Challenges Facing Instructional Supervision in Public Secondary Schools Students in Nyamagana District, Tanzania

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the challenges facing instructional supervision in public secondary schools in Nyamagana district. The study was guided by Path Goal theory. The study adopted a mixed research approach and a descriptive survey design. The target population of the study was 1522, consisting of 1470 teachers, 30 heads of secondary schools, 18 ward Education Officers, 3 quality Assurance Officers and 1 District Education Officers. Stratified random sampling was used to select a sample of 94 teachers while 7 school heads, 3 Ward Education Officers, 1District Education Officer and 1Quality Assurance Officer were purposively selected. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics in terms of frequency tables and %ages were used to analyze the quantitative data while thematic approach was used to analyze qualitative data. The findings indicated that, instructional supervision activities are highly concentrated within the school with most tasks performed by the school heads and heads of departments. External school supervisors such as District Education Officers and Quality Assurance Officers were less involved in instructional supervision activities at the school level. Secondly, it was found that instructional supervision in many schools is hindered by lack of instructional resources, harsh language used by supervisors, lack of teacher accountability, culture in schools as well as excessive administrative workload of school heads. The study concluded that the government should increase funding for instructional supervision activities. In addition, there is a need for continuous capacity building of instructional supervisors.