Abstract
The study sought to find out the influence of internal supervision in improving teacher effectiveness in secondary schools in Obollo-Afor Education Zone of Enugu State. Three research questions were raised and two null hypotheses formulated for this study. It dealth with the extent of teacher’s performance and the motivational practices used by the internal supervisors in ginering teachers into proper delivery of their duties. The design of the study was ex-post-facto design. The population comprised of 44 principals and 4,033 teachers in the zone. The sample constituted 50% of principals and 20% of teachers of the randomly selected schools. A 24 – item questionnaire were constructed and used in collecting the needed information which was generated at three levels. Means and t-test statistic were used for data analysis. Recommendations were made based on the findings, among which is that government should promptly pay teachers their salaries and allowances.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Education is seen as the biggest investment Nigeria can make in order to achieve development in the areas of economic, social and political affairs. It is also about the most essential service and a weapon of progress. Through the process of education, people became aware of the happenings within the environment and consequently manipulat such environment for survival. As this cannot happen in a vacuum, the society establishes schools in order to render this special service to the members.
Schools are established to stimulate desirable changes in the behaviour of the learners. In his words, Ukeje (1992) observed that the school is set up of control, through the manipulation of the environment, the development of the young towards ends that are regarded as desirable by the society. Stressing this point further, Glasser, (1977) in Nnamani (2001) asserted that the schools are the primary moulding place of our society and as such at the extremes, they mould either successful, strong and responsible citizens or weak, failing and irresponsible citizens as well.
The key actor in this process of moulding and stimulation of these desirable changes are the teachers whose main functions in the school include guiding, directing and stimulating desirable changes in the learners through instruction.
Instruction is one of the techniques a teacher uses to transmit knowledge to the learners. Today most of these teachers have abandoned these roles under the pretence of irregular payment of salaries and allowances and have restored to looking for other ways of survival and existence. Ocho (1990) noted that some of them now exist as ghost teachers, truant staff, businessmen and women.
According to him, these teachers equally engage in the host of other debilitating vices in the educational systems and this happens mostly at the secondary school level and calls for adequate internal checks or supervision. Perhaps that is why Ndu, Ocho, Okeke (1999) wrote that there is no gain saying the fact that poor quality teachers need supervision so as to improve their performance on the job. Explaining further, these authors stated that supervision also brings about improvement in teacher performance and this naturally lead to a corresponding improvement on the performance of the students themselves.
Supervision of what goes on in an institution brings about efficiency and effectiveness. Ukeje (1992) asserted that for schools to be effective and for the teachers to achieve the objectives, they need some-one who will be an authority in the art of teaching and administration, some-one who will be patient listener, a sympathetic observer, a sensitive but competent helper, a resourceful director and an objective evaluation. In the same vein, Maduewesi (1990) stated that for any piece of work to end up successfully, supervision of what goes on is very necessary at the secondary school level.
Internal supervision is the role of the principal, vice-principal, dean of studies and the sectional heads of departments. Confirming this, Akubue (1995) asserted that this function of guiding, helping, directing and stimulating the activities of the teachers as a way of monitoring the effectiveness of the school and the teacher lies on the supervisors.
At this juncture, it becomes imperative to ask the question, what is supervision and who supervisees? Supervision of instruction has been defined by Nwaogu (1980) in Obinna (2006) as a process or an activity whereby an individuals or a group or a team of individuals by means of advising and stimulating interests in the teachers and students, help to improve teaching and learning situations in educational institutions. Supervision of instruction is a vital process by means of which advice, direction and discussion help to see that available resources – manpower, finance and capital equipment are utilized for the achievement of educational objectives. Instructional supervision attaches itself into the teaching and learning process by over-seeing what is taught, how it is taught, and the impact of what is taught on the learner (Akubue, 1998).
Supervision of instruction in essence is a quality control measure meted out to co-ordinate, guide and direct all efforts of teachers thereby ensuring quality, effectiveness, efficiency, stimulation and growth of all involved in this process.
Supervision of instruction takes two major dimensions, namely; Internal and External supervision. Within the context of this study, only internal supervision will be discussed fully as it affects teacher effectiveness in secondary schools. In other words internal supervision is that aspect of supervision that directly focuses on the teacher and what he does in the classroom aimed at improving his effectiveness. This is the reason why Aminu (1998) asserted that teacher supervision is essentially carried out by the principal and his vice to ensure that the teacher is doing what he is supposed to do within the context of the overall education policy and conducted internally. Therefore, supervision conducted by the principal as the head of the institution or those delegated by him to do so is hereby identified as internal supervision.
Fafunwa (1977) in Olisa (1999) noted that this grassroots approach enables the head of the institution or his appointee to work more directly with the teachers and in this advantageous position, they are able to enhance the teachers efforts in promoting the quality of educational programme. Since the efficiency of any school system depends entirely on its managerial administrative competence, the school head and his delegate is the key person in operational terms to put to practical reality, the policies and discussions taken at the upper part of the administrative ladder.
The school head achieves this through regular visits to the classroom to observe teachers carrying out instruction. Whether there is a quiet atmosphere in the classroom and whether there appears to be a positive attitude or discipline from within depends on management. The school head or his agents in the system should do the grassroot supervision of helping teachers with lesson planning, presentation and evaluation (Mgbodile, 1992). Elaborating on this, he contends that in the areas of lesson planning, he is expected to look into the extent to which each of the planning skills is processed and practiced, where as at the lesson presentation, he looks at the impact of the beginning and end relevance of materials and methods used, their appropriateness for the learner. For evaluation, he looks at the evaluation skills of teachers.
The major task involved in this type of supervision include immediate feedback to teachers on how well they are doing on their job, and the enhancement in professional teaching. Individual or group conferences to impart new skills to teachers, classroom demonstration of the innovations in teaching and methodologies etc. Denga, (1988). According to Eneasator (1988), the advantage of this type of supervision is that it is both real and down-to-earth as both the teachers and the students directly feel the impact of either the head or his appointee. It brings the teachers and the school authorities into close contact.
Internal supervision is, therefore, a service rendered to teachers, which is directed towards controlling the quality of his class instruction, hence no school can achieve greater effectiveness without the teachers being effective. Therefore, this study seeks to identify possible influences internal supervision by the school heads and their delegates have on teacher effectiveness in Obollo-Afor education zone.
Statement of the problem
Supervision is a major aspect of personnel administration in schools. In secondary schools, the principal is the administrative head while the vice-principal and dean of studies assist him in the day-to-day administration of the school. Some sectional heads of department are appointed by the principal based on seniority and experiences. Their supervisory roles which is very internal relates to students growth and is expected to improve teacher competence and skills within the school to ensure effectiveness on the part of the teachers.
Internal supervision is expected to be carried out much more regularly than external supervision which activities can be questioned on the ground that: it is unlikely to have deep insight into teachers problems because of the short period of time they stay; no time to meticulously check the records of the teachers; the visit of the external supervisor is usually preceded by stampede approach in which lots of lapses and loopholes are cleverly covered with a number of cosmetic arrangement which threatens the validity of their reports. For instances, external supervisor on arrival may be presented with gift items and sumptuous entertainment before he starts his duty to divert his attention from such lapses. Giving dates of visit to the school head may equally lead to bending in a special way, the rules and regulations of supervision in school so as to favour defaulting teachers and so renders the end report of external supervision invalid.
Finally, as a result of these shortfalls in performance of external supervisors, it is felt that a more effective supervisory control is the one conducted by internal supervisors in the person of the school heads and their agents, which will enhance teacher effectiveness, even though determining teacher effectiveness is problematic (Akubue, 1988). In his words, Denga (1992) attesting this, says, methods of appraising teacher effectiveness have been subject to several pitfalls and difficulties. Continuing, he said that one of such difficulties is that the results of these methods do not show consistency when research is replicated and that results surface even when experimental conditions are similar to those under which the previous appraisal was administered.
Purpose of the study
The main purpose of the study is to identify the influence of internal supervision on teacher effectiveness in secondary schools in Obollo-Afor education zone of Enugu state.
Specifically, the researcher wishes to investigate the influence of internal supervision by secondary school head on the following indicators of teacher effectiveness:
- The supervisory functions of internal supervisors in secondary schools;
- The importance of internal supervision towards improving teacher effectiveness.
