Institutional factors influencing head teachers' instructional supervision practices in secondary schools in Mandera East district, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the institutional factors influencing head teachers' instructional supervision practices in secondary schools in Mandera East District. The objectives were (1) To establish the extent to which work load affects the instructional supervision of the head teachers in Mandera East District; (2) To investigate the extent to which the work environment affects the instructional supervision of the head teachers in Mandera East District; (3) To examine the extent to which the adequacy of teaching staff affects the instructional supervision of the head teachers in ManderaEast District; (4) To find out the extent to which effective communication affects the head teacher's instructional supervision in Mandera East District; (5) To determine the extent to which support from the quality assurance officers affects the instructional supervision of the head teachers in Mandera East District. A sample size of sixty respondents consisting of ten head teachers was drawn from the target population of 177.

The findings indicate that workload of the head teachers affected their position to a great extent with a Likert mean scale rating of 4.3443. The ability of the head teacher to integrate with other subsystems with a mean Likert scale rating of 4.066. On the work environment, the study established that 50% of the schools were well equipped. On the adequacy of the teaching staff, the study established that the schools were well staffed with teacher - student ratio of 1 :4. It was also found that there was mutual communication between head teachers and teachers with only 10% as having problems with communication systems. Further, the study also found that QASO never visited schools with 80%. of the teachers indicating that they never saw QASO officers in the schools. The study adopted a descriptive survey design approach whereby the process entailed data collection to answer questions concerning the current status in schools with the aim of determining the institutional factors affecting the instructional supervision of the head teachers in Mandera East District.

The study recommends that (a) the DEOs need to address the issues of understaffing of the physics subject since it is one of the key subjects is that used to determine their qualification for colleges after the secondary school education and it is important for industrialization towards vision 2030; (b) the stake holders in the school enhance the environments in the school to further act as the head teachers motivator in promoting performance of the schools; (c) since the communication systems within the schools are used to convey information in a manner that promotes cohesion and interaction, the head teacher should strive to establish proper communication strategies and encourages communication channels that promote conducive environment and constructive criticism, (d) finally the Ministry of Education should formulate a frame work that would ensure that the QASOs frequently visit schools so as to ensure that the policies and regulations are implemented as expected. Through these visits they will be in a position to assist the head teachers in dealing with matters arising in schools on time.