Supervision in basic schools in the new Juaben Municipality of Ghana

Abstract

Even though many interventions have been worked out to enhance teaching and learning in schools, the public outcry about the academic performance of pupils, as well as the general standard of education of some public Basic Schools in the country is said to be on the decline. Stakeholders and many parents have blamed this state of affairs on lack of commitment by administrators of schools and poor performance of teachers. The purpose of the study essentially was to find out about how supervision is been done in the public basic schools and its improvement on teaching and learning. Also to ascertain some existing problems that hinders effective supervision in the schools and offer suggestion and recommendations to improve the quality of education in the municipality. The study was a descriptive study and was conducted among the headteachers, teachers, circuit supervisors, parents and opinion leaders in the municipality. In all 180 respondents were selected. Schools and teachers were selected by the lottery technique whilst the headteachers and circuit supervisors were chosen using purposive sampling approach. A set of questionnaire an interview guide was prepared for each of the respondents. Some of the key findings were that, both internal and external supervision as a form of supervision was preferred; the municipal director and unit manager was not regular in visiting the schools. It was recommended that in service training (INSET) should be organized for teachers and headteachers to highlight the essence of supervison.