EFFECT OF INSTRUCTIONAL MANAGERIAL DUTIES OF PRINCIPALS ON TEACHERS PERFORMANCE IN PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN  KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA   

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the “Influence of Instructional Supervisory Role Performance of Principals on teachers performance in Private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State, Nigeria” the objectives of the study were to examine the influence of supervisory role performance of principals on teachers’ lesson plan, find out the influence of  supervisory role performance of principals on classroom visitation and determine the influence of supervisory role performance of principals on teachers use of instructional materials in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State, Four (4) research questions and four (4) hypotheses were raised for the study, Descriptive survey research design was used in   the study. The population for the study was One Thousand Two Hundred and Fifty-Four (1254) respondents, comprised of 72 principals, 1,168 teachers and 14 ministries of education officials. A sample of 386 respondents (22 principals, 350 teachers, and14 Ministry of Education officials) was selected using simple random sampling techniques. A structured questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale was used for data collection. Supervisors and professionals in the department validated the questionnaire. Pilot study was carried out in Giwa education zone. The data for pilot study was analyzed. The bio data of the respondents were analyzed using simple percentage and frequency while descriptive statistics (mean score and standard deviation) was used to answer the research questions. One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test all null hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level of significance. Out of four hypotheses tested, two were retained while two were rejected. Findings revealed that instructional supervisory roles of principal’s on teacher” lesson plan influenced their performance, principal’s classroom visitation influenced teachers” performance and Principal’s supervisory roles on the use of instructional materials influenced teacher’s performance. The research concluded that instructional supervisory roles of principal’s influence teacher’s performance in private secondary schools in Kaduna State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that. Educational administrators and school owners should organize seminars, workshops and in service to educate principals of both private and public secondary schools on the current and new format of writing lesson plan and improve their instructional supervision in the school system. Instructional materials like textbooks needed for effective teaching and learning should be made available to schools, adequately supervised by the principals, and effectively utilized by the teachers.

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

A simple way of appreciating education is that it is a tool or a necessary weapon for every human being to acquire for navigating the complex world without which the individual may get lost in it or live in darkness without being blind (Aguba, 2009:25).It is the biggest instrument for academic progress, social mobilization, political survival and effective national development of any country and constitutes the single largest enterprise in the country like Nigeria (Akpa, 2002:54).Secondary education is the education children receive after primary education and before the tertiary stage within the age range of 12 to 18 years. The broad goals are to prepare the individual for useful living within the society and higher education under the context of the 6-33-4 system of education (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004: 18-20).

Supervision is as old as the school system. Supervision has undergone series of evolution since the colonial era. It is directed towards sustaining teaching and learning process in the educational system. This is because education plays an essential role in the growth and development of any nation socially, politically and economically (Akinwumi, 2002). opines that supervision is the art of overseeing the teaching-learning process making sure that the school is administered and managed that will lead to an effective achievement of educational objectives. He stressed that supervision as a field of educational practice with clearly delineated roles and responsibilities did not fall from the sky fully formed, rather supervision emerged slowly as a distinct practice, always in relation to the institutional academic, cultural and professional dynamics that have historically generated to the complex agenda of schooling.

To effectively provide education, there is need to ensure that the educational system is reliable. Reliability in terms of educational system can only be enhanced through supervision. According to Peretomode (2001:184) supervision can be divided into two 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 motivating staff in the school towards performing their duties optimally in terms of the achievement of the stated aims and objectives of the educational system.

The goal of secondary education as stipulated in the National Policy on Education (FRN, 2004) is to provide the highest level of basic education geared towards preparing the child for future challenges in tertiary institutions and in the society”. As such, instructional supervision programme are imperative as the quality of education system is measured by how well the system performs the functions of achieving the goals of education in the country. Instructional supervision ensures improved teaching and learning. To achieve improved teaching and learning process, therefore, requires supervision to help teachers develop a new set of instructional methodology. Moreover, in this era of constant change that require teachers to be abreast with modern trends in their subject areas, ensuring quality in the school is possible through instructional supervision. The importance of supervision of instruction as a leadership process to stimulate, guide and assist teachers and, in fact, to improve instructional interactions is captured by Akublu(2008) that the educational leader as a supervisor has the responsibility for improving the school curriculum through cooperative planning of educational opportunities provided for education. He has to improve instruction using classroom visitations, individual and group conferences and demonstrations. These techniques were related to the broad strategies or approaches to supervision – clinical supervisions and microteaching.

Therefore, supervision is associated with the overall development of the teacher to grow professionally to be able to carry out his teaching exercise effectively and efficiently, thus improving learning in secondary schools. It involves technical services primarily aimed at studying and improving cooperatively all factors, which affect child growth and development. Through the means of supervision, we improve instruction, stimulate professional growth and develop teachers to be able to utilize the appropriate materials of instruction and methods of teaching in schools. The essence of a good instructional supervision, therefore, is to help a teacher to attain a better teaching-learning situation. It is also aim at providing conditions that are necessary for quality learning through effective teaching.

The need to supervise the instructional process cannot be over emphasized; hence, Ezeocha (2000) is of the view that most of the school‟s activities and all the school programmes require supervision. Supervision of instruction is a process of assisting the teachers to improve himself and his instructional abilities to enhance effective teaching and learning (Afianmagbon, 2007). It is a service rendered to teachers, which is directed towards controlling the quality of their classroom instruction. Supervision of instruction aims at identifying areas of work that need to be improved upon. Supervision of instruction is important for a number of reasons. To him; “the supervisee learns during supervision, since the supervisor is more knowledgeable, he corrects and advises the supervisee. This is done through friendly interaction. It also enhances personal professional growth of the teacher since interaction and greater knowledge gained at supervision promotes personal growth”.

Instructional Supervision can be done through internal supervisors who are Heads of schools, their assistants, and the Heads of departments, or through External supervisors who are, resource persons and consultants like University Professors, Education researchers, curriculum consultants and designated officials from the Secondary School Management Board. If there is effective instructional supervision there is a greater possibility of achieving the set goals, on the other hand a defective instructional supervision or poor instructional supervision will impede a successful implementation of the school programme. Instructional supervision is a great determinant of a school‟s quality; it can affect it either positively or negatively (Chiagha, 2008)

The importance of instructional supervisory role performance of secondary school principals in today‟s educational system cannot be overemphasized.  There has been a consensus view that many differences exist between the schools of the past and those of the present especially in Kaduna State, which is well known as „Centre of Learning‟ among other states in Nigeria. In a way, the teachers have attributed this to the explosion of students‟ population in private Secondary schools and the level of commitment.  Consequently, the present school system is unable to cope with the increasing welfare responsibilities of both staff (teachers) and students. Management expects employees to be motivated towards increased production; the same is also applicable to the school system.  Principals are expected to motivate the teachers under them for the effective achievement of educational goals and objectives.  Today, moral decadence and other social vices have become very prevalent in the school system.  All these shortcomings have been blamed on the school principals. Parents expect the school to provide solution to these problems as the school is considered to be an agent of change within Nigerian society, and of course all over the world.  The only way therefore to achieve this change is through principals‟ supervisory role performance and well-motivated teachers. In olden days, instructional supervisory role of principals was little because schools were small.  With increased demand for education and consequent large enrolment of students particularly in the urban areas, secondary schools grew to have many teachers and many classrooms. The need then arose for someone to coordinate the activities of the school by supervising the other teachers in an effort to improve educational instruction (Ezedi, 1995).

Instructional supervision is an internal mechanism adopted by principals for school selfevaluation geared towards helping teachers and students within and outside the classroom. The primary aim is to monitor the implementation of curricular and ensure desirable increase in teachers capabilities upgrade their conceptual knowledge and teaching skills, give them support in their work to facilitate better performance in teachers pedagogical practices and students learning outcomes in the school setting ( Adetula, 2005,).

David (2009) stressed that a teacher who is committed to his duties demonstrate zeal to work, punctuality to school, have full knowledge of the subject to teach and getting lesson plan ready before teaching. He further stressed that a committed teacher is always full of confident, stimulating and responsible and willing to perform his duties diligently.

It is obvious that the position and importance of supervision in schools cannot be overemphasized considering the history of school supervision in Kaduna State. It is against this background that the researcher has interest to study the assessment of instructional supervisory role performance of principalsinprivate secondary schools in Kaduna State.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The ultimate goal of secondary education is to develop the individual„s mental capacity and character for higher education and useful living within the society (FRN,2004). In spite of the societal demand for effective Instructional supervisory role of principals in both public and private Schools in Nigerian system of education, 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, in Kaduna State the current stage of teaching in private secondary schools is effective. A number of factors have been identified to explain differential achievements and causes of poor teaching activities in private secondary schools, but one factor which need further investigation is the style of principal‟s supervisory roles performance especially in the supervision of lesson plan, use of instructional materials, classroom visitation and monitoring of teachers punctuality which form the core schools teaching and learning activities.

Inadequate supervision of teachers‟ scheme of work has effect on the teaching and learning activity because, it is rather more detailed document than the syllabus, in addition to the content to be taught, it outlines how teaching should be done in schools. Hence, poor supervision of teachersscheme of work makes teachers to take topics at random regardless of their relevance and consequently makes the teaching and learning disjointed and boring. It is also shown that, inadequate classroom visitation supervision of teachers punctuality causes failure in the attainment of instructional objectives because, the main purpose of the principalsclassroom visitation and supervision of teacher‟s punctuality is to guide and direct the activities of the teaching and learning in the school and to discourage absenteeism, truancy and unwanted behavior of the teachers and students. Therefore, regular principals classroom visitation and teachers` punctuality helps to achieve instructional objectives within the educational settings.

The poor academic performance of students in secondary schools has been a source of great concern to all stakeholders in the education sector. It is heart-rending when one considers the huge amount of money parents spend in the education of their children who don‟t produce commensurate performance in their academics to match the huge investments made on them. Kaduna State shares in this problem of the education sector despite its huge financial involvement in the sector.

In Kaduna State Private Secondary Schools, there have been series of non-challant attitude of principals toward their supervisory roles, which has led to many teachers and students not being punctual to school. According to Jimoh (2007) opines that Failure on the part of the principal‟s supervision of teachers‟ preparation of lesson plan before teaching has made them not to organize their lesson properly which has defile the importance of lesson plan/note. Also teachers do not break the curriculum content into scheme of work as a result the topics are not arranged sequentially and this makes them to teach from the complex topic and makes learning difficult for the students (Ibrahim, 2009).

The poor attitude towards supervision of teachers in the classroom is becoming alarming. Some of the supervisors are actually out of touch with modern supervision techniques. They have estranged themselves from the actual instructional realities of the classroom and as a result, their activities as supervisors tend to be of very little value to the teachers and students. At the same time, some of the teachers have developed negative attitudes towards the supervision and thus cannot benefit much from the exercise. Work performance of teachers in private secondary schools in Kaduna State to an extent depends on principal‟s supervisory techniques. This is so because supervisory technique aims at correcting observed lapses of teachers with a view to achieving the stated goals and objectives. To this extent, principals have been known to constitute problem to effective teaching by their supervisory techniques, these have affected teachers‟ job performance in one way or the other. This position is supported by earlier studies (Ibrahim 2009).

1.3   Objectives of the Study

The main objective of the study is to assess the instructional supervisory role performance of principals in private secondary schools in Kaduna State. The specific objectives of the study are to:

• examine the influence of supervisory role of principals on teachers‟ lesson plan in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State;
• find out the influence of supervisory role of principal‟s classroom visitation on teacher‟s performance in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State;

3. determine the influence of supervisory role of principals on teachers use of instructional materials in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State; and
4. ascertain the influence of principals‟ supervisory role on teacher punctuality in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State.

1.4 Research Questions

The Following research questions were raised for this study:

1. What is the influence of instructional supervisory roles of principals on teacher‟s lesson plan in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State?
2. How dose principals‟ classroom visitation influence teachers in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State?
3. In what way does the supervisory role of principal influence the use of instructional materials on teachers in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State?
4. How does supervisory role of principals‟ influence teachers‟ punctuality in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

The following are the research hypotheses:

HO1.There is no significant difference in the opinions of the respondents in the supervisory roles of principals on teacher‟s lesson plan in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State.

HO2.There is no significant difference in the opinions of the respondents in the supervisory roles of principals‟ in classroom visitation in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State.

HO3.    There is no significant difference in the opinions of the respondents in the  supervisory roles of principals on the teacher‟s use of instructional materials in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State.

HO4.There is no significant difference in the opinions of the respondents in the supervisory roles of principals on teacher‟s punctuality in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State.

1. 6 Basic Assumptions

The following are Assumptions forward for this study:

1. Poor principal‟s supervisory role of lesson plan could have effect on teaching of students in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State;
2. Inadequate principal‟s supervisory role of classroom visitation could result to poor teaching and learning in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State;
3. Inadequate supervision of Instructional materials by the principals could have effect on teaching in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State; and
4. Poor principals‟ supervision of teachers‟ punctuality could have effect on teaching and learning in private Secondary Schools in Kaduna State.

1.7 Significance of the Study

The Significance of the Study title influence of instructional supervisory role of principals on teacher‟s performance in private secondary schools in Kaduna State, The finding of this research is helpful to guide those in authority of instructions right from federal, state and local level in both public and private schools.

The findings of this study are also useful to educators and researchers and public as a tool to improve policies and student‟s performance. The findings of this research encourage teachers and administrators to review the use of instructional supervisory role to enhance student performance. The outcome provides a platform for new investigations into instructional deliveries in both public and private schools.

Secondly, the findings of this study would be useful to the ministry of education and school proprietors. The study will provide them with information that will enable them to organize seminars, workshops and conferences for principals on instructional supervisory roles to keep them abreast with their changing roles as principals thereby refreshing and enhancing their capabilities.

Similarly, the findings of this study would also help curriculum developers and school planners. They will benefit from this study as both the curriculum developers and the school plan planners need information about the current state of supervisory roles performance of principals in private secondary schools. Likewise, school administrators will be able to use the findings as a source of information about principals` instructional supervisory roles, leadership, and managerial practices. Finally, findings of this study will be a significant addition to the existing stock of knowledge and understanding of instructional supervisory roles of principals in general.

1.8 Scope of the Study

The study is on the influence of instructional supervisory roles of principals on teacher‟s performance in private secondary schools in Kaduna State. The study centered on principals, teachers and officials of the ministry of education where their roles were assessed. The variables of the study include among others such as supervision, principal‟s role and private schools among others. This type of study under investigation is survey in nature. The research work is limited to all private secondary schools within Zaria Education Zone Kaduna State.

EFFECT OF INSTRUCTIONAL MANAGERIAL DUTIES OF PRINCIPALS ON TEACHERS PERFORMANCE IN PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN  KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA   

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