SCHOOL SUPERVISION AND QUALITY ASSURANCE IN PUBLIC SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EDUCATION

Introduction

1.1 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: −

1. Ensuring that teachers perform their assigned functions effectively.
2. Ensuring that teachers are capable of carrying out their responsibilities.
3. Ensuring that new teachers receive training to enable them function effectively on the job.
4. Ensuring that teachers are given help whenever there is need.
5. Providing professional information to the teachers.
6. Guiding teachers to the sources of instructional materials.
7. Providing technical assistance to the teachers especially in the area of teaching methods and the use of instructional materials.
8. Ensuring that discipline is maintained during classroom instruction.
9. Helping or suggesting how to improve on the performance of incompetent teachers.
10. 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.

1.2 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.

1.3 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.

1.4 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

1.5 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.

1.6 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.

1.7 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.

1.8 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.