The Relationship between Headteachers’ Supervision of Professional Documents and Academic Performance in Primary Schools in Embu and Murang’a Counties

Muchiri Jane Muthoni,Margaret Wanjiru Gitumu,John Mwaruvie

doi:10.20961/ijpte.v4i2.43413

Muchiri Jane Muthoni, Margaret Wanjiru Gitumu + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.20961/ijpte.v4i2.43413

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Abstract

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column">Supervision is a vital administrative tool employed by headteachers in ensuring teachers’ effectiveness and competence in teaching and learning in schools. Over time, pupils’ academic performance in examinations has been consistently low in public primary schools and has created concern among education stakeholders in Kenya and the world over. The objective of this study is assess the relationship between headteachers’ supervision of professional documents and academic performance in primary schools in Embu and Murang’a counties. A descriptive survey research design was used. The target population was 14,786 respondents; simple random sampling was used to select 256 of these. Data were collected using questionnaires, interviews and an observation checklist. To ascertain reliability, the instrument was piloted, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was calculated as 0.93. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics involving frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations and inferential statistics, precisely, correlation. The results show that the development of professional documents was common in primary schools and that the best documents supervised by headteachers were schemes of work. The null hypothesis tested was not rejected based on the correlation of r=-.044&lt;0.05 and P=0.732&gt;0.05 between headteachers’ supervision of professional documents and academic performance. The study recommends that headteachers should guide teachers on the importance of consistency in professional documents. However, headteachers’ supervision of teachers’ preparation of professional documents did not impact positively on pupils’ academic performance at KCPE in Embu and Murang’a counties. The findings of the study will serve as a reference for similar studies in education administration and management. </div></div></div>

Highlights

Headteachers’ supervision of the activities that take place in learning institutions is central to the levels of performances in the activities engaged in
Supervision is viewed as an educational program that helps school teachers review their professional skills and educational weaknesses, which when implemented helps greatly to raise the standard of education, leading to pupils’ good academic performance (Onasanya, 2006)
The teachers were provided with Likert-scale opinions on such supervision and were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the statements shown in Table 1.1 on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1= strongly disagree (SD), 2= disagree (D), 3= neutral (N), 4= agree (A) and 5= strongly agree (SA)

Summary

Introduction

Headteachers’ supervision of the activities that take place in learning institutions is central to the levels of performances in the activities engaged in. According to Fisher (2005), supervision is a way of stimulating, improving, refreshing, encouraging and overseeing certain groups (in this case teachers), with hope of seeking co-operation and boosting pupil’s academic performance. It is a useful measure of supporting teachers in identifying their strengths and weaknesses and of proposing ways of correcting any weaknesses before they affect the entire system (Fisher, 2005). Hoyle and Wallace (2005) observed that in England and Wales the accountability of teachers was engineered through payment by results, with teachers’ salaries based on pupils’ performance in national exams and with funds provided by the government to develop teachers professionally. Studies conducted in the Netherlands, England and Wales and some African countries on pupils’ academic performance and headteachers’ supervision have differing views. Earley (1998), Nkinyangi (2006), and Ehren and Vissccer (2006) believe that headteacher supervision is a way of finding fault, which is why despite the practice there is little or no impact on teaching and learning that can be translated into good academic performance

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