Evaluating the Impact of Primary School Headteachers’ Supervisory Practices on Academic Performance in Githunguri Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

The main aim of the study was to examine the relationship between head teachers’ instructional supervisory practices and teachers’ work performance in primary schools. This study found that teacher supervision plays an important role in this scenario. Therefore, teacher supervision affects the quality of academic performance in primary schools. This study was necessary because its findings can be used by different education stakeholders to help on improving the quality of teaching and pupils’ academic performance. This study was conducted at Githunguri sub-county and the target population was from both the public and private primary schools. The head teachers and teachers were the participants. The data was collected mainly through questionnaires that were distributed to the selected schools and were filled by the participants. The findings sought the opinion of teachers and head teachers on how they experienced supervision of instructions in their school as well as how they thought supervision should be practiced. The demographics sought were, category of school, age and gender of the respondents. Descriptive statistics were employed to find frequencies and percentages of responses. Percentage responses were used to draw graphical presentation of responses. Pearson’s Chi-square was used to determine whether teacher supervision and pupils’ academic performance were statistically significant. Findings from the open ended questions were summarized. From the findings it was found out that supervisory practice of primary school is one of the responsibilities delegated to the head teachers by the Teachers Service Commission. The head teacher is the overall supervisor of all academic and administrative activities in the school and the one responsible for improving and maintain high teaching and learning standards in the school. Teacher supervision can be more effective when teachers are guided and motivated to supervise each other. Both head teachers and teachers agreed that supervision is more effective when teachers are actively involved in it. It was found out that there was a statistically significant difference between supervision on content coverage and pupil’s academic performance. This study also uncovered that there was a relationship between pupils’ academic performance and the supervision on content mastery.

Keywords: Supervision, supervisory practices, evaluation, head teacher