision of lesson plan, supervision of instruction,
supervision of instructional materials and quality assurance. The study finally
revealed that there is a significant influence of supervision of teaching and
learning environment on quality assurance. Based on the analysis, the following
recommendations were made, the quality assurers must
work together with the teachers almost on a regular basis to impinge on school
effectiveness. The school head as the accounting officer of the school must
ensure teachers’ promotion as and at when due, and provide other incentives
relevant to the effectiveness of his school in terms of students’ achievement.
Public-Private-Participation in school system should be taken seriously to
promote effectiveness in terms of providing a conducive learning environment.
Teachers must be properly remunerated to awaken in them latent potentials.
Instructional supervisors should know where the teacher is in his work and what
he is doing. Study his lesson notes and instructional materials in advance of
the visit to classroom.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
Title page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract v
Table of Contents vi
CHAPTER ONE:
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study 1
Statement of Problem 7
Purpose of the Study
8
Research Questions 9
Research
Hypotheses 9
Significance of the Study 9
Scope of the Study 10
Operational Definition of Terms 10
CHAPTER TWO:LITERATURE REVIEW
Concept of School Supervision 11
The Role of School Supervision in Education Administration
in Nigeria 22
Concept of Quality Assurance 27
Concept of Quality Assurance in Education 30
Instructional Supervision and Quality Assurance 33
Influence
of Supervision of Teaching and Learning on Quality Assurance 35
Summary of Related Literature 37
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN
AND METHODOLOGY
Introduction 39
Research
Design 39
Population
of the Study 39
Sample
and Sampling Technique 40
Instrument
for Data Collection 40
Validity of the Instrument 40
Reliability of the Instrument 40
Administration
of the Instrument 41
Method of Data Analysis 41
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS OF DATA AND FINDINGS
Introduction 42
Descriptive Analyses
of Teachers’ Biographic Data 42
Hypotheses Testing 49
Summary of Findings 51
Discussion of Findings 51
CHAPTER FIVE:
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS, SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS
AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction 55
Summary of the Study 55
Conclusion 56
Recommendations 56
Suggestion
for Further Studies 57
REFERENCE 58
APPENDIX 61
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Teaching
and learning in Nigerian schools take place within a formal organisational
framework, which includes measures to ensure that schools are well supervised
and that the quality of what they offer is maintained and continuously improved
(Bolaji, 2006). Teaching in the schools is significantly affected by a powerful
inspectorate that is mandated to ensure and maintain quality in resource
allocation, curriculum delivery, and educational standards. The curriculum,
which is defined as everything that takes place in a school, including
assessment in all its forms, is central to any policies directed at improving
achievement.
School supervision is concerned with
providing professional assistance and guidance to teachers and students to
enhance effective teaching and learning towards improved students’ learning.
The purpose of school supervision is to help teachers improve their
instructional practices in the classrooms. Effective school supervision is
basic of every successful school. Through effective supervision of instruction,
school administrators can reinforce and enhance teaching practices that will
contribute to improve students’ learning (Asiyai, 2009).
Asiyai (2009), study reported that teacher
attendance at classes, daily lesson preparation, lesson presentation, their
participation in school community relations and extra- curricular activities
improved when they were regularly supervised by school heads. Through regular
supervision of instruction by principals, effective instructional delivery and
maintenance of standards can be attained in the school system (Ayodele, 2002).
Effective school supervision requires a good
working relationship between the supervisor and supervisee. Buttressing this
point, Reamer (2009) noted that many problems can be avoided if there is close
constructive collaboration between the supervisor and the supervisees. This
presupposes that the school administrator should create a positive teaching and
learning environment as well as build good school climate with high level of
interpersonal relationship. School supervisors should therefore develop
relationships and create school environments that enable teachers, non-teachers
and students to work collaboratively and respond to change. Ducker (2008)
observed that such joint performance involve having common goals, values, and
the right structures as well as continuing training and development programmes
Quality
assurance in education is a consistent provision and utilization of high standard
resources to foster effective teaching and learning at every stage and aspect
of the educational system. It is meaningful when application of its strategy is
not deferred till the end of an educational, programme (Fasasi, 2006). Quality
assurance is the process of ensuring that the educational outputs (graduating
students) are processed with all required personnel and quality programs,
facilities and materials to meet the global acceptance. It is a guarantee of
confidence and certainty by a program of study given by institution that
standard are being maintained and enhanced. It is a continuous process in the
quality teaching and learning activities which will be achieved.
Walklin
(2005) defined quality assurance as the avoidance of non-performance by
pre-empting failure through proper planning, execution, monitoring and
evaluation. It is a way of managing an organization so that every job, every
process, is implemented right first time and always. Ukeje, Akabogu & Ndu
(1992) explain that quality assurance in a school setting is made possible
through proper planning by the management which involves all the staff in the
functions of planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation using set standards
and objectives.
But
Quality assurance cannot absolutely guarantee the production of quality
products because quality in the school system is determined by the principal
head teachers, teachers or learners, not by the society in general. For
instance, Richard (2006) stated that there is need for secondary schools to own
quality assurance and not to see it as an eternal imposition.
According
to Fasasi (2006), quality assurance in school management focuses on monitoring,
while challenging and supporting schools to achieve success. It emphasizes
improvement as well as making use of school and students data to monitor school
performance against set targets. Furthermore, it focuses on supporting the
self-management of schools through joint review and self-evaluation, holding
principals and staff accountable for the fulfillment of their key duties and
responsibilities. It contributes to the development and sharing of best
practice; and supporting the implementation of national and local strategies
(Fasasi, 2006).
As
elucidated by Babalola (2004), quality assurance in education deals with
proactive means of ensuring quality of inputs on teaching - learning process,
academic achievement of student school environment before things get out of
hands. Hence, an educational institution of high quality should have high
quality students, teachers, facilities, school curriculum and government policies
as inputs, furthermore, the manner in which the inputs are processed from the
beginning to the final years of an educational programme and the quality of
assessment of the entire teaching.
The
success of any education system depend on the operators or implementers who play
a very vital and prominent role. No matter how laudable and lofty the
objectives of any system or policy might be, if not well implemented, they will
be difficult to attain. The success or failure of an educational programme
depends on the way and manner school heads and teachers implement it in the
classroom. It is one thing to design a beautiful program, get all the needed
facilities ready (both human and material) it is another to provide a conducive
learning atmosphere and get the program effectively implemented. The need for
an effective supervision of instruction cannot be over emphasized if the needed
quality is to be guaranteed
and
the education of any nation is to be productive. It is often very common in
recent times to hear of the allegations of falling standard of education. Aina
(1994) asserts that, education is in crisis and in dire need of rethinking and
remaking. It is an all engulfing, all encompassing crisis affecting all levels
of education and all its significant elements namely: governance, finance,
access, quality, relevance and direction. In fact it is a crisis that threatens
the entire process of social and cultural reproduction of entire national
systems. Fafunwa, in Fagbamiye (2004) correctly observed that the standard of
education is not what the issue is. “What is actually falling is our ability to
meet the set standards”. The implication of this is that standards had already
being established for education, but the practitioners or implementers have
often failed in ensuring that such standards are attained and maintained.
In addition, Ajayi (1997) points out that,
teachers have been accused of abandoning their classrooms and not being as
dedicated and committed to duty as they used to be in the past. School heads
too have not been spared in these criticisms. They too have been accused of not
being alive to their leadership and supervisory responsibilities. Adeyemi 2002)
confirmed that many school heads are ineffective in their curriculum and instructional
responsibilities.
Igbo
(2002) in his study found that the quality of student learning was directly
related to the quality of classroom instruction. Also Kinutai and Zachariah in
2012 carried out a study on the supervision of teachers on the academic
performance of students in Kenya. A positive correlation was found between the
instructional supervision and students’ academic performance. The quality of
classroom delivery will depend on the knowledge, preparation of the lesson and
motivation of the teacher which can be influenced positively by the supervisory
performance of the school administrator.
The
process of instructional supervision has undergone a lot of changes. It moved
from autocratic inspection to a more democratic instructional supervision in
schools. Instructional supervision allows educators and administrators to
improve not only classroom but the school as a whole. Ani (2007) put more
insight in the purposes for instructional supervision as contained in the
Universal Basic Education as: -
·
Ensuring
that teachers perform their assigned functions effectively.
·
Ensuring
that teachers are capable of carrying out their responsibilities.
·
Ensuring
that new teachers receive training to enable them function effectively on the
job.
·
Ensuring
that teachers are given help whenever there is need.
·
Providing
professional information to the teachers.
·
Guiding
teachers to the sources of instructional materials.
·
Providing
technical assistance to the teachers especially in the area of teaching methods
and the use of instructional materials.
·
Ensuring
that discipline is maintained during classroom instruction.
·
Helping
or suggesting how to improve on the performance of incompetent teachers.
·
Providing
an enabling environment to discover teachers with special abilities and
qualities.
The
quality of teachers greatly affects student promotion rate, repetition rate,
retention rate, withdrawal rate, and dropout rate.
When
quality of education is given to the masses, there is hope for the graduation
of properly skilled, knowledgeable and productive workforce. Many Nigerian
academicians have criticized the quality of education given to Nigerian three
levels of education. Many B.Ed graduates according to Aghenta (2001) are now
half baked and cannot provide the much needed quality education. He warned that
the low quality of education in Nigeria will take a further dive since the
poorly trained teachers are very poorly remunerated, motivated and often
unceremoniously removed from teaching before they can establish themselves as
experienced teachers.
Education is the bedrock of any nation’s
development. It gives men the tools to navigate their way through the world.
What joy do parents experience to see their children acquire qualitative
education? It is appalling to discover nowadays that the quality of education
today (most especially in Lagos state, the case study of this research work) is
low. The quality of education from the primary up to the tertiary levels has
significantly fallen. The products of primary schools are unable to write their
own names just as products of the secondary schools are unable to copy down
notes on the chalkboards with correct spellings (Aghenta, 2006; Ayeni, 2012).
It is equally unbearable to hear products of our tertiary institutions turned
into glorified secondary schools graduates. Some graduates find it difficult to
write standard formal letters for employment. There is no doubt that the
quality of our education has evidently fallen generally.
The need to improve the quality of education
is high on the agenda in most countries, in the developed as well as the
developing world. The increasing emphasis on the achievement of pupils has led
countries to focus more on the functioning of schools and on the performance of
teachers, as well as on the ways these can be monitored and improved
(UNESCO/IIEP, 2011).
In almost all countries, the main actor in
charge of controlling and supporting schools and teachers is the school
supervision service. The actions of supervisors are expected to contribute to
quality improvement. However, regularly the effectiveness of this service is
questioned on its functioning and criticised by decision-makers and schools.
The criticisms relate, among other things, to the regularity of supervision
visits, to the insufficient follow-up on reports and to the lack of impact of
supervision on the quality of teaching and learning. Several countries,
therefore, have undertaken significant reforms in order to transform school
supervision into a genuine quality improvement service (UNESCO, 2011).
This attention to schools and teachers’
supervision and support finds an additional justification in the present trend
towards increased school autonomy. Teachers themselves, once in the classroom,
have always had a significant level of autonomy. But recently, in many
countries around the world, schools have received more freedom in making
decisions in fields as crucial as the curriculum, staff management or the
budget (FRN, 2004). The ability of schools to use this increased freedom
effectively will depend to a large extent on the support services on which they
can rely, while supervision may be needed to guide them in their
decision-making.
Statement
of Problem
The
recent downward trend in the quality of education in Nigeria has been a major
source of concern to all as it affects almost every facet of life. At present,
the teaching force is weak and the standard of performance is also low which is
an indication that the standard of school supervisor is sub optimal Akpa (1999).
School supervisors are lazy when it comes to monitoring and ensuring that
teachers follows the set out rules except if some benefits are attached or are
being compelled to submit reports by the authorities (Onyia, 2010).
In addition, most head teachers do not
meaningfully supervise and evaluate teachers, plan and co-ordinate curriculum
actively, manage innovation and change or spend time in classroom. On the other
hand, according to Maranga (1993), inspectors visit to schools are sporadic;
and in cases where inspections are carried out, the inspectors are more
ignorant than the teachers on how to handle certain curriculum issues. Schools
continue to experience shortage of teachers, poor performance, low rate of
retention and completion and indiscipline among teachers and pupils (UNESCO,
2005).
Nevertheless, Anukam (2009) opined that the
nation is finding ways of improving quality assurance of schools in the wake of
assumed falling standard of learning, increased school enrolment, and increased
recruitment of unqualified teachers. The study will examine the school
supervision and quality assurance in education District I, Lagos State.
The problem of the study arose from the
background information that the field of quality control has been duly
neglected for one reason or another in the midst of modern complications of the
secondary school. Adesina (2008) was of
the opinion that schools have not been regularly visited by inspectors of the
Ministry of Education and when inspection is done, it is far from being
thorough. Inspection reports are hardly made available, and there are no
follow-ups that would ensure that the weaknesses identified have been
corrected.
Acknowledging that the principals of schools
and inspectors from the Ministry of Education are meant to be instructional
leaders, it therefore becomes imperative to conduct a coparative study on
school supervision and quality assurance in education.
Purpose of the Study
This
study is aimed examining the school supervision and quality assurance in public
senior secondary school in education District I, of Lagos State. As a result of
this, the researcher intends to find out:
1. To determine the relationship between
supervision of lesson plan and quality assurance.
2. To examine the influence of supervision
of instruction on the effectiveness of teaching and learning in public senior
secondary school in education District I, of Lagos State.
3. To determine the relationship between
supervision of instructional materials and quality assurance in public senior
secondary school in education District I, of Lagos State.
4. To ascertain the effect of supervision
of teaching and learning environment on quality assurance in public senior
secondary school in education District I, of Lagos State.
Research Questions
In
this study, attempt will be made to provide answers to the following questions.
1. What is the relationship between
supervision of lesson plan and quality assurance in public senior secondary
school in education District I, of Lagos State?
2.
How
would supervision of instruction influence quality assurance in public senior
secondary school in education District I, of Lagos State?
3. What is the relationship between
supervision of instructional materials and quality assurance in public senior
secondary school in education District I, of Lagos State?
4. How would supervision of teaching and
learning environment influence quality assurance
Research
Hypotheses
The
following hypotheses were formulated to guide the study.
1. There is no significant relationship between
supervision of lesson plan and quality assurance in public senior secondary
school in education District I, of Lagos State.
2. There
is no significant influence of supervision of instruction on quality assurance
in public senior secondary school in education District I, of Lagos State.
3. There
is no significant relationship between supervision of instructional materials
and quality assurance in public senior secondary school in education District
I, of Lagos State.
4. There is no significant influence of
supervision of teaching and learning environment on quality assurance in public
senior secondary school in education District I, of Lagos State.
Significance of the Study
The study is meant to be beneficial to all
stake-holders of our educational system as it would have been if there had been
adequate educational inspection and quality assurance in schools.
The
study will help various school principals to understand the benefit of
effective school supervision as a quality assurance at various levels of
education especially, at Secondary Schools in Lagos state.
It
will enable school administrators to know the best school supervision
techniques to adopt in order to maintain standard academic performance of the
students and school effectiveness.
The
study will create an awareness that a study has been done in the area of school
effectiveness and supervision, thereby encourage teachers to put more effort,
abide by rules and regulation and take necessary recommendation and correction
given to them so as to make students learning performance good.
The
study will promote capacity development of teachers through intensive and
regular seminars/workshops based on needs assessment of professional practices
of teachers to improve their knowledge, pedagogical skills and competence in
various subjects, with a view to enhancing the quality of teaching and learning
processes in secondary schools.
Scope of the Study
The scope of the study will focus on the
school supervision and quality assurance in Public Senior Secondary Schools in
Education District I, of Lagos State.
Operational Definition of Terms
In the course of study, certain words are used to
describe certain situations and the meanings of these words are given below:
Quality Instruction: This
aims at promoting improvements in standards, quality and attainment in academic
achievement through first-hand and independent evaluation.
Performance: This is
described as the net wealth after subtracting the inputs (the activities of
processing work) from the outputs or final results.
School Supervision: It is the constant and continuous process
of guidance based on frequent visits which focus attention on one or more
aspects of the school and its organization.
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