INFLUENCE OF PRINCIPAL’S INSTRUCTIONAL SUPERVISORY ROLE ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC DAY SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NZAUI SUB – COUNTY OF MAKUENI, KENYA

Abstract

Instructional supervision is a practice that is entrenched in educational systems globally. Instruction has to be supervised in order to achieve the desired purpose. Unsupervised instruction has the potential to mar the standard of education as well as the student outcome in performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of instructional supervision practices on students’ academic performance in public day secondary schools in Nzaui Sub-County, Makueni County. The objectives of the study were: to determine the extent to which evaluating teaching documents by the principal influences students’ academic performance in Nzaui Sub – county, Kenya, to establish the extent to which monitoring syllabus coverage influences students’ academic performance in Nzaui Sub-County, to assess the relationship between setting academic mean targets and students’ performance in Nzaui Sub-County and to determine the extent to which class observations influence academic performance in Nzaui Sub-County. The study will be significant to education policy holders as it would provide vital information that may be utilized with the intention of ensuring improvement of instructional supervision in public secondary schools. Psychological Theory of Supervision was adopted for the study. The study adopted a descriptive research design since it involves gathering data that describe events and then organizes, tabulates, depicts, and describes the data collection process. It often uses visual aids such as graphs and charts to aid the researcher in understanding the data distribution. The total target population of the study was 90 consisting of 30 principals, 30 deputy principals and 30 senior teachers in the 30 public day secondary schools in Nzaui Sub-County Secondary Schools. A census approach attempted to list all elements in a group and measured one or more characteristics of the elements. It also provided detail information on all or most elements in the population, assuming satisfactory response rates were achieved by selecting all the 90 (30 principals, 30 deputy principals and 30 senior teachers) respondents for the study. The study adopted the use of questionnaire and interview schedule as the data collection instrument. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics with the aid of SPSS and the findings presented using frequency tables, while qualitative data were analyzed using themes and findings presented in a narrative form. The study established that students’ academic performance will improve once school principals ensure teachers give and mark assignment in class; and helping teachers to diagnose their teaching problem as a professional growth and rewarding teachers; Students’ academic performance is positively influenced by school principals’ advice on teachers to revise on difficult areas as observed in evaluation; and advising teachers on how to prepare lesson plans and schemes of work; Students’ academic performance is also positively affected by school principals regular and frequency monitoring of students class attendance; ensuring students have regularly done their class work in good time shows that completion of class work; and ensuring students have the necessary materials for learning. This study recommends that school principals should ensure teachers enhance giving and marking assignments in class in order to improve students’ academic performance; there is need for school principals to help teachers catch up with their schemes of work and to follow up on weak learners; and school principals ought to ensure teachers regularly and frequently monitor students class attendance and completion of class work.