CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The changes in the educational sector in Nigeria demand that the school principals play a bigger and more important role in educational supervision. Mohd Salleh Lebar (2000), stated that educational supervision was not a new thing in Nigeria but has been in practice way back since the British colonial days. Those days schools were supervised by Visiting Teacher and School Inspectorate. Since that time, the interactions between inspectorate and teachers were already existed. The relationship was of democratic and good natured one.
As a matter of fact, in the educational administrative system in Nigeria, the supervision concept varies. The teaching colleges and university lecturers conducted the supervision in order to evaluate their trainee teachers for their practical teaching. Besides, the school inspectorate conducted the supervision for assessing teaching activities, organizing function, allocation of resources and overall management of the school (Yunus, 2012). Consequently, the inspectorate offered advices and recommendations to the principal for improvement. At the school level, supervision was normally done by either the principal, the headmaster or the senior teacher empowered by the authority. During the supervision, the principal may detect some malfunction or problems cropped-up in the school system. Generally, the supervisors’ duties are to guide, to upgrade teaching performance, as facilitators and to boost teachers’ morals.
Principal’s supervisory role is a critical issue in educational leadership. It involved lots of leadership aspects, identifying, supervision, teacher’s skills, students’ performance, the effectiveness of the school types and technical skills. Therefore, the role of a school administrator or a principal is to supervise, planning, developed competitive strategies for the school. Thus, a principal duty is very challenging and should be able to differentiate between administrative duty and management task.
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, advisor 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. One of the roles that principals need to play is to be able to carry out the best educational leadership possible.
A circular letter issued by the Ministry of Education in 2004, stated that it is a must for principals to conduct teaching supervision in their respective schools. Other than principals, the task may be delegated to senior assistants, afternoon supervisors and head of departments. According to Yunus, (2004) school administrators as educational supervisors’ duty encompasses three important aspects i.e. curriculum implementation, preparation of teaching materials and improving teachers professionalism in respective schools. In an effort to improve quality of education, school principals must devote special attention to teachers teaching task.
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 (Grauwe and Carron, 2004). The supervisors are delegated with a heavy responsibility of identifying rules and policies, staffing, training and development and employee performance. Thus supervisors should be well aware not only of the group’s goals vis a vis the goals of the organization but also on the tasks and activities of the team. Pierce and Rowell (2005) identified ten key tasks of supervisors that are linked to productivity these are: support for the growth of the team, inspiring unity, praise and commendation, setting a high bar for excellence, requiring accountability, verifying potential, instilling independence, continuous sharing and communication, optimizing ownership and reinforcing relationships. These tasks are applicable in all settings and types of organizations from the business industries, to not-for-profit organizations and educational institutions. Similarly, Grauwe and Carron, (2004) identified three factors that determine effectiveness of supervision on the efficiency of the work personnel. These are roles and function, organizational structure and the employees’ workload.
Peretomode (2005) stated that the school like any other organization has problems. The variety of problems which the school present can be identified through the process by which its functions are performed. Instructional supervision is one of the process by which school administration attempts to achieve acceptable standards of performance and results. It is the tool of quality control in the school, system. Nwankwo (2004) opined that supervision can be divided into categories. These are instructional 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 learner. 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.
Secondary school level is the bridge between the primary and tertiary levels. The importance of secondary education made the Federal Government to state the broad aims of secondary education as preparation for useful living within the society and for higher education. The underline principle here is that the secondary schools should be able to provide quality secondary education to all those who can benefit from it.
However, it appears that the secondary school teachers are not living up to expectation in discharging their obligations due to poor supervisory control by the Ministry of Education, problems which ranges from lack of commitment and dedication on the part of teaching staff, high attrition rate, low staff moral, inadequate facilities and infrastructures, many teaching staffs are not committed to their professional tasks, late payment and incentives to staff. Government parastatals i.e., Ministry of Education on the other hand contributes to the problems of school supervision which include inadequate funding to train and retrain inspectorate and school supervisors personnel, low morale of staff, poor supervision of schools and frequent changes in policies. poor remuneration of teachers, insufficient staffing/shortage of inspectors/school supervisors, lack of instructional materials and resources, lack of facilities for the school supervisors/inspectors of education to work with, lack of evaluation system, poor funding, political instability, constant change in educational policies, lack of adequate training for inspectors, nepotism of school supervisors. Teachers also contribute to the problem of supervision through the following ways: Unprofessional attitudes to work, lack of interest, lack of basic knowledge or formal training, numerous unqualified teachers.
Community and Society help in the problem of supervision through the following ways: Poor perception of the general public on teaching as profession, poor status given to the teachers, lack of proper interest of teaching staffs. All these observed problems above had been linked with the numerous problems bedeviling the school supervision system in Nigeria.
Omoregie (2005) lamented that the products of today’s secondary system can neither usefully live in the society nor move into higher institution without their parents’ aid or forgery. They cannot think for themselves or respect the views and feelings of others. They have no iota of dignity of labour except for things that will give them quick money.
It must be stressed that education cannot be an instrument par excellence for achieving national development where the secondary education is not effectively managed to accomplish its aims and objectives. In the administration of secondary schools, the principal is central. He is the man at the helms of the affairs who receives all praises (in terms of success) and blames (in terms of failure). According to Ibukun (1999), the jobs of the school principal in Nigeria has progressively become more complex and highly hazardous. In order to cope
with the ever-rising challenges of the system, the school principal must be ready to see himself as a change agent. According to Ajayi (2002a) and Omoregie (2005), secondary education in Nigeria is riddled with crises of various dimensions and magnitude all of which combine to suggest that the system is at crossroad.
The sudden explosion of students population coupled with the attendant increased complexity of the school organization and the introduction of the new school basic system of 6-3-3-4 or 9-3-4 system of education in the country has indeed necessitated a greater attention of supervision more than ever before. This is more so because school supervision occupies a unique place in the entire education system.