Abstract:
This study was conducted in the Awutu Senya East Municipality in the Central
Region of Ghana with the aim of finding out the supervisory practices of
private senior high schools in the Municipality. The study made use of
primary data collected from 121 sample respondents consisting of municipal
private school coordinator, head teachers, teachers and students. In finding the
type of supervision being carried out in the Awutu Senya Municipality,
questionnaires and semi- structured interview guides were the instruments
used. The interview responses were transcribed and analysed thematically.
Findings revealed that most supervisors of Private Senior High schools in the
Awutu Senya East municipality undertake brief visits. Instructional
supervision was carried out on daily, weekly and monthly basis. The critical
problems confronting supervision in the municipality are supervisors‟ lack of
confidence, lack of adequate resources for supervision, poor communication
skills and low knowledge on supervisory practices on the part of supervisors
and workload on the part of headmasters is a major setback to internal
instructional supervision. From the findings of the studies, it can be concluded
that the major problem affecting supervisory practices in private senior high
schools in the Awutu Senya East municipality is inadequate supervision
resources. In view of the findings, it is recommended that teachers should
change their perception towards supervision by not seeing it as fault finding
mission, feedback after supervision should be immediate, that supervisors
should be motivated to work harder, supervision resources should be provided
to supervisors on timely basis and also supervisors should desist from
intimidating teachers during supervision. Besides, the study recommends that
supervision in private senior high schools should be restructured to embrace
new trends of supervision which emphasises teacher growth rather than
teacher defects.
