THE EFFECTS OF SCHOOLS SUPERVISION ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background Of The Study: Our civilization needs sufficient amounts of both human and material resources in order to increase its social organization, maintain its culture, accelerate its economic growth, and change its political institutions. Education is often seen as a pre-requisite for the growth of skilled labor and the accumulation of wealth, as well as a guaranteed route to achieving one's life goals and contributing positively to society. Education is the process of consciously preparing children for the roles they will play in the future via monitoring, teaching, and learning opportunities (Adedeji al 2008). In this sense, education is thought of and inculcated in a variety of ways by individuals of diverse backgrounds, ages, needs, and aspirations for sustainable development. The power of education is made clearer by the fact that its trend toward globalization is infused with the instrumental ideals of fostering productive people, democratic governance, and environmentally sustainable development. It is widely acknowledged that education is a process that imparts newfound information, capabilities, and attitudes onto the students. This might take place at a variety of schools with the aim of guaranteeing the children's overall development in preparation for the future.

According to Akinpelu (2004), education may be seen as the process through which cultural legacy and regeneration are passed on from one generation to the next. In addition, he emphasized that education is a process of renewing experience, which he predicted would most likely take place in a planned and institutionalized manner in order to produce societal sustainability. As a result, ensuring that education develops, informs, and sustains the student's vision of life, which includes the student's professional activities, attitudes, beliefs, and values, is a necessary step in keeping education relevant.

In the context of this article, "education" refers to the act or process of imparting or acquiring information, judgment, and a certain degree of intellectual maturity. In a broad sense, education refers to a mode of learning in which the knowledge, abilities, values, ideas, norms, morals, and habits of a group of people are passed down from one generation to the next by means of teaching, training, or research. This type of education is known as transmission learning. Adeyinka A.A (2009), John (Quoted by) as Adewuyi and Ogunwuyi (2002) define education as the culture that each generation intentionally gives to those who are to be its successors in order to qualify them for at least keeping up with and, if possible, raising the level of improvement which has been attained. Adeyinka A.A (2009), John (Quoted by) as Adewuyi and Ogunwuyi

According to Taiwo (2015), education is "the training of the young with the view of their growing up and developing into adults who can fend for themselves, live in a society, and be of service to that society." In other words, education is "the training of the young with the view of their becoming adults who can live in a society and be of service to that society As a result, education is seen to be the process of obtaining skills, information, and an awareness of attitudes and values in order to solve problems.

A clearer and more concise definition of education is provided by Redden and Okemakinde (2014). His definition of education describes it as "the deliberate and systematic influence extended by the mature person upon the immature through instruction, discipline and harmonious development of physical, intellectual, aesthetic, social, and spiritual powers of the human beings according to their essential hierarchy by and for the individual and social uses which is directed towards the union of the educated with the creator at the final end." [Citation needed] In the same vein, Thompson defines education as "the influence of the environment upon the individual to produce a permanent change in his habits of behavior, of thought, and of his attitude." Education, according to Thompson, is "the influence of the environment upon the individual to produce a permanent change in his habits of behavior, of thought, and of his The environment may be broken down into its physical, social, and cultural components. Therefore, the work of the youngster adapting to his surroundings should be made easier through education. Therefore, the educational system of a nation has an effect on the method in which the population of that country carries out their educational programs.

In addition, education is the center around which the expansion of every nation's economy and culture revolves. It is vitally important to the social, political, and economic growth of any country, and it also helps keep the peace. It is essential that educational institutions be effectively run if this growth is to be realized, and this is particularly true at this time when a great deal of complexity has been brought into the educational system. The idea behind this is that every educational administrator and supervisor should be equipped with the knowledge, information, skills, and instruments necessary for efficient administration and supervision of students' academic achievement.

Every human organization, regardless of size, level of sophistication, purpose, or focus on education, participates in at least one activity or operation that contributes to the accomplishment of the goals and aims they have established for themselves. The crisis that has befallen our contemporary society has had a significant influence, been productive, lucrative, and valuable in the conception of assessing the cost and value of education. As a result, educational pursuits cannot take place in a void; rather, they must take place in the kind of well-structured formal setting or environment that is known as a school.

The school, as an essential and fundamental component in the accomplishment of a predetermined series of educational aims and objectives, serves as the cradle of the citizen ideal. It is very crucial that all of the stakeholders in the academic circle, be it instructors, students, principals, administrators, and a lot of other people, should cooperate and work in order to have an excellent outcome. This includes working together to achieve the goal. Despite all of the processes that are involved in the teaching-learning process, such as sequential planning of the teaching process, organizing the classroom to suit the desired educational purpose, proper and adequate classroom management, teachers having intellectual and good oratory skills through evaluation of the teaching activities, and a lot of other processes, students still have trouble understanding what they are being taught.

If adequate, timely, and thorough monitoring is not done throughout the teaching-learning process, in particular the teaching of accounting courses in secondary schools, then it is not assured that the students will achieve academic achievement or accomplishment. It is strongly believed that the defect and setback upsurge in the academic community, especially accounting circle in the secondary schools, comes as a result of laxity in the area of school supervision. In the end, this is where the exploit of the teaching-learning process lies in yielding the intended result. The job of school supervision has become progressively more difficult over the course of the last few decades. As a result, there is an urgent need for school supervision or supervisory teams to make use of relevant behavioral theories and techniques in order to successfully manage the modern complex educational institutions.

School supervision can be understood as the activity that is carried out by supervisors in order to supervise the activity of the employees or staff as well as that of the learners in order to determine whether or not the teaching and learning process was effective. Particularly with regard to the instruction of accounting-related topics in secondary schools, the oversight provided by the school has to be carried out in an appropriate and efficient manner. Accounting is a discipline that entails the process of recording, evaluating, categorizing, choosing, summarizing, interpreting, and conveying financial data of an organization to the end user in order for the business to make meaningful economic decisions. This process is known as accounting.

It can be seen, based on the content of the academic performance of the students in subject, that the performance of the student in the subject (in terms of academic) requires effective and efficient school supervision as a result of the relevance of the subject in other fields of study. This is because the subject is relevant to other fields of study. Accounting is a field that comes under the category of being a vocational area, and as a result, it is one that is highly important for business. It assists organizations that are generating a profit as well as organizations that are not making a profit, in the sense that it helps organizations develop policies that would increase growth. It helps owners evaluate the effectiveness of management and gives information that may help people outside of a company establish an impartial opinion about the companies they are evaluating.

As a result of this, the purpose of the research is to investigate the impact of school supervision on the academic performance of secondary school students in Nigeria. The findings of the research area could also have a broad relevance to other schools in Nigeria in terms of planning, organizing, and assessing the academic performance of students both within and outside of the study region.

1.2 Statement Of The Problem

It has been observed with keen interest for some time now that there has been a sharp increase in the poor academic performance of students in the subject of accounting, most specifically in the senior secondary school certificate examination (SSCE), as a result of inadequate supervision. This trend has been observed for some years now. However, the subject of accounting has played and continues to play a role in enterprises, which, like any other human organization, require adequate supervision in order to ascertain the pre-determined aims and objectives. Furthermore, in order to increase the number of future businessmen, the effects of school supervision need to be considered. In light of this, the purpose of this body of study is to explore the impact that the level of academic supervision provided by schools has on the overall academic performance of secondary school students in Nigeria.

1.3 Objectives Of The Study

Specifically in conducting this study, the researcher has the following as the major objectives;

1. Ascertain whether regular supervision have an impact on student’s academic performance in secondary school.

2. Determine whether there is a relationship between class visitations by principals and students’ academic performance in secondary school.

3. Find out if positive or negative remarks by supervisors have impact on teacher’s job performance, hence influencing students performance.

4. Ascertain whether there is significant relationship existing between regular instructional supervision and students’ performance in secondary schools in Nigeria.

1.4 Research Questions

The following research questions were raised to guide the study:

1. Does regular supervision have an impact on student’s academic performance in secondary school?

2. Is there any relationship between class visitations by principals and students’ academic performance in secondary school?

3. Does the positive or negative remarks by supervisors have impact on teacher’s job performance, hence influencing students performance?

4. Is there any significant relationship existing between regular instructional supervision and students’ performance in secondary schools in Nigeria?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

H01: There is no significant relationship between class visitations by Principals and students’ academic performance in Secondary School.

H1: There is a significant relationship between class visitations by Principals and students’ academic performance in Secondary School.

HO2: Regular instructional supervision has no significant relationship with student’s academic performance in Secondary School.

H2: Regular instructional supervision has a significant relationship with student’s academic performance in Secondary School.

1.6 Significance Of The Study

It is believed that at the completion of this study, the findings will help the following groups: Teachers, Schools’ management, Education board, the Parents Teachers Associations (PTAs), and other researchers interested in supervision of instruction.

The findings of this study will help teachers to understand and appreciate the importance of supervision of instruction on effective classroom performance as regards instruction. It will help them understand that instructional supervisors are there to assist them and not to harass them. It will also make them know that the way they perceive supervision of instruction can make or mar their classroom performances. This study will help the schools’ management to have understanding about the teachers’ perception on the influence of instructional supervision on class performance.

And this understanding will help them realize that the perception of teachers towards supervision of instruction can make or mar the school activities. Since classroom instruction is one of the major school activities in the school and the school is like a factory that processes the students into finished products. Also, it will help the school management to know the extent to which attendance to conference and seminars improve teachers’ classroom performance. This will make them encourage teachers to participate more in conferences and seminars.

1.7 Scope And Limitation Of The Study

For the purpose of attaining the objectives of these findings this study is not expected to cover beyond examine school supervision and its influences on the academic performance of the students in Nigeria. Therefore, the study focuses specifically on the effects of school supervision on the academic performance of secondary school students in Nigeria. The study will be carried out in some selected secondary schools in Okpala, Imo Sate. In the cause of the study, the researcher encounters some limitations which limited the scope of the study;

Staff Reluctance:

In most cases the staffs often feels reluctance over providing required information required by the researcher. This result in finding information where the structured questionnaires could not point out.

Researcher’s Commitment:

The researcher, being of full time student spent most of her time on other academic activities such as test, class work, assignment, examination etc which takes average focus from this study.

Inadequate Materials:

Scarcity of material is also another hindrance. The researcher finds it difficult to long hands in several required material which could contribute immensely to the success of this research work.

Financial constraint:

Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

1.8 Definition Of Terms

School:

A school is an institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students (or “pupils”) under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students’ progress through a series of schools.

Supervision:

Supervision is the act or function of overseeing something or somebody. A person who performs supervision is a “supervisor”, but does not always have the formal title of supervisor. A person who is getting supervision is the “supervisee”.

Academic Performance:

Academic achievement or (academic) performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their short or long-term educational goals. Cumulative GPA and completion of educational degrees such as High School and bachelor’s degrees represent academic achievement.

1.9 Organization Of The Study

This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows

Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), statement of problem, objectives of the study, research question, significance or the study, research methodology, definition of terms and historical background of the study.

Chapter two highlight the theoretical framework on which the study is based, thus the review of related literature.

Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study.

Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding.

Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study.