CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
The issue of quality in any education system cannot be compromised. The quality of educational administrators (principals), teachers and learners (students) in any nation determines the quality of its citizenry.
The changes in the educational sector in Nigeria, especially in education district five (v) demands that the school principals play a bigger and more important role in educational supervision.
(Grauwe and Carron, 2004) states that 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.
Ajayi (1985) describes school principal’s opinion of school inspectors as that of a feeling of superiority on the part of inspectors whose interest is only in the well-being of students with no consideration for teachers.
Principal’s supervisory role is a critical issue in educational leadership. It involves lots of leadership aspects, identifying, supervision, teacher’s skills, students’ performance, the effectiveness of the types and technical skills.
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, adviser 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.
Nwankwo (2004) opined that supervision can be divided into categories. These are instructed 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 learners.
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.
Principals are responsible for the administration of admission, health, lunchroom, textbooks, supplies, records and many other auxiliaries in the educational system. Therefore, the role of a school administrator or a principal is to supervise, planning, developed competitive strategies for the school. The principal is this faced with the responsibility of supervising teachers generally to improve their instructional effectiveness, make recommendations and also manage both human and material resources towards achieving the principal as the head of the school as the architect of the quality of activities in the school and the quality of academic achievement of students depends on the quality of instructional performance.
Statement of the Problem
The ultimate goal of Junior or Senior Secondary Education is to develop the individuals’ mental capacity and character for higher education and useful living within the society (FRN: NPE, 4th edition, 2004). In spite of the societal demand for quality assurance, that is, the process of ensuring effective resource output, control refining the process and raising the standards of output in order to meet the set goal and satisfy public accountability likewise, the need for thorough supervision instead, there is a growing concern about the realization of secondary education objectives due to doubt that many principals give little attention to supervision of instructional activities in secondary schools.
Consequently, there have been steady decline in teachers’ instructional task performance and students’ academic performance which depicts non-realization of quality assurance in secondary schools (Ajayi 2002). It is against this nature, that the study sets out to examine principals supervisory task and academic performance of JSS 3 students in District V. Lagos State. The identified gaps and challenges include the followings.
· Lack of commitment to supervision by many principals
· Lack of proper monitoring and evaluation of students’ learning outcomes.
· Inadequate training facilities to develop teachers for professional growth and increased productivity.
· Lack of adoption of code of conduct for learners (students).
Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study is to examine the principals supervisory duties at large and the effect to academic performance to JSS 3 students in Lagos State District V.
Specifically the study sets out to:
· Examine the extent at which principals duties in the school system.
· Find out whether principals’ supervision towards teachers will significantly influence teachers’ productivity.
· Determine if principals’ administrative roles will enhance the teaching and learning in secondary schools.
· Ascertain whether principal’s supervisory will influence teachers commitment to work in secondary schools.
Research Questions
The following research questions will be answered during the course of this study.
· Will principal’s competency to work influence the learning habit in schools?
· Will principal’s supervision towards teachers significantly influence teachers productivity?
· Will principal’s administrative roles enhance the teaching and learning in secondary schools?
· Will principal’s supervisory influence teachers commitment to work in secondary schools?