Chapter One
Introduction
Background of the Study
Supervision of instruction is a process of giving and receiving help in an effort to improve instruction. It refers to the constant and continuous monitoring of the performance of school staff, noting the merits, demerits and using available technique to ameliorate the flaws found in teaching and learning situations. This helps to increase the level of schools academic performance thereby achieving educational goals. Supervision is an educational exercise which motivates the teacher and measures the extent to which the curriculum has been covered (Azi 2008). It helps to create a cordial working relationship between the teachers and school heads.
Supervision can also be described as the process of bringing about improvement in instruction by working with people who are working with pupils. Udeze (2005) described supervision as a necessary task in any human establishment meant to achieve the set organizational goals. The average human being has an inherent dislike for work and will avoid it if he can (McGregor 1960). Supervision is necessitated by the inherent characteristics of man since most people must be coerced, controlled and even threatened with punishment to get them to put forth adequate effort towards the achievement of organizational objectives.
In the business world, supervision is employed to direct and motivate workers to perform efficiently so as to achieve the organizational goals. According to Kotler (2007) supervision is the expression of the employer’s natural and continuous interest in the activities of their agents. Through supervision, employers hope to direct and motivate the workforce to do a better job. For industrialist, supervision involves the element of foremanship, that is, the ability of an individual to select, motivate, discipline and correct employees in a manner that satisfies the objectives of the enterprise with maximum efficiency (Grant 2006). The above exposition of supervision in other areas outside education shows basically that supervision involves the manager having to observe the activities of his or her subordinates to achieve the set objective.
In educational parlance, supervision is carried out by school supervisors, which may be internal or external. A supervisor according to Olusegun (2003) is one usually designated by the school organization to interact with the members of the teaching-behaviour system in other to improve the quality of learning of students. In fulfilling this role he expertise action by promoting harmony between students and staff and at the same time helps to establish effective communication among those concerned. The view of Bala (2005) is also helpful in understanding contemporary meaning of supervisor. He posits that a supervisor provides inspiration for new ideals and also encourages members of staff to look at the extent to which ideas or resources are being shared. By these definitions, the principals, subject heads, classroom teachers and even parents are all supervisors in their capacities as internal change agent. As internal change agent, they initiate instructional innovations as well as applying these innovations and evaluating the instructions for purpose of seeking positive learning outcomes. The external supervisors are officials designated for supervisory positions whose sole responsibility is to visit schools for routine supervisory activities to ensure enhanced performance in teaching and learning. Here, they are the Chief Supervising Principals, Officials of the Ministry of Educations and the Supervising Principals. Both the internal and external supervisors in schools are vested with the sole authority of improving teaching and learning through classroom visitation, conferences with teachers and students, research or co-operative investigation of educational problems.
Supervision of instruction is a programme designed to ensure quality control of teaching and learning that takes place in the classroom. It is bound to ensure the efficiency of learning and the improvement of teaching services (Almond 2006: 180). Supervision of instruction has to do with seeing that meaningful learning is taking place in all the classes, and that teachers are teaching what they are supposed to teach in a manner that students will understand. Supervision is described by Mgbodile (2004) as the backbone of effective teaching and learning. According to Lovels (2002), supervision of instruction is calculated to influence directly and purposively teacher-behaviour in such a way as to facilitate student learning.
Supervision of instruction is described as all efforts of designated officials towards providing leadership, to teachers stimulating their professional growth and evaluating instructions and curriculum. The designated officials are those who are officially appointed and delegated with full powers of supervisory control. Supervision tries to control who is taught, what is taught to the learner (Akubue 2008). These officials are the Zonal supervisors and the School heads or principals who are charged with the supervision of the classroom activities of the teachers to improve the performance of the learners or students. According to Good, Supervision of instruction refers to all efforts of designated school officials directed towards providing leadership to teachers and other educational workers in the improvement of instruction.
It involves the stimulation of professional growth and development of teachers, the selections of and revision of educational objectives, materials instruction and method of teaching and evaluation of instruction (Good, 2006; 69).
In the Federal Republic of Nigeria National Policy on Education (FRN, 2004), Supervision of instruction is described as one of the processes of achieving qualitative education. It is clearly stated in this document that the success of any educational programme is hinged on efficient supervision of instruction. It is the set of activities designed to improve the teaching learning situations or processes in schools (Okugbe 2006). It is generally recognized as one of the activities directed towards maintaining and improving teaching and learning in secondary schools.
Nsukka Education zone, which forms the focus of this study, comprises Nsukka, Igbo-Etiti and Uzo Uwani Local Government Areas. The Zone has zonal Supervisors, Chief Supervisory Principals as the head and the principals of each school that carry out a routine external and internal supervision of the secondary schools in their zones and schools respectively.
These designated officials of the school discharges or carries out their functions in different ways which may be clinical supervision,
investigative supervision, on the spot supervision, examination or routine supervision. Nakpodio (2009) asserts that, supervision is meant to inspect teaching and learning rather than the teacher. The school supervisors are tasked among other things, to improving instruction in school during supervisory processes.
From the prescription of the National policy on Education (FRN, 2004), for a continuous supervision to ensure quality control, the question that arises now is, how regular and continuous are those entrusted with supervision of instruction carryout this task in the zone? How have the internal and external supervisors helped to ensure quality of standard in schools. This question is very imperative to this study as WAEC Chief Examiners Report (2009) noted that the results of 2009 candidate were very poor as 85% of them failed English and Mathematics. This shows that the teachers and the supervisors are not up and doing in their jobs. There is therefore the need to bridge the gap between the supervisory practices of school supervisors and the high performance expectations of the students in the zone. Put differently, how effective and efficient have the Principals and Zonal Supervisors been in the conduct of supervision of instruction in secondary school in Nsukka Education Zone?
Statement of Problem
Supervision of instruction plays an important role to the attainment of the National Policy on Education. This is exemplified by huge budgetary allocation to the sector by the government yearly but, there seems to be widespread dissatisfaction among major stakeholders on the level of performance of students in public examinations.
The motivating factor for embarking on this research study is therefore borne out of the poor performance of the secondary school students in Examinations conducted by West Africa Examination Council’s and the National Examination Council in Nsukka Education Zone. This has currently evoked complaints from members of the public. This is attributed to the common knowledge among academics, parents, governments and general public that the quality and standard of education in Nigeria has fallen. Adelabu (2009) noted that a preponderant majority of candidates failed external examination yearly. This signifies that something is wrong with both internal and external supervision of instruction in secondary schools. The proportion of candidates who sit for the West African Examination council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) and qualify for admission into tertiary institutions is very low. Almost every year, the Chief Examiner’s Report for WAEC and NECO highlight the abysmal poor performance at the Senior School Certificate Examination (UNICEF 2009). Added to this, poor performance in public examinations is the widespread vice of examination malpractice- which is indication of poor and inadequate supervision in schools. The Chief Examiner’s report of 2009 WAEC shows that only 8,632 candidates out of 757,222 representing 1.1% obtained a minimum of five credits which is a requirement for admission into the universities while an almost equal proportion, which is 1.2%, qualify for admission into polytechnics with a minimum of only four credits. According to Udeja (2010) the result of the NECO Examination 2009 conducted in Nigeria shows that 75% of students failed mathematics and English language. This downward performance shows that the supervisors do not actually perform their statutory functions of monitoring the classroom activities of the teachers. To worsten the situations, the supervisory network of the school supervisors is nothing to write home about. The truancy level of teachers among other reasons account for the poor performance of students in the examinations.
The Chief Examinations Report (WAEC 2009) also attributed the current poor performance in Examinations by students to inadequate supervision of instruction in schools. By implication, supervisory activities of the Zonal Supervisors and the principals have been challenged with these current trends.
It is also observed that rapid changes are taking place in the school in line with the 6, 9, 4 system of Education (Johnson 2007). The teachers and the learners should be kept abreast with the changes in teaching and learning methods, rapid changes in curriculum, increase in students population, the need to prevent examination malpractice and related offences through constant supervision of instruction.
This study therefore, posed as a question “What are the measures to improve supervision of instruction in secondary schools in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State?” This study is relevant so as to bridge the gap between the services rendered by supervisions of schools and the performance enhancement needs of the students in the Zone.
Purpose of Study
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the measures of improving Supervision of instruction in Secondary Schools in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State: specifically, the study will:
- Identify supervisory practices in Secondary Schools.
- Identify the problems of supervision of instruction.
- Identify measure of improving supervision of instruction.
Significance of the Study
The beneficiaries of this research study will be the policy makers, school heads or principals, teachers, supervisors of schools and future researchers. The findings of this research study will enable the policy makers on education to fashion out ways of improving supervision of instruction in schools within the zone and beyond. This is to ensure higher achievement level by the students. The policy makers will benefit through sensitization programmes like workshops, seminars, conference organized on the need for supervision of instruction in schools.
The school heads will also benefit from this research study. As internal supervisors, the findings of this research study will enable them acquire better skills required for effective supervision of instruction. These skills will enhance the achievement level or learning outcomes of the students as teachers will be better equipped with more refined instructional skills in the classroom. The internal supervisors will benefit through conferences, seminars organized based on the findings of this research study aimed at improving supervision of instruction.
The teachers will benefit immensely from this research study. The negative attitude which teachers have on supervisors, and the entire scheme will be addressed to in order to improve teaching and learning positively. The teachers will appreciate the need for supervision of instruction in order to improve or enhance teaching and learning at the classroom level. This can be done from the conferences, workshops and in service training programmes organized for teachers on the need for supervision of instruction in secondary schools. The findings will also enable the teachers to perceive supervision of instruction as a veritable tool designed to improve the performance of both teachers and the students in the school system.
The zonal supervisors will immensely benefit from this study. Just like the school heads/principals as internal supervisors, they will acquire the necessary skills needed for affective and efficient discharge of their functions. The external supervisors acquire skills like managerial, human relations, technical and communication skill via conferences, workshops organized following the findings of this research study.
The future researchers in Education will also benefit from this research study. The suggestions for further studies provided by the researcher will provide a spring board for future researchers to venture into other avenues of overhauling the supervisory scheme in secondary schools. This helps to turn around the state of students current poor performance to what is expected in line with the Federal Government Policy on Education (FRN, 2004).
