Education: School inspection and standards (II)

BY the beginning of the 1930s, education had grown in complexity and in terms of number of institutions and subjects in the curriculum, beyond the scope of administrators. It became necessary to replace administrators with professionals (Education Officers) as Inspectors of Schools. Inspection now had two components: The administrative component and the professional component. The duties of the inspector now included assessment of the classroom effectiveness of teachers and the head teacher's effectiveness in managing the teaching and learning process in the school. The thrust of school inspection became the raising and maintenance of standards of education. This includes the standards of school administration and the quality of instruction. Administrative decisions as to whether of not a teacher should be retained or promoted were based entirely on the inspector's report.

As a result, teachers held inspectors in great awe. Inspectors were feared and dreaded by teachers . There was general panic in a school whenever inspectors were around, because they were regarded as faultfinders and witch-hunters. Inspectors of old, themselves, did not help matters either. They sometimes paid unscheduled visits to schools without notice, thereby taking teachers unawares, and were simply overbearing in style. For instance, they bullied and insulted teachers in the presence of their pupils or students, pretending to know everything. Since the early 1960s, the inspector has come to appreciate that his primary duty is to raise standards of education and that it is his business to assist teachers, headmasters and principals to do their work better. In fact, the modern inspector sees himself as a friend, an advisers, a guide, a professional colleague and a consultant to their teacher. This notwithstanding, an aspect of the modern inspector's work is still evaluative and still influences administrative decisions on teachers. For this reason, most teachers (including school heads) still do not feel comfortably with inspectors.

They have not quite shed the horrible image of the colonial inspector. School inspection has as its objective the following:- Ensuring that public funds allocated to the school are being judiciously spent, ensuring that schools and colleges are operating in accordance with the law, ensuring that all educational institution are being run in a manner that is consistent with national goals and objectives, and in keeping with the nation's education policy, ensuring the maintenance of minimum academic standards, ensuring that everyone in the school community is dedicated and committed to the wellbeing of the school, and to the highest standards of discipline, keeping the Appropriate Authority abreast of the situation in schools for possible intervention purposes. There are different types of inspection, each type designed to serve a specific purpose. All types of inspection involve actual visits to the schools. No inspection is worth any while if the school inspected is not visited. The following are the main types of inspection. Pastoral (or Advisory) Inspection Visits: This is the commonest and most frequent inspection visit. As the name suggests, this type of inspection is carried out for the purpose of giving advice and encouragement to teachers and headmasters (or principals) about ways of improving standards in a particular area of concern.

Usually, this kind of inspection focuses only on a particular aspect of the school. Pastoral visits are undertaken by only one inspector. Sometimes it may involve up to two or three inspectors and last for just one or two days, depending on the size of the school and the nature of the problem of concern. This type of inspection is sometimes referred to as Routine Inspection. Full Scale (General) Inspection Visits: This is an inspection visit made for the purpose of carrying out a comprehensive inspection of all aspects of the school. It involves a large team for the proper coverage of every aspect of the school in detail. This kind of inspection for up to four to five days. Full general inspection serves the purpose of helping the entire school to improve its teaching and learning environment. It also provides information for the grading of schools and for deciding whether or not the school qualifies for accreditation to operate (recognition) or for certain benefits.

Subject Inspection: This type of inspection is restricted to specific subjects and it is very useful in assisting the subject teacher to improve on his instructional effectiveness, class management and to have access to appropriate instructional materials. Special Inspection Visits: This type of inspection visit is usually undertaken at the instance of the Appropriate Authority for the purpose of investigations, conflict resolution, infrastructural or other needs assessments, unscheduled visits incidental upon certain unforeseen development, etc. In all cases of inspection visits, except emergency visits referred to above, the school must be notified about the visit well in advance, and the visits must be carefully planned and executed. Details of the guidelines for carrying out the various types of inspections mentioned above need not be given in this paper, especially as there are no inspectors here.

Supervision: Its concept: The world supervision is a coinage from two Latin words: 'super' and 'video'. Super means 'over' or 'above', while video means 'to see'. Therefore, taken together, super-video simply means 'to see from above' or to 'oversee'. Hence, to supervise means to oversee. The concept of supervision, like that of inspection, has changed over time. Since the 18th century, supervision of instruction has gone through four identifiable periods of development. The first period can be regarded as that between the 18th century and the 19th century when supervisory concepts and behaviours were characterized by inspection for control, and inspectors were non-professionals. At this time, the major function of supervision was the making of judgements about the teacher, rather than about teaching and pupil's learning. Decisions were based on the recommendations of the supervisor, which was, invariably, the replacement of the teacher, if he was not performing well. Attention was mainly on the teacher's ability to teach and control the pupils rather than the improvement of instructional procedures.

The second period was that spanning the 19th century and 1960 during which supervision was shifted from administrators to professionals such as principals, headmasters and education officers in the Ministries of Education. This was necessitated by the growing complexities of the school system and the addition of specialized subjects to the school curriculum. Nevertheless, emphasis remain generally on inspectorial functions relating to the school's instructional programmes. Gradually, however, the concept of instructional improvement began to gain currency during this period with marked improvement in the relationship between the supervisor and the teachers he supervises. The third period is that between 1960 and 1970 during which supervision was conceived to be a means of improving classroom work through classroom visitation and the observation technique. The co-operative and co-ordinative aspects of school administration became practical reality, and supervision started to become more teacher friendly.

The period was also known for an increased demand for supervisors - a demand which could not be met due to acute shortage of professionals to deploy as such. As a result, the ministries of education were constrained to make do with the few on the ground. The fourth period is the present one which began since 1971. This period emphasizes creative, democratic supervision of instruction. Unfortunately, the problem of shortage of supervisors is becoming more acute in this period. With marked increases in the number of schools and the number of subjects in the curriculum, with no corresponding increase in the number of supervisors, the situation is unwholesome. It is rendered even worse by the fact that, nowadays, it has become fashionable to relieve the system of trained and competent hands prematurely and, thereby, denying their successors the chance of being properly groomed to take over. Correspondingly, there have been two major styles of supervision arising from the changing concepts of supervision just discussed: Traditional Supervision and Modern Supervision.

Traditional Supervision: The traditional approach to supervision focused on the teacher and the classroom situation, emphasizing the need for constant supervision and training as a means of improving classroom instruction. It is based on the assumption that teachers were generally poorly trained. Because they were initially known as sub-inspectors (and later superintendents), traditional supervisors saw themselves in the role of inspectors and laid emphasis on teacher evaluation or assessment. Thus they used the methods of the inspector. Modern Supervision: Against this background, we may now consider various definitions of supervision. Eye, Netzer and Krey (1971) define supervision as "that phase of school administration which focuses primarily upon the achievement of the appropriate instructional expectations of educational systems".

Another group perceives supervision as a means of advising, guiding, refreshing, encouraging, stimulating improving and overseeing certain groups (of persons) with the hope of enlisting their co-operation for the success of the supervisor's task. Yet another perception of supervision is that it is a means of persuading people to desist from applying wrong procedures in carrying out certain assigned function, while at the same time emphasizing the importance of good human relations in an organization. Furthermore, the Dictionary of Education gives a more comprehensive definition of the term, describing supervision as all efforts of the designated school officials geared towards providing leadership to teachers in the collective endeavour of enhancing the quality of instruction.

It involves the stimulation of professional growth, the development of teachers, selection and revision of educational materials, objectives, teaching methods, as well as evaluation of instruction. It should now be appreciated, therefore, that the modern concept of supervision simply describes a process - one of giving and receiving help to improve teachers performance, resolve problems that may occur between teachers and pupils or students, and encourage activities aimed at influencing the quality of teachers and learning.