SCHOOL SUPERVISION AS A QUALITY CONTROL MEASURE FOR SECONDARY EDUCATIONAL DISTRICT

---

Introduction

1.1 Background to the Study

The changes in the educational sector in Nigeria demand that the school principals play a bigger and more important role in educational supervision. Mohd Salleh Lebar (2000), stated that educational supervision was not a new thing in Nigeria but has been in practice way back since the British colonial days. Those days schools were supervised by Visiting Teacher and School Inspectorate. Since that time, the interactions between inspectorate and teachers were already existed. The relationship was of democratic and good natured one.

As a matter of fact, in the educational administrative system in Nigeria, the supervision concept varies. The teaching colleges and university lecturers conducted the supervision in order to evaluate their trainee teachers for their practical teaching. Besides, the school inspectorate conducted the supervision for assessing teaching activities, organizing function, allocation of resources and overall management of the school (Yunus, 2012). Consequently, the inspectorate offered advices and recommendations to the principal for improvement. At the school level, supervision was normally done by either the principal, the headmaster or the senior teacher empowered by the authority. During the supervision, the principal may detect some malfunction or problems cropped-up in the school system. Generally, the supervisors’ duties are to guide, to upgrade teaching performance, as facilitators and to boost teachers’ morals.

Principal’s supervisory role is a critical issue in educational leadership. It involved lots of leadership aspects, identifying, supervision, teacher’s skills, students’ performance, the effectiveness of the school types and technical skills. Therefore, the role of a school administrator or a principal is to supervise, planning, developed competitive strategies for the school. Thus, a principal duty is very challenging and should be able to differentiate between administrative duty and management task.

The National Policy of Education (2004) under the Ministry of Education revealed how the principal prime role of educational leadership, must be effective. Principals should be efficient and spend most of their time in organizing learning activities in schools. Maintaining an effective school supervision, acting as consultants, advisor and coordinator for teaching and learning activities in schools is one of their important job. They should spend more time in teachers and students’ professional activities, not only working in their rooms issuing memos and directive or circulars. In relation to that, Yunus, (2012) found that educational supervision is a dynamic process in education aiming at improving the quality of teaching and learning. One of the roles that principals need to play is to be able to carry out the best educational leadership possible.

A circular letter issued by the Ministry of Education in 2004, stated that it is a must for principals to conduct teaching supervision in their respective schools. Other than principals, the task may be delegated to senior assistants, afternoon supervisors and head of departments. According to Yunus, (2004) school administrators as educational supervisors’ duty encompasses three important aspects i.e. curriculum implementation, preparation of teaching materials and improving teachers professionalism in respective schools. In an effort to improve quality of education, school principals must devote special attention to teachers teaching task.

Principal Supervisory roles in schools particularly on its teaching and non teaching staff services is an important concern because it plays an important role in the quality of education that the school provides to its students (Grauwe and Carron, 2004). The supervisors are delegated with a heavy responsibility of identifying rules and policies, staffing, training and development and employee performance. Thus supervisors should be well aware not only of the group’s goals vis a vis the goals of the organization but also on the tasks and activities of the team. Pierce and Rowell (2005) identified ten key tasks of supervisors that are linked to productivity these are: support for the growth of the team, inspiring unity, praise and commendation, setting a high bar for excellence, requiring accountability, verifying potential, instilling independence, continuous sharing and communication, optimizing ownership and reinforcing relationships. These tasks are applicable in all settings and types of organizations from the business industries, to not-for-profit organizations and educational institutions. Similarly, Grauwe and Carron, (2004) identified three factors that determine effectiveness of supervision on the efficiency of the work personnel. These are roles and function, organizational structure and the employees’ workload.

Peretomode (2005) stated that the school like any other organization has problems. The variety of problems which the school present can be identified through the process by which its functions are performed. Instructional supervision is one of the process by which school administration attempts to achieve acceptable standards of performance and results. It is the tool of quality control in the school, system. Nwankwo (2004) opined that supervision can be divided into categories. These are instructional and personnel supervision, Instructional supervision has been defined as a set of activities, which are carried out with the purpose of making the teaching and learning purpose better for the learner. Personnel supervision on the other hand, deals with the set of activities, which are carried out by the supervisor with the basic aim of sensitizing mobilizing and monitoring staff in the school towards performing their duties ultimately in terms of achievement of the stated aims and objectives of the educational system.

Secondary school level is the bridge between the primary and tertiary levels. The importance of secondary education made the Federal Government to state the broad aims of secondary education as preparation for useful living within the society and for higher education. The underline principle here is that the secondary schools should be able to provide quality secondary education to all those who can benefit from it.

However, it appears that the secondary school teachers are not living up to expectation in discharging their obligations due to poor supervisory control by the Ministry of Education, problems which ranges from lack of commitment and dedication on the part of teaching staff, high attrition rate, low staff moral, inadequate facilities and infrastructures, many teaching staffs are not committed to their professional tasks, late payment and incentives to staff. Government parastatals i.e.,

Ministry of Education on the other hand contributes to the problems of school supervision which include inadequate funding to train and retrain inspectorate and school supervisors personnel, low morale of staff, poor supervision of schools and frequent changes in policies. poor remuneration of teachers, insufficient staffing/shortage of inspectors/school supervisors, lack of instructional materials and resources, lack of facilities for the school supervisors/inspectors of education to work with, lack of evaluation system, poor funding, political instability, constant change in educational policies, lack of adequate training for inspectors, nepotism of school supervisors. Teachers also contribute to the problem of supervision through the following ways: Unprofessional attitudes to work, lack of interest, lack of basic knowledge or formal training, numerous unqualified teachers.

Community and Society help in the problem of supervision through the following ways: Poor perception of the general public on teaching as profession, poor status given to the teachers, lack of proper interest of teaching staffs. All these observed problems above had been linked with the numerous problems bedeviling the school supervision system in Nigeria.

Omoregie (2005) lamented that the products of today’s secondary system can neither usefully live in the society nor move into higher institution without their parents’ aid or forgery. They cannot think for themselves or respect the views and feelings of others. They have no iota of dignity of labour except for things that will give them quick money.

It must be stressed that education cannot be an instrument par excellence for achieving national development where the secondary education is not effectively managed to accomplish its aims and objectives. In the administration of secondary schools, the principal is central. He is the man at the helms of the affairs who receives all praises (in terms of success) and blames (in terms of failure). According to Ibukun (1999), the jobs of the school principal in Nigeria has progressively become more complex and highly hazardous. In order to cope

with the ever-rising challenges of the system, the school principal must be ready to see himself as a change agent. According to Ajayi (2002a) and Omoregie (2005), secondary education in Nigeria is riddled with crises of various dimensions and magnitude all of which combine to suggest that the system is at crossroad.

The sudden explosion of students population coupled with the attendant increased complexity of the school organization and the introduction of the new school basic system of 6-3-3-4 or 9-3-4 system of education in the country has indeed necessitated a greater attention of supervision more than ever before. This is more so because school supervision occupies a unique place in the entire education system.

Through inspection and supervision, the inspectors and supervisors assist in improving classroom instructions because teachers are made more competent and efficient, parent are satisfied with the performance of their children, children are motivated to work harder in order to achieve the required standard, hence in the long run, the goal of education is achieved.

It has become axiomatic that no nation can rise above the level of its teachers. It is a fact too that poorly trained teachers will likely produce poor doctors, engineers, architects, lawyers as well as fellow teachers in the nation today and in future. From this stance, it may be noted that the future of the country’s educational system is bleak considering the extent of commitment from the supervisors, lackadaisical attitude of teachers and inadequate number of supervisors. Besides the shortage of supervising personnel, most supervisors in Nigeria are plagued with such problems as staff welfare, non implementation of disciplinary action to any erring staff, non-payment of allowances or touring advance, inadequate transportation especially within the riverside areas within and outside Lagos metropolis and job insecurity for inspectorates/school supervisors. The personal factor has also hampered the practice of teaching in Nigerian schools. For instance, clinical supervision that requires a careful and systematic procedure cannot be attempted, nor the counselling model that requires extra technical competence has given little and no attention to by the Ministry of Education.

Supervision is a function which can be performed in various degrees and in various forms in any school organization or citadel of learning. With the new trends in the Nigerian educational system, it becomes obvious that effective supervision will be necessary in order to enhance the quality of instruction in schools. Already, there is pressure from various groups concerning what is to be taught and how it should be taught.

Moreover, modern instructional materials are being introduced and used as teaching aids in the school instructional process. In order to cope with these demands, it seems that supervision has got an important role to play in deciding the nature and content of the curriculum, in selecting the school organizational patterns and leaving materials that will enhance educational growth and development of both the students and the teaching staff. There are various reasons for carrying out supervision in schools. One of the most crucial reasons is to ensure that each individual teacher within the school system has been performing the duties for which he was scheduled. Another cogent reasons is to improve the effectiveness of teachers so that they can contribute maximally to the attainment of the system’s goals (Adesina, 2001).

---

1.2 Statement of the Problem

There has been a public outcry on the poor quality of education and continual decline in the standards of education in the country especially at the secondary school level.

Currently most principals neglected their duty as educational supervisors but concentrated on managing and administrating schools, instead. Yunus (2012) found that principals spent less than a third of their time in supervision. Principals reported to have used only 20% of their time for visiting classes, curriculum related task and staff development activities. Ministry of Education clearly stated that as professional leaders, principals are responsible for successful curriculum implementation in their schools.

This objective could not possibly achieve unless the principals systematically supervise and make it a top priority to do so. Although, supervision can help to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning activities in classrooms, but not without problems. There are numerous of hindrances or obstacles. According to Abdul Shukor, (2001) some kind of conflict drifted the teacher being observed and the principals apart. Probably due to teachers attitude and perception that the principals are under qualified and from a different discipline of studies.

Some principals delegated the supervision responsibility to senior assistants. Hence, many problems crops up and much of the problems surrounding the area of study are still unexplained. Therefore this study is relevant, timely and necessary. In line with above problems, the objective of the study is trying to determine the relationship between the principals supervision effectiveness and curriculum implementation, teaching material preparation and upgrading of teachers professionalism.

According to Ogunu (2001), the number of supervisors/inspectors is inadequate and a good number of supervisors/inspectorates are said to be unqualified and are not well informed about their responsibilities due to lack of in service training and workshops. The result of these inadequacies is that the quality of instruction has progressively declined as evidenced by little or no staff welfare scheme, high labour turnover of teaching staff from teaching profession to other lucrative professions like banking sector, oil sector and multinationals companies, low staff morale, job insecurities for staff, non usage of modern supervisory equipments, bureaucracy, nepotism, non disciplinary action for erring staff and non pro active for future prospects of school supervisors in Nigeria.

It is against this background that the study sets out to examine relationship between principals supervisory roles and teachers’ job satisfaction in Lagos State secondary school District IV.

---

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study therefore is to examine the principals supervisory roles and teachers’ job satisfaction in Lagos State secondary school District III.

Specifically the study sets out to:

1. Examine the extent which principal’s supervisory roles will influence teachers’ job satisfaction in schools;
2. Find out whether teachers’ job satisfaction will significantly influence teachers’ productivity;
3. Determine if principal’s supervisory roles will enhance the teaching and learning in secondary schools, and iv. ascertain whether principal’s supervisory will influence teachers commitment to work in secondary schools.

---

1.4 Research Questions

The following research questions will be answered during the course of this study:

1. Will principal’s supervisory roles influence teachers’ job satisfaction in schools?
2. Will teachers’ job satisfaction significantly influence teachers’ productivity?
3. Will principal’s supervisory roles enhance the teaching and learning in secondary schools?
4. Will principal’s supervisory influence teachers commitment to work in secondary schools?

---

1.5 Research Hypotheses

Ho1: There is no significant relationship of principal’s supervisory roles on teachers’ job satisfaction in schools;

Ho2: There is no significant relationship between teachers’ job satisfaction and teachers’ productivity. Ho3: There is no significant relationship between principal’s supervisory roles and teaching and learning in secondary schools.

Ho4: There is no significant relationship between principal’s supervisory and teachers commitment to work in secondary schools.

---

1.6 Significance of the Study

This study will be of benefit to various school administrators, ministries of education and other affiliated government agencies.

The study will help various school administrators to understand the benefit of effective school supervision as a quality control measure at various levels of education. It will enable school administrators to know the best school supervision techniques to adopt in order to maintain standard academic performance and school effectiveness. It will also enhance school administrators to understand their position on their job towards effective routine supervision of teachers, non-teaching staff, and students’ academic performances.

The Ministry of Education will also benefit from this study through proper planning and implementation of supervision policies to various school management. The ministries will help in school supervision as a quality control measures through proper inspection and good interrelationship between school administrators and their teachers.

The government agencies will benefit from this study through provision of school facilities, conducive academic environment and improve standard of education. The need to strengthen efficient supervisory control measures at all levels of education is indispensable. Other beneficiaries include scholars of supervision who will gain more knowledge about areas of interest in supervision and which areas of the study to follow for further investigation.

---

1.7 Scope of Study

The scope of this study is on principals supervisory roles and teachers’ job satisfaction in Lagos State