Influence of headteachers’ selected instructional supervisory practices on provision of quality education in Secondary schools in Kenya

Abstract

Kenya has since independence desired to provide quality education to learners making effort to implement measures to improve quality of education in schools. Despite this effort the secondary sub-sector continues to face supervision challenges thus compromising the quality of education provided. This study therefore sought to determine the influence of head teachers’ selected instructional supervisory practices on the provision of quality education in secondary schools in Kisumu East Sub-County, Kenya. The study objectives were to establish the influence of the head teachers’ supervision of teacher punctuality on quality education provision, to determine how the head teachers’ supervision of curriculum implementation influences quality education provision, to establish the influence of head teachers’ supervision of continuous teacher professional development on quality education provision and, to determine the extent to which the head teachers’ supervision of student assessment influences provision of quality education in Kisumu East Sub-County. The study population consisted of thirteen (13) public and three (4) private secondary schools in Kisumu East Sub-County. The total population of the study was one thousand, one hundred and fourteen (1114). Out of these nine hundred and twenty four (924) were Form Four candidates, one hundred and seventy four (174) teachers and seventeen (17) head teachers. The study used a sample size of three hundred and eighty two (382). Three hundred and eight (308) Form Four candidates and fifty eight (58) teachers were selected using stratified sampling. Sixteen (16) head teachers were selected using saturated sampling technique because there were only 16 schools in the sub-county that had form four candidates while one had only form one candidates being newly formed. The instrument validity was ascertained by use of a four point scale rating by experienced colleagues and University experts to ascertain the relevance of the questions while instrument reliability was ascertained using Split-Half Technique. The research design employed in the study was descriptive survey and co-relational designs. Questionnaires, interviews and document analysis were used to obtain data. Quantitative data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of SPSS version 20. Qualitative data from interviews were analyzed using Thematic Analysis. The findings of the study indicated that there was a significant relationship between head teacher supervision of teacher punctuality, curriculum implementation, continuous teacher professional development and student assessment on provision of quality education in Kisumu East Sub-County. It was also found that both teacher and student punctuality were rampant due to distance to school and poor road network in the region. Time management while at school was not well respected in the Sub-County resulting in poor syllabus coverage and poor continuous student assessment. The findings further indicated that despite the head teachers encouraging their teachers to attend professional development courses, very few teachers had embraced the venture. The study further established that student drop out was real, citing early pregnancy, financial constraints, child-headed families, sand harvesting, and boda-boda business as the main cause. Quality grades were low, contributing to low internal transition to higher classes and low external transition to institutions of higher learning. Both creativity and life skills as well as decision-making skills were not properly encouraged in the students resulting in low quality education provision in the Secondary schools in the Sub- County.