ABSTRACT
The main purpose of the study was to appraise quality assurance practices in secondary schools in Delta State. To achieve this, seven research questions and seven corresponding null hypothesis were formulated to guide the study. Descriptive survey design was employed for the study. The population for the study was 527 subjects comprising of 452 secondary school principals and 75 school evaluators from Post Primary Education Board. Due to the manageable size of the population, the whole population was used. The instrument for data collection was a researcher-developed questionnaire titled “Appraisal of Quality Assurance Practices Questionnaire (AQAPQ). The questionnaire was structured and designed on a four-point scale. Three experts face-validated the instrument. In the course of the validation, some items were expunged, some re-structured and new ones provided by the experts, before the final draft of the instrument. In order to determine the reliability of the instrument it was trial tested on 20 secondary school principals from the neighboring Anambra State. Crombach’s Alpha method of reliability was adopted. The reliability coefficient obtained from clusters A-G were, 0.75, 0.74, 0.73, 0.85, 0.94, 0.95 respectively; while the over-all reliability co-efficient was 0.96 which was deemed high enough to make the instrument reliable. Data were analysed using both descriptive and parametric statistics. Mean scores and standard deviations were used to answer the research questions while t-test statistics was used to test the null-hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that; physical facilities are not adequately provided in secondary schools; teachers are not professionally developed as supposed, curriculum as found out, is not very relevant to learners’ needs. Fund is not sufficiently provided for secondary education; schools relate well with the host community; whole school evaluation is adequately carried out and motivation of teachers is not taken very good care of. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher recommends that the state government should provide enough fund for proper management of quality assurance practices, which will result in the achievement of educational goals. Management of Post Primary Education Board should ensure that teachers are developed professionally by organizing seminars, workshops, conferences, the Ministry of education staff should review the curriculum, so that it can equip students with technical and vocational skills which will lead to self improvement. Teacher’s motivation should be taken care of by awarding prizes to hardworking teachers, providing teachers’ security needs and giving letters of recommendation to deserving teachers. This will motivated them to perform their duties very well for optimal result.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
In every modern societies, education is seen as a vehicle for achieving socio – economic growth, progress and national development. According to Mgbodile (2004), advanced nations of the world attained their high level of social, economic, scientific and technological advancement through well planned and implemented educational systems. It is against this background that Okolo (2010) sees education as the key to solid development of the individual for the acquisition of competencies necessary for maximum self development and national development. Osuji (2004) posits that the essence of education is the harmonious development of an individual’s physical, mental, spiritual and social abilities so that he or she is equipped to offer useful services to God and humanity. Therefore, the importance of education in any society cannot be over-emphasized.
Nigeria’s educational system consists of different educational levels among which is the secondary education. The Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004) in her National Policy on Education defined secondary education as the form of education children receive after primary education and before the tertiary stage. According to Ogbonnaya (2003), secondary education refers to full – time education provided in secondary schools usually for pupils between the ages of eleven or twelve and eighteen plus. From these definitions, one can deduce that secondary education is the form of formal education which children receive after they have received primary school education.
The Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004) in her National Policy’ on Education articulated the broad goals of secondary education as comprising: the preparation of students for useful living within the society, and for higher education; offering diversified curriculum to cater for the differences in talents, opportunities and future roles; providing trained manpower in the applied science, technology and commerce at sub-professional grades; and fostering national unity, among others. It is noteworthy that the achievement of these laudable goals of secondary education depends, to a large extent, on effective and efficient quality assurance measures in secondary schools. Fadokun (2005) defined quality in education as the efficiency of an educational provision in meeting its goals as well as its relevance to human and societal conditions. This means that quality is an index of evaluation which shows that the outcome of education project or service is deemed satisfactory by its stakeholders. To ensure that quality is maintained, some selected and planned activities are carried out by people recognized by the stake holders. These measures are referred to as quality assurance mechanism.
Quality assurance has been conceptualized by Chesapeak (2004) as consciously selected and systematically planned activities carried out by an organization with a view to ensuring that its product or service is of the type and quality needed and expected by its users, Nwizu (2011) sees quality assurance in education as those actions that educational institutions undertake to ensure that they provide required standard of education in order to provide quality manpower for national development. The Federal Inspectorate Service of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, FRN (2009) in its quality assurance handbook stated that quality assurance involves the process of monitoring, assessing and evaluating according to agreed standard, and communicating judgments obtained to all concerned in order to ensure quality and integrity, public accountability and consistent improvement. Hence, Education Quality Assurance is the process of collecting, analyzing and utilizing relevant educational information in order to ensure that stated or pre-determined educational goals or targets are achieved optimally. As used in this study, quality assurance practices refer to those actions which secondary schools undertake to ensure that they provide the required standard of education that will be relevant to the needs of both learners and the society in general.
Quality assurance practices in secondary schools have been conceptualized by different people. Ogbonna (2008) sees quality assurance practices as the measures by which an educational system ensures that the education it delivers will serve or meet the purposes for which it is intended. Fadipe (2009) viewed quality assurance practices in secondary schools as the strategies adopted by these schools to ensure high academic standards and meet the challenges of globalization. Adegbesan (2011) maintained that quality assurance practices are concerned within maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of educational systems and services vis-a-vis their contexts, missions and identified objectives.
The above conceptualizationsof quality assurance clearly indicate that quality assurance in education takes a holistic view of a school system and encompasses all activities carried out by the stakeholders in education in order to effectively and efficiently realize the goals of education. This study intends to examine some of these quality assurance activities carried out by stakeholders in secondary education with a view to determining the extent to which they are carried out in Delta State.
In educational institutions in general, and secondary schools in particular quality assurance can be carried out in two ways. In support of this assertion, Uzodinrna (2008) categorized quality assurance into internal and external quality assurance. Uzodinrna defined internal quality assurance as those practices or activities carried out by an institution itself in order to ensure high academic standards, while external quality assurance are those practices or activities carried out by external controlling agencies to ensure high academic standards in schools. Thus, quality assurance in secondary schools is operationally defined in this study as all the activities or practices carried out by administrators of secondary schools or their delegates as well as their external controlling agencies in order to ensure that the education the schools provide is of the right quality that will meet the needs and aspirations of all the stakeholders in education. This is why stakeholders in education place great importance on quality assurance. The need for quality assurance in secondary schools in particular and education in general cannot be over-emphasized. The Federal Inspectorate Service of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Education (2009) articulated the need for quality assurance in secondary and basic education as to;
• ensure quality teaching; monitor the level of learning achievement and other educational programme;
• ascertain that the approved curriculum is operational in schools and that stated objectives arc being achieved,
• provide regular report on the state of education,
• provide proper and adequate physical facilities and equipment,
• provide professional support to teachers, and to school administrators,
• identify and share best practices among relevant stakeholders, and
• build capacities of evaluators and teachers in schools.( p.18)
An analysis of the foregoing need for quality assurance in secondary schools in particular and education in general clearly illustrates that quality assurance plays a catalytic role in the effective and efficient realization of educational aims and objectives. No wonder the huge emphasis now laid on quality assurance in secondary schools, on the basis of which the present study has become imperative in order to determine the extent it is being practiced in secondary schools. It is also noteworthy that the high importance attached to quality assurance in secondary schools as an effective instrument for the attainment of educational goals has resulted in calls for principals and evaluators to establish quality assurance measures in secondary schools.
