CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Primary school is the most fundamental base for all education in Nigeria. It is the education given in institutions for children aged 6 to 11 plus. Since the rest of the education system is built upon it, the primary level is the key to the success or failure of the whole system, the duration is six years Federal Government of Nigeria (2004).
The federal government through the Ministry of Education and the Universal Basic Education Boards is responsible for the qualitative development of primary education. Primary schools are receiving an increasingly attention currently by the federal and state government. Federal government established the National Primary Education Commission, the State Primary Education Board and the Local Government Education Authority (NPE 2004). These boards are responsible for the management of primary schools in Nigeria through the education officers.
According to the FGN (2004: p.54), the goals of primary education are to:-
- inculcate permanent literacy, numeracy, and ability to communicate effectively;
- lay a sound basis for scientific and reflective thinking.
- Give citizenship education as a basis for affective participation in and contribution to the life of the society;
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Mould the character and develop sound attitude and morals in the child;
- Develop in the child the ability to adapt to the child’s changing environment;
- Give the child opportunities for developing manipulative skills that will enable the child function effectively in the society within the limits of the child’s capacity;
- Provide the child with basic tool for further educational advancement, including preparation for trades and crafts of the locality.
These above goals will form the basis of primary education in all the states of the federation. In pursuance of the goals above, the primary education shall be tuition free, universal and compulsory. To ensure that the above goals of primary education is closely monitored, a department in the ministry of education called “inspection” was carved out with the responsibilities of evaluation and assessing the students and the entire school.
Inspection is the process of testing, evaluating, criticizing and assessing the students and the entire schools to know how far the objectives of supervision have been achieved (Ogbonanya, 2002). Inspection is an instrument through which the political and administrative authorities maintained a satisfactory contact with schools, teachers, students and the community. (Aiyepeku, 1992) asserted that inspection is a direct means of bringing individual schools in tune with government education policies at all levels of education especially primary school education.
Inspection as a powerful way of monitoring the education system, tracking standard and performance level over a period of time, and of identifying school failure (Hargreavers, 2005). (Mgbodile, 1991) asserted that inspectors are officials in the ministry of education concerned with the inspection of educational institutions to see that standard are maintained and that schools are run in accordance with lay-down regulations. Mgbodile also observed that an inspector is an individual or group of individuals who come to investigate and to check that all is in order, that things are conforming to prescription.
An inspector is agent of the state who inspect school organization, administration as well as instruction. The researcher’s operational definition of school inspector as official in the ministry of education who is empowered by the law with the responsibilities of investigating the shortcomings of teachers and the over all instruction in the school and report back his findings to the ministry. Inspectors duties now go beyond ordinary acting as “watch dog” of educational standard. They offer a constructive advice and support to schools and teachers thereby contributing to development. Inspectors are now teachers friends, adviser, guide, professional colleague and consultants. (Ogunu, 2000), noted that the modern inspector hardly insult the teacher in the presence of pupils on the course of inspections. The changing role of the inspector from that of an authoritarian officer to that of democratic inspector has been observed. In the early period, the inspection model was authoritarian, some school inspectors have been criticized for being harsh to teachers and for harassing teachers even in the presence of their pupils (Isolo, 2000; Kamuyu, 2001).
Many school inspectors have developed questionable character; they look-down upon teachers with resentment and suspicious, they demand bribes from teachers in order to make favourable reports they dictatorial and have taken the attitude of “do as I say or get in trouble” and they work with unsmiling determination (Isolo, 2002). Describing unprofessional conduct of school inspector, (Kamuyu, 2001) noted that some inspectors behave like outsiders whose sole mission is to work against teacher to prove that no teachers is competent.
Effectiveness is the major responsibility of inspectorate service therefore to improve inspectoral practices in Nigeria education system, the federal government establish federal inspectorate services at federal level, state inspectorate units at state level and local government inspectorate units at local government level (Kayode, 2002). According to FGN (2004: p.56) the objectives of inspectoral services in Nigeria education are to:-
- ensure adequate and effective planning of all educational system;
- provide administrative and management control for the maintenance and improvement of the system.
- ensure quality control through regular and continues supervision of instructional and other educational services; and
- provide adequate and balanced financial support for all educational services.
To accomplished the above objectives, the federal government shall maintain and adequately fund the inspectoral Department of their ministries of education.
The general function of school inspector is to ensure adherence to a set policy, laws, regulations and improve standard of education in the school system (White, 2010). In other to achieve this, (White, 2010) noted that school inspectors are required to carryout certain specific functions as to;
- inspect all schools and write reports within the purpose of advising the commission on the matter which required decision making for improvement.
- inspect, educate and advice owners, managers, school boards/ committees and teachers on good implementation of schools development plans.
- initiate and conduct educational research and disseminate the information for the purpose of improving teaching standard in schools.
- act as a link between the school, other institutions and the ministry.
- conduct in-service training for teachers.
In Nigeria, the inspectorate service has numerous constraint ranging from the use of unqualified and untrained personnel in the inspectorate services, acute shortage of inspectors, lack of clear cut policies, inadequate working facilities, lack of pre-service training, communication problems, inspectors report and negative perception of the role of the inspectors by some school heads and their staff. The above constraints has constituted a barriers for effective inspectoral practices in our primary school education.
Off major important is the extent of adherence of guidelines in inspectoral practices. The inspector’s jobs has been made easier because of the manual published by the Federal Ministry of Education (2001).
The manual specified the guidelines for inspectorate practices which includes; raising the standard of education by helping to improve teaching and learning process, making sure that public funds are spent judiciously, ascertaining whether schools are functioning well and serving as a link between the school and the headquarters. Finding out and making sure that all the educational institutions are being run and managed according to national policy and objectives, carrying out inspection of schools owned by private or voluntary organizations for the purpose of government approval.
The duties of inspector includes; administration in collection with examination and certification, recruiting and promoting teachers, compiling statistics on education and investigating complaints and problems arising in the schools, advising on effective methods of teaching with individual teachers, allocating funds and equipment to schools for special project. Inspectors assess, evaluate and report on the work of teachers, the efficiency of schools and the effectiveness of curriculum development. They also coordinate the efforts of government community, teachers trainers, professional bodies and teachers in education, counseling teachers on personal and carrier matters, participatory in training activities in collection with teacher development.
