ADVANCED PRACTICUM IN EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT REPORTED ON COMMUNITY COMPREHENSIVE SECONDARY SCHOOL, FOUR TOWNS, UYO, AKWA IBOM STATE
- Brief History of the School
Founded through community initiative in 1975, Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Four Towns, Uyo is located along Olusegun Obasanjo Way in Uyo capital city territory, Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. The school has two entrances – in and out gates – with a security post in between them. There is a sports field located centrally from the main gate with a total of sixteen (16) school blocks comprising 45 classrooms an assembly hall, a library, a science laboratory, an introductory technology workshop, a mini clinic room and 3 separate toilets for teachers, boys and girls students architecturally arranged in an arc form facing the school entrance. There is also on area within the school premise marked for school farm/garden.
In Line with the Federal Government of Nigeria (2013), the school offers learning opportunities for Junior and Senior Secondary Education. The school has a motto which is “Best in Service” but is yet to articulate a “Vision” and “Mission” statements. According to State Secondary Education Board, Uyo, class enrolment, (2015), the school has a total population of 3,921 students made up of 688 males and 2,233 females. These are distributed into 80 streams of JS one 19 streams, JS two 20 streams, JS three 12 streams, SS one 13 streams, SS two 10 streams and SS three 6 streams respectively. The staff strength of the school consist of 94 teaching, 12 non-teaching and 8 National Youth Corps members. (Teaching and Non-Teaching Staff Disposition 2015 Annexure 1).
The school’s administrative structure has the Principal General on Salary Grade Level 17 at the head. He is assisted by 5 Vice Principals on the rank of Principal Special Grade and 3 Vice Principals on the rank of Senior Principals. The school has 2 Guidance/Counseling teachers and a Secretarial Assistant with NABTEB qualification in Grade Level 08 as head of the non teaching staff.
The school runs six departments with subjects taught as follows:
- Science Department: Subjects taught are Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Agricultural Science, Computer Education, Home Economics, Animal Husbandry, Physical Education, and Integrated Science.
- Language Department: Subjects taught are English, French, Ibibio and Literature in English.
- Social Science/Arts Department: Subjects taught are Christian Religious Knowledge, Social Studies, Government, Civic Education, Economics, History, Fine Arts, and Geography.
- Commercial Department: Subjects taught are Commerce, Bookkeeping, Insurance, Office Practice, Marketing and Business Studies.
- Counseling Department: Subjects taught are moral education, career choices and good attitudes.
- Administrative Department: School administrative duties the school provides for extracurricular activities in the area of sports, games, symposium, debates, students clubs/organizations – Boys/Girls Brigade, Scout Movement, Man O’ War and Nigerian Red Cross Society. There is also a make shift canteen for teachers and students to refresh as the need arises. A mini clinic is also available to provide first-aid in events of accidents and emergencies.
At forty one (41) years old, Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Four Towns, Uyo is distinctive in Akwa Ibom State as it transmits values, ideas and shared knowledge; as well as foster individual cognitive and emotional growth as a wholesome person.
- School’s Organizational Structure
Organizational structure defines how activities such as task allocation, co-ordination and supervision and directed towards organizational goals (Pugh, 1990). It determines the modes in which an organization operates and performs by allocating responsibilities for different functions and processes to different workgroup and individuals. Below is a sketch of the school’s organizational chart.
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Principal General
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P.T.A. Staff Secretary
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School Staff Meeting
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Vice Principal Vice Principals Vice Principals Vice Principals
Administration Academics Special Duties General Duties
HOD HOD HOD HOD School
Languages Social Sciences Physical Sciences Commercial Counselors
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School Mini Clinic Teachers & NYSC Members
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Non Teaching Staff
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Prefects
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Students
Figure 1: Organogram of Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Four Towns, Uyo.
(insert school organogram).
From the figure 1 above, the school is a bureaucratic structure and shows clearly defined roles and responsibilities, hierarchy of command, communication channel and respect for merit. Everyone understands who is in charge and what their responsibilities are for every situation. The day to day running of the school is managed by the Principal General who is at the top. From this position, he has tremendous control over the structure. All major and financial decisions are taken by the Principal General. However, certain duties/functions are delegated to the various Vice Principals assisted by the schools administrative staff, Parents’ Teachers Association and the Schools’ Management Team.
Organizationally, teaching in the school is grouped into six (6) departments with each is headed by a specialist as Head of Departments. The school is divided into classrooms, the day into periods, and students into groups by grades and performance in examination. Each department in the school relies on the specialization and knowledge of its teaching staff while each teacher is directly responsible to his head of department on academic duties.
The non-teaching staff is co-ordinated by a Secretarial Assistant who reports to the Principal General or the Vice Principal Administration as the need arises. Students management is co-ordinated by the various school prefects who report to the Vice Principal Special Duties. The counselors handle issues related to students class attendance, records, continuous assessment and conduct.
Generally, by the organization structure; the Principal General in addition to maintaining the daily rigors of operations in the school is faced with taxing issues on regular basis such as meeting state and federal mandates, criticism from parents, large amount of paperwork, funding cuts, escalating accountability, troubled students and frustrated teachers.
Mitchell (2010) describes the principalship as being filled with constant challenges due to pressures of the position which can place the principal at the risk of stress. Hence, the school organizational structure enables the principal to recognize which task he must do and which task can be delegated to empower their staff members as well as alleviate stress (Queen and Queen 2005).
- The School Assessment
The school is generally asses under the following sub-headings:
- Staff Dispotion Analysis
There are 94 graduate teachers in the school (State Secondary Education Board, Uyo; Teaching Staff Nominal Role 2015). The teaching staff strength is complemented with 8 National Youth Corps members. From the 94 teachers, 5 are non professional teachers with the ranks of Mast/Misst II, having not possessed the minimum teaching qualification of Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE). Hence, their appointments are yet to be confirmed by the State Secondary Education Board, Uyo.
Thirty six (36) teachers representing 41% of the teaching population are in the Physical Science Department with 8 Mathematics, 5 Chemistry, 5 Physics, 5 Biology, 5 Integrated Science, 3 Basic Technology, 9 Agricultural Science and zero teacher for Further Mathematics respectively. There are nineteen 19 teachers; that is 20.2% of the teaching population in the Social Science Department. Geography has 1 teacher, Social Studies 2 teachers, Christian Religious Knowledge 8 teachers, Government 4 teachers, Economics 4 teachers and Fine Arts 1 teacher respectively. The Commercial Department has 3 Commerce teachers, 2 Accounts teachers, 3 Business Studies teachers and 5 Home Economics teachers respectively totaling 13 teachers, that is; 13.8% of the teaching population. The Guidance/Counseling Department has 2 teachers representing 0.2% of the teaching population while Administrative Department with staff draw from the teaching population has 3 teachers-0.32% of the teaching staff. There are 27 male teachers and 67 female teachers in the school. However, the required number of teachers in the school is put at 181 leaving a short fall of 86 teachers to meet the minimal teaching staff strength required for the school (State Secondary Education Board, Uyo 2015 Annexure 2).
To make up for the inadequacy in the areas of English Language, and Mathematics; teachers from the social science department are allocated to teach English Language while teachers in Physical Science department are made to teach mathematics in the Junior Secondary. Also, some members of the National Youth Service Corpse are deployed to teach various subjects in the Junior Secondary. This situation has resulted in some teachers being allocated heavier work load than others. Most teachers, particularly those who are assigned outside their subject specialization to teach English Language and Mathematics in Junior Secondary complain of excessive workload. They are demoralized given the large class size of the school especially in dealing with mountains of paper work and supervision of classroom programme. When a teacher teaching more than thirty students with average of six periods per day, he is likely not to recognize an individual student’s problem or allocate time and energy to deal with it. The implication is that the teacher’s spirit of work would be demoralized and deteriorated and the result being that such teachers struggle to maintain a healthy work-life balance since they routinely sacrifice their lunch-breaks, evenings and much of their weekending to planning and marking of students assignments (Uche and Enukoha 2000).
The Nigerian Journal of Educational Administration and Planning (NJEAP, 2007) viewed teachers work load as the various activities a teacher went through in the school. They observed that workload involves planning and preparation of lessons, setting examination questions, marking and assessing written student’s work, keeping records of each student’s progress with the purpose of securing proper guidance for the student. Other activities that constitute teachers work load include attending staff meeting, P.T.A meetings, supervising games and taking part in other extracurricular activities.
However, in Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Four Towns, Uyo; teaching in the school is evenly distributed by subject specialization and experience in teaching Junior and Senior Secondary Schools. Inspite of this, the teacher-student ratio still falls far above the recommended ratio by Federal Republic of Nigeria (2013) which stipulates 1 teacher to 35 students in Junior Secondary and 1 teacher to 40 students in Senior Secondary respectively.
- Students Management
The school has a total population of 3,921 students making the 80 streams run in the school. 50 students are group per class but 2 streams totaling 100 students are cramped into classroom meant for 35 and 40 students in Junior Secondary and Senior Secondary respectively (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2013). Below is the current students enrolment per class in the school.
TABLE I: SUMMARY OF CLASS ENROLMENT IN THE SCHOOL
| CLASS | MALE | FEMALE | TOTAL | STREAMS |
| JS 1 | 435 | 464 | 899 | 19 |
| JS 2 | 358 | 605 | 963 | 20 |
| JS 3 | 252 | 345 | 597 | 15 |
| SUB-TOTAL | 451 | 1414 | 2,459 | 51 |
| SS 1 | 290 | 391 | 681 | 13 |
| SS 2 | 222 | 284 | 506 | 10 |
| SS 3 | 131 | 144 | 275 | 6 |
| SUB-TOTAL | 643 | 819 | 1,462 | 29 |
| GRAND TOTAL | 688 | 2,233 | 3,921 | 80 |
Source: State Secondary Education Board, Uyo (2015 Annexure 3).
From table I above a class size is 50 but in practice two classes are lumped together giving a class size of 100 students. Consequently, teacher-student ration in the school is 1:100. A class size refers to the number of students’ a teacher faces during a period of instruction. Since the classes in the school are too large, teaching and learning are not convenient. The class-size ration has implication on students’ safety management. Factory Act (Cap 126) 1990 of Federal Republic of Nigeria provides that while factory work is carried on therein, shall not be crowded so as to cause risk, or injury to the health of person in it. The classrooms as equivalent of a factory where products are manufactured require adequate safety measures to avoid endangering and injuring the students who for purpose of academic activities are the major users. In an overcrowded classroom, teachers are unable to ensure that seats are arranged decently to give them room to move freely and interact with students during teaching. By law of effect, classroom experience should be motivation, pleasant and free from discomfort. Hence, in a chaotic classroom situation of this nature, Boydstom (2008) posits that teachers are unable to giver attention to specific capacities and deficiencies of each child, so that individual capacities will be brought out and individual limitations made good.
(insert picture of classroom with teacher) (1).
The Principal General, in consultation with the school management team has appointed prefects from SS 2 student’s to hold office till the end of 2nd term of SS 3. Prefects are appointed into portfolios namely Senior Prefect, Labour Prefect, Special Duties Prefect, Time Prefect, Sanitation Prefect, Games Prefect and Chapel Prefect. Each portfolio has a boy and a girl prefect. Prefects are differentiated form other students by their uniform which is long sleeves shirts. They assist in students’ management and report to the Vice Principal Administration daily.
The school does not run a boarding system hence students are not released from the school before normal closing time of 2pm daily. Parents consent are obtained for activities undertaken outside regular school period (Kalagbor, 2005). To control loitering during lesson periods, the Principal General has introduced movement tags were by only two (2) students per class are permitted to go out at a particular time. Hence, any student seen outside his class during lesson period without the tag is not permitted to do so and is promptly handed over to the Vice Principal Special Duties for appropriate punishment. While relating useful information about students’ activities and behavior to individual parents, the Parents’ Teacher Association meetings are called periodically to discuss some students’ management issues in the school.
- School Time Table Analysis
The importance of time management in the school systems cannot be overemphasized. The school and class time table plays an important role in allocation of school programmes- curricular and extracurricular activities. Time table enhance planning, co-ordination, control, and organizing school activities in such a way that many activities go on at the same time without one conflicting with another. The time-table co-ordinates all activities of teachers, students, classrooms, time slots and call periods simultaneously. Hence, class time table indicates lesson periods, the subject and teacher to teach it as well as various break periods and dismissal period in a school for each day.
The school’s time table provides for morning devotion-assembly- to commence from 7.45am to 8.05am daily. Each class commences officially in the school from 8.10am and each subject period is allocated 40 minutes time limit. Break period last from 11.30am to 12 noon. The school time-table provides that basic subjects like English Language and Mathematics are taught mostly in the morning four (4) periods per week for each class and stream of Junior and Senior Secondary One (1) only. Other subjects taught to these category of students are allocated three (3) periods per week making a total teaching period of eight (8) periods (5.33 hours) per day and (26.65) hours per week. The Senior Secondary 2 and 3 classes have a different number of periods allocated for teaching of English Language and Mathematics in a week. While English Language is allocated three (3) periods (2 hours) per week, Mathematics is allocated 4 periods (2.66 hours) per week. Other subjects at this level are allocated 3 periods each per week. The dismissal period for the school is 2.00pm daily.
(insert picture of students leaving school at closing) (2)
- School Plant Management
Oluchukwu (2002) defines school plant as the sum total of building, equipment, textbooks, including recreational space used for the achievement of educational objectives. Apart from the physical condition and general appearance of the entire school building; the school plant includes also the paths, fields, playground, classrooms, desk, school farms, vehicles, the flower beds, assembly hall, laboratory, libraries, toilets etc.
Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Four Towns, Uyo has a twin gate entrance with a security post in between the gates with the name of the school written on the wall in front of the fence by the gate. The frontage of the school fence is painted in yellow and green colour while the rest of the fence around the school remain unpainted (insert picture 3). As a visitor enters the School premises he is faced with a standard playground used for athletics and sports programmes. The playground being in the centre, is surrounded by paths which leads to the various school buildings arranged in from of an arc facing the school main entrance. The path leading through the in-gate by the right of the playground leads to the school’s Administrative Block- Principal’s Office, Administrative Support Staff, Vice Principal. General Duties and the Teaching Staff Room. This arrangement makes for easy contact and dissemination of information from the Principal’s office and vice versa. (picture 3b)
There is an assembly hall situated directly opposite the school entrance behind the playground and is easily identified with a roundabout supposed to host the Nigerian Flag. Unfortunately, the school authority has neglected to host the Nigerian Flag on the pole provided for in at the middle of the roundabout. This is an unpatriotic act to the sovereign nation of Nigeria by the school authority. (pictures 4 & 5)
By the school assembly hall on the right hand side is the school physical science laboratory. The laboratory is used to teach skills as tools to be mastered for basic scientific inquiry by students. Laboratory instructions increase student’s problem-solving ability in physical science experiments. Since the subject matter of science is highly complex and abstract, students need to participate in enquiry to appreciate the spirit and methods of science as practical work is intrinsically interesting to students (Illusanya, 2005). Hence, the current West African Examination Council (WAEC) syllabus (2013) recommended that teaching of all science subjects should be practical based. The essence is to ensure the teaching and learning of skills, concepts, nature of science by students. Edem (2005) defines laboratory exercise as an instructional procedure in which cause and effect, nature or property of any subject or phenomenon is determined by individual experience generally under controlled conditions. Students’ laboratory activities fall into active learning.
However, while extolling the importance to the use of laboratory method in science teaching, the school appears to pay “lip service” to its use in practice. Science teachers in the school appear not to usually find it convenient to make laboratory work the centre of their instruction. They usually complain of lack of materials and equipment to carry out practical work. In some cases, these materials and equipment may be locked up in the school store by the Principal General. The class size in the school being large does not encourage teachers to use the laboratory method to teach science. It was however, observed the Principal General allowed WAEC official to use the laboratory in the school as their examination coordinating office thereby denying teachers and students access to make appropriate use of the laboratory. This supports study by Fadipe and Salami (2000) on resource management that principals of 75% of schools visited do not allocate appropriate funds for purchase of laboratory materials hence student’s misuse laboratory periods.
(picture 6)
By the right, immediately after the science laboratory, is located the school library. The contribution of a school library to effective teaching and learning is obvious. Edem (2003) asserted that, library is an inseparable part of instruction, serving as a reading centre, as well as a repository of information for both teachers and learners. Edoaka (2000) defines the library as a building containing collection of printed and audio-visual materials for free use by the public. Hence, Akpan (2003) asserted that any attempt to teach and learn without the use of school library will result in shallow and restrictive type of education which will not be suitable and desirable for future leaders of any country. However, in the school under study, it was observed that the school library was almost always locked during school hours thereby denying teachers and students free use. This situation is likely to discourage reading and learning by students especially as the school does not run a boarding programme.
There are three toilet facilities buildings located within the school premises for use by male, female students and teachers respectively. Two of the toilet buildings was constructed by the Parent’s Teachers’ Association, another was constructed by a Youth Corps Member as his community project while the third one was constructed by the Ministry of Education, Uyo. (insert pix 8,9)
Some economic trees like mangoes, orange and windbreakers are planted strategically within the school premises while the paths are lined with various types of flowers which improve the esthetics of the school environment. (insert pix 10)
There is a water borehole facility which is supposed to be powered by a petrol generator in the absence of electricity supply. On enquiry, the water borehole and overhead tank has not been treated against communicable diseases and contamination for the past five years. Also, the borehole system is not functioning due to alleged faculty pump yet effort is not being made by the principal General to reactivate same for use by the school community. The resultant effect is that the school compound is virtually littered with empty celephone bags used to package water brought into the school by teachers and students to quench their thirst for water. This situation is not in line with the provisions of school health services outlined by the (Federal Republic of Nigeria 2003). (insert pix 11)
There is also an introductory technology workshop for Junior Secondary School. The building has recently been renovated and equipped by the Ministry of Education to improve quality of technical instruction in the school. Research findings support the contention that a strong relationship exist between the quality of school plant and academic achievement of students (Ololube, 2013). (insert pix 12)
It is the duty of the Ministry of Education to make furniture, equipment, books and expendable materials available in public schools like Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Four Towns, Uyo. Inadequate infrastructure and materials constitute a source of frustration and disillusionment among principal’s, teachers and students of such public school. Although, the principal general overseers the maintenance of school plant and provides basic tools to keep the building and surrounding clean; some of the facilities in the school premises are still in bad shape. For instance, a section of the school fence behind the school library that collapsed some three years ago is yet to be mended. The collapsed fence has created illegal access to private compounds located near to the school which now serves as escape route for recalcitrant students and tress passers. (insert pix 13)
Generally, the Principal General with the aid of the Vice Principal General Special Duties, and prefect and custodial staff has made tremendous effort to maintain the school plant. Arrangements are made for cleaning and dusting classroom, administrative areas, chalk boards, clean and sweep all entrances, walks and drives, care for flowers, playground equipment, toilet facilities as well as noise control in the school premises.
- School Record Management
Record keeping is a strong instrument for keeping an organization alive and healthy. Hence, information is every organisation’s most basic essential asset. Onifade (2004) defines records as information or data on a particular subject collected and preserved. Schools collect and preserve information on school personnel (Students, teachers and non teachers’), facilities, funds and school activities on a regular basis. These collections become the school records which are official documents, books and files containing essential and crucial information on actions and events which are kept and preserved in the school office for utilization and retrieval of information when needed (Osakwe, 2011). Such records are kept by the principals, teachers, counselors or administrative staff of the school.
The principal General co-ordinates and protects the institutions records in Community comprehensive Secondary School, four Towns, Uyo. Since the bulk of the records are kept by him manually, retrieval and utilization of information from such records are not easy. While the heads of departments inspects and mark teachers’ lesson notes, the school councilors check students’ notes to see how they correspond with teachers’ weekly entries in the daily scheme of work. Fasasi, (2004) asserts that school record management is meant to enhance the performance of secondary school administration. In line with this assertion, the school councilors take charge of students’ continuous assessment booklets and ensures appropriate calculation and entry of students test and examination scores.
Generally, statutory records kept in the school include admission, withdrawal register, attendance register, scheme of work, time-table, logbook, school diary, lesson plant/notes for teachers, examination record book etc. Non-statutory documents also kept by the school include cash book, stock book, school calendar, inventory book, staff minutes book, school magazine , inspection/supervision reports file, confidential report forms, requisition book and syllabus. The school keeps appropriate and proper records to ensure student’s achievement and growth, school activities and matters that will promote school efficiency and effectiveness (Akanbi, 1999). Without school records there can be no accountability; it is virtually impossible to determine responsibility for actions and to hold individuals accountable for their actions (Iwhiwhu 2005). Inspite of this assertion, the rising cost of running school system and information and communication technologies leave the school with low quality record management system. Most of the school records are stored in iron and wooden cabinets which may not prevent damages or unauthorized access. Hence, adequate security, storage facilities and funds are generally recommended for good record keeping and management.
The principal General makes the teachers, supporting staff and students to be aware that records are being kept about them. Hence, they tend to be more careful in their general behavior (Akube, 1991). However, the school attendance registers are marked only once (not twice daily) based on assumption that students are always present. Hence, information on this record is misleading and not reliable for administrative matters and evaluation of student’s academic performance.
Hence, Nwaoku (2005) asserted that the complexity in school administration, its constrains, contingencies, and other difficulties make record keeping a necessity. Adeyemi (2008) posits that the effective management of school records by Principals depends on effective supervision, creation of records, effective leadership, monitoring, training of personnel, record storage and retrieval, discipline, effective communication, delegation of duty, developing record keeping skills and motivation.
(f) School Finance Management
One of the responsibilities of the secondary school principal is financial management. The principal is expected to source for funds for running of the school; he is expected to expand the source of school income from magazines, school workshops, school canteens, students arts and craft, school farms rather than over dependence on government grants. Beyond sourcing for funds, the principal has the responsibility of managing the available cash in the school to avoid waste and displacement of priorities in attending to school needs.
Money is very essential in operating any educational system. It is needed to pay for every good and services in the school system. However, money made available to schools is limited in supply; therefore school principals should ensure optimal utilization of funds. The main source of income for Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Four Towns, Uyo is the imprest from Akwa Ibom State government. The imprest is paid termly to the principal General at the rate of N300 per student. Based on the population of the school, amount of One million, One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (N1,150,000.00) only is supposed to be collected from imprest account per term. However, the imprest is not remitted regularly and the principal is subjected to augmenting school finance from other internal sources of income like sales of school farm proceeds, rent from sue of school buildings and grounds as well as school canteen. There is no payment of school fees and levies by students. Estimates of funds by Parents’ Teachers Association on projects and Inter House Sports competitions are usually sent to the Ministry of Education for approval before such levies are collected from students. This is due to the operation of free and compulsory basic education in the state.
The responsibility of managing the school finance rest on the Principal General. According to Ogbonnaya (2005), financial management implies liability to be called upon to account for or answer for the funds entrusted into one’s care. Hence, the Principal General in this school does not delegate financial responsibilities. He makes judicious use of school funds based on approved expenditure headings like maintenance, projects, stationeries; transportations, administration and overheads. The school has no bursar, so the Principal General is assisted by the Chief Clerical Officer and Vice Principal Administration in maintaining such accounting documents like departmental vote book, items allocation book, local purchase order, payment voucher forms, revenue receipt books, imprest expenditure book, leave forms, and petty cash books and bank drawings.
Some school activities and programmes are not being handled effectively because of lack of adequate funds. Insufficient funds hinder the provisions of infrastructural facilities, laboratory equipments, computers, power plant, water supply, audio-visual aids and stationeries among other facilities that enhances the operation of the school. There are, however, some special allocations of funds made to the school like grants during examinations for purpose of consumable materials and for up-dating non-functional equipment. In the circumstance, the Principal General does not divert such funds into other uses hence realizing the objectives for which the money was allocated.
- Institutional Policies
One of the policy of Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Four Towns, Uyo is that there is no admission in Junior Secondary Three (JS 3) and Senior secondary Three (SS 3). The school has zero tolerance for examination malpractice and a code of conduct for staff and students. The school does not allow students’ of SS2 who fail English Studies and Mathematics to be promoted to SS3 for External Examinations like Senior School Certificate Examination and National Examination Council Examinations. The policy is to enable students pass the basic subjects of English Language and Mathematics in external examinations.
Policies on discipline of staff and students are clearly spelt out and referred to Disciplinary Committee headed by Vice Principal Administration with five members including the School Counselor and a Senior Prefect. Punishment for students offenders include manual work, writing of undertaking, suspendion from school for a period and dismissal from school, depending on the gravity of each offence. Teachers misconduct are promptly queried by the Principal General and referred to the State Secondary Education Board as the need arises.
(h) School Quality Assurance And Control
Secondary education occupies a unique position amongst all levels of education in Nigeria. Hence, the societal demand for quality education is great especially as school changes, the learners, teachers, infrastructure, administration, programmes of instructions, instructional materials, equipment and the mode of instruction also changes. The implication of this is that teachers need to be assisted to determine what to teach and how to teach it. Teachers are to be adequately motivated and appropriate instructional materials, equipment, conductive environment and funding provided by government for effective teaching and learning.
To ensure quality assurance and control in the school, the Principal General supervises instruction in Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Four Towns, Uyo as a means to help, guide, stimulate and enhance teaching and learning in the school (Olaniyan, 1996). The Principal General, assisted by the Vice Principal Academics employs the technique of classroom visitation and conference with teachers and create a conducive atmosphere for both teachers and students for teaching-learning process. By this process, the behavior of teachers have been influenced positively as well as the teaching process employed to promote students learning. Instruction in the school has been supervised to ensure that each teacher within the school system has been performing the duty for which he was scheduled. Incentives have been provided to help teachers improve themselves on status, knowledge and skills as well as recommend teachers who deserve promotion, transfer and retention.
The Principal General has effectively maintained the school time-table, time book, staff movement book, check students notes, examine teachers notes of lesson and help recommend teachers for seminar and workshops to improve themselves. These strategies are to ensure that each teacher in the school performing the work for which he is being paid. Teachers in the school are encouraged to improvise instructional materials or contact certain resource persons. Students are equally helped to develop healthy study habits, positive attitudes to work and to shun examination malpractices. In line with Olalube (2013), The Principal General provides professional information to teachers and makes suggestions on curriculum implementation as well as ensure prompt reporting of students’ result to parents and guidance.
Some of the challenges of quality assurance and control in schools included teachers attitude towards teaching, poor salary, inadequate infrastructure, inadequate instructional materials, inadequate instructional materials, inadequate funding, poor access to information and communication technologies as well as inadequate opportunities for teachers professional development.
(i) Analysis Of WASSC Examination 2013, 2014 And 2015
The table of analysis of the results of West African Senior School Certificate Examination in years 2013, 2014 and 2015 in Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Four Towns, Uyo is presented as follows:
TABLE 2: ANALYSIS OF PASSES IN YEARS 2013, 2014 AND 2015
| Year | Total enrolment | Pass in 9 subj. | Pass in 8 subj. | Pass in 7 subj. | Pass in 6 subj. | Pass in 5 subj. | Pass in 4 subj. | Pass in 3
subj. |
Pass in 2 subj. | Pass in 1 subj. | Failure | Absent | Partial
pass |
| 2013 | 219 | 2 | 10 | 5 | 13 | 21 | 26 | 31 | 32 | 36 | 26 | 16 | 4 |
| 2014 | 124 | 43 | 30 | 30 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | – |
| 2015 | 275 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 15 | 26 | 30 | 37 | 53 | 32 | 26 | 17 |
Source: WASSCE Examination Results For The School, 2013, 2014 and 2015
TABLE 3: ANALYSIS OF CREDIT PASSES IN YEARS 2013, 2014 AND 2015
| Year | Total
enrolment |
Credit
in 9 subj. |
Credit
in 8 subj. |
Credit
in 7 subj. |
Credit
in 6 subj. |
Credit
in 5 subj. |
Credit
in 4 subj. |
Credit
in 3 subj. |
Credit
in 2 subj. |
Credit
In 1 subj. |
Credit
in No subj. |
| 2013 | 219 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 35 | 45 | 107 |
| 2014 | 124 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 15 | 16 | 12 | 16 | 19 | 11 | 25 |
| 2015 | 275 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 12 | 21 | 44 | 73 | 112 |
Source: WASSCE Examination Results For The School, 2013, 2014 and 2015
TABLE 4: ANALYSIS OF CREDIT IN MATHEMATICS, ENGLISH AND BOTH
| Year | Total
enrolment |
Credit
In Maths |
% of
Pass |
Credit
In Eng. |
% of
Pass |
Credit
In Maths + Eng |
% of
Pass |
4 Credits
and above with English or Maths |
% of pass
|
| 2013 | 219 | 3 | 1.4 | 10 | 4.5 | 2 | .92 | 18 | 8.2 |
| 2014 | 124 | 13 | 10.5 | 53 | 21.2 | 13 | 9.7 | 12 | 9.6 |
| 2015 | 275 | 2 | 0.73 | 16 | 5.9 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 |
Source: WASSC Examination Result For The School, 2013, 2014, 2015
Table 2 and 3 above shows the analysis of passes and credit passes in years 2013, 2014 and 2015 in Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Four Towns, Uyo. Pass means scores ranging from P7 to P8 by WASSC grading while credit pass means scores between A and C. 26 students did not pass in any subject in year 2013, only 4 students failed in 2014 and 26 students in year 2015. Comparatively, the schools result for year 2014 was much better than that of year 2013 and 2015. Going by table 3 above, more students recorded more credit passes in year 2014 compared to the other two years. Table 4 explains the performance much more better as it show students performance in the basic subjects of Mathematics and English Language. While only 3 students had a credit pass in Mathematics in year 2013; 13 students and 2 students passed the subject at credit level in years 2014 and 2015 respectively. For English Language, 10 students, 53 students and 16 students passed the subject at credit level in years 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively. In terms of students who made up to credit passes in the basic subjects of English and Mathematics as well as a total of 4 credits and above to qualify them for further studies; only 2 students, 13 students and no student passed at that level in years 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively. The implication of this result is that less than 10% of the students enrolment for WASSC examinations in the years under review made the required number of credits to gain admission into tertiary institution in Nigeria. This poor performance in external examinations by the school calls for concern by government, stakeholders and the school management.
According to Federal Republic of Nigeria (2013) the school appears not to meet the fundamental secondary education goals which are preparing of individual for useful living the society for the society and higher education. The reason for this poor performance may be attributed to poor supervision of instruction, ineffective teachings, among other things. No school system will meet the national objectives of education and societal expectations under the tension generated by ineffective teaching. Consequently, most students will not perform well academically if not taught effectively. Awotua-Efebo (1999) defines effective teaching as one that results in the students learning maximally what is taught them. To teach effectively, Clark (1995) asserted that the teachers needs to understand and interpret the goals and objectives of the school curriculum correctly and from it arrange teaching events, based on available resources that will lead the students to achieve these goals and objectives.
CONCLUSION
Based on the practicum report herein; it is concluded that most public secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State, particularly community comprehensive secondary school, Four Towns, Uyo lack adequate infrastructure, equipment, instructional materials, teaching staff, proper funding and staff motivation to guarantee qualitative education under the current free and compulsory basic education programme.
RECOMMENDATION
The following recommendations have been made based on this report to improve effective teaching and learning in public secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State.
- Adequate classroom blocks should be provided in public secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State to cater for the teacher-student ratio prescribed by Federal Republic of Nigeria (2013).
- Principals should ensure proper supervision of instructions to guarantee quality control and assurance in their schools.
- Imprest to the schools should be paid by state government as at when due to enhance administrative effectiveness.
- Government should employ more qualified teachers into the public secondary school system in Akwa Ibom State so as to meet the prescribed teacher-student ratio in Junior and Senior Secondary Schools.
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ANNEXURES
Annexure 1: State Secondary Education Board, Uyo. Teaching and Non Teaching Staff Disposition (2015).
Annexure 2: State Secondary Education Board, Uyo. Teaching Staff Analysis (2015).
Annexure 3: State Secondary Education Board, Uyo. Summary of Class Enrolment (2015).
Annexure 4: West African Examination Council Results for 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Annexure 5: State Secondary Education Board, Uyo. Summary of Qualifications for Teachers and Non-Teaching Staff.
