| dc.description.abstract | Supervision of teachers by Quality Assurance and Standards Officers (QASOs) is one area that needs to be strengthened so that it can contribute to high academic achievements and to the success of free secondary education. The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of quality assurance and standards officers' supervision on academic performance in secondary schools in Meru Central district. The objectives of the study were to: assess the relationship between school QASOs frequency of supervision and students' academic performance, determine how QASOs' level of training affects their effectiveness in supervision of schools, assess the attitudes of teachers towards supervision by QASOs, determine the feedback mechanisms employed by QASOs after supervision, and identify changes that are required to improve the role played by QASOs in school supervrsion.
This study was based on McGregor's theory 'X' and 'Y'. The study employed a descriptive survey design. The target population for the study consisted of all the 12 QASOs, the District Education Officer (DEO), the 586 teachers and 40 headteachers from the 40 secondary schools in Meru Central district. The sample size of the study was 124 respondents constituting 4 QASOs, 20 headteachers and 100 teachers. Simple random sampling was used to select headteachers and teachers, while purposive sampling was used to select the QASOs. The study employed interview schedules and questionnaires for data collection. Descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, means, and percentages were used to analyze the quantitative data. Qualitative data was analyzed using qualitative data analysis techniques, specifically content analysis, based on analysis of meanings and implications emanating from respondent information and documented data on academic performance.
The study established that QASOs' roles affected school academic performance to a moderate extent. It was established that QASOs visited the high performing schools more frequently than poor performing school, which would be assumed to imply that the performance in poor performing schools was affected by QASOs visits. Schools where QASOs do their job well perform better than those schools where assessment by QASOs is irregular. It was also established that teachers had a negative attitude towards supervision which in turn affects performance and that recommendations by QASOs were hardly implemented in schools.
The study recommends that the MoE should offer more training programmes for QASOs, the government should provide means of transport to schools for the QASOs, QASOs should handle the supervision exercise in ways that foster positive attitudes towards supervision among the teachers, and QASOs should visit schools more frequently for supervision and where possible have follow-up mechanisms in order to ensure that their recommendations are implemented. | en_US |
