INTRODUCTION
Inspection has been a part of education in Nigeria as far back as 1882 during the
colonial period, it was introduced by the colonial government to control education and
in the same year, the first educational ordinance was passed. The main aim of
inspection is to maintain standards and improve the quality of learning of students and
a better outcome of their performance.
THE CONCEPT OF SCHOOL INSPECTION
In The oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of current English, the word inspect
means to:
i. To look at something or someone carefully in order to discover information,
especially about their quality or condition.
ii. To officially visit a place or a group of people in order to check that everything is
correct and legal.
Our main focus on the study is "school inspection" which is an inspection that has to
do with educational matters and takes place in a school, therefore, school inspection
can be briefly defined as, "the official visit to a school for the purpose of monitoring
and evaluating academic performance and development with the aim of maintaining
and improving the quality of learning of students". It looks into all factors affecting
learning in the school system.
Inspection is usually conducted by external agents assigned to the school by the
federal, state or local government inspectorate services. Inspectors ensure that
effective and appropriate teaching methods are used and where deficiencies are
observed they often recommend the use of remedial therapies, at the end of inspection
visits, detailed reports are written to identify strengths and weakness of the school
with appropriate recommendations for improvement.
PURPOSE OF INSPECTION
From a careful study some reasons for inspecting schools include the following:-
i. Schools (mostly new ones) are inspected to check their level of suitability or
standard for the purpose of government approval, schools are expected to meet certain
standards in areas of consideration which includes number and qualification of
teachers, curriculum, suitability of buildings and equipment, after inspection has taken
place schools that meet the standards are approved while those that do not meet the
standards are expected to close down or sometimes given a time to upgrade
themselves or forced to closed down. Any school that continues to operate below
standard after the given frame of time for upgrading is seen as an illegal or an
unapproved school and is left to face the law.
ii. Schools are inspected as a result of situational demand, this type of inspection takes
place when there is an emergence of crisis in a school, in such cases the ministry of
education sets up a panel to investigate such cases which may be school-community
conflicts such as staff-staff, students-staff, staff-principal, students protests, riots,
misappropriation of funds, e.t.c, after such investigation has taken place, a report is
taken back based on the, specific case, it is not on any case as regards accreditation.
iii. Schools are inspected for operational improvement, when inspection is carried out
for this purpose, its aim is usually to pinpoint areas of deficiency in the school and
provide solution, in such cases, an inspectors visit a school for two to five days
examining the various aspects of the school system, they take records, evaluate the
staffing, the student population and the composition, the school finances, the
academic programme, written work, students progress records curricular activities,
health and sanitation status, after the checks have been made, the inspectors (s) then
hold a conference with the principal and staff and return to their based to report their
findings, such reports are usually valid assessments of the school system and they
indicate areas that need commendation and those that need a change.
iv. Schools are inspected for programmes recognition, this types of inspection is done
for examination bodies such as the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and
others to approve the schools academic programmes, when such inspection takes
place (especially in the case of new schools), a team of inspectors are usually sent to
examine all the subjects in terms of quality, quantity, staffing and equipment in which
the school wants to present candidates and the reports are sent to the examination
body for approval.
Other commonly examined components of the school system during inspection
include school organizational structure, school administration, personnel, pupils,
programme of studies, plant and equipment, others such as parent teachers
association, alumni association etc. however, the focus of this research work is
streamlined to the role of inspection on teacher performance.
RATIONALE FOR SCHOOL INSPECTION
According to the inspectors Manuel FME 2001 the following are some of the reasons
for school inspection.
i. School inspection is mandatory and not obligatory national policy education (3rd
Edition 1998) explicitly states that the federal, state and local government will
collaborate in monitoring and maintaining minimum standards at all levels of
education below the tertiary level; section (103). It also expands on the goals of
inspectorate services and functions of inspectors (sections 104 to 107), the very thing
which makes the current inspection services to be legal is the Decrees of 16 of 1985
which is titled Education (National Minimum) Standards and Establishment of
Institutions) Decree. Part ii, section 15 of this states that:-
It shall be the duty of the appropriate authority to keep itself informed of the nature of
(a) The instruction given at approved institutions to persons attending courses of
training
(b) The examinations as a result of which approved qualifications are attained and
appropriate certificates are awarded and for the purpose of performing that duty, the
appropriate authority may appoint inspectors to visit institutions or to oversee such
examination.
ii. Inspection shows the areas of strength and weakness of a school and in order to
improve teaching and learning and to assist in developing the competencies needed in
teaching.
iii. In some parts of our country other staff members and teachers are poorly-trained
and are found still retaining the job may be as a result of other reasons aside
improvement on their job, in cases like this the head teachers may be unwilling to
expose their incompetence, here inspection is very necessary.
iv. In a lot of cases, teachers often have little for self-examination, self- evaluation:
self-training due to the rigorous and energy-sapping activities involved in teaching,
school supervision cannot help in this case, therefore, there is a need for an external
agent to come in and help teachers to assess themselves with the mindset of correcting
their fault and making up for their lapses.
v. inspection serves as a school examiner and helps the school to work on teachers
performance in order to meet their instructional or educational goals.
vi. School proprietors and parents often want external reports added to
their schools apart from the praises schools give to themselves, the
inspection reports given to schools help them to identify their strengths and weakness
for them to upgrade themselves.
vii. Inspection serves as a tool for interpreting the school programmes to the
community.
viii. Through inspection reports the standard and quality of teaching il1l a
school is compared with that of a similar school somewhere else in
the country.
ix. Inspection brings together or creates a link between school staff and the ministry
of education.
CONCLUSION
In this paper, the purpose of school inspection were discussed. Most significantly,
school inspectors are poorly supported and trained and teachers have virtually no
input into the inspection process. Inspections as they occur today do not seem to fully
serve the needs of the Nigerian education system. Unfortunately, this trend does not
advance the Nigeria’s developing democratic dispensation or its transformation
agenda. Educational activities need supervision to achieve educational objectives.
Supervision increases teacher productivity, motivation, commitment and performance.
In order for educational supervision to be effective, it must be intrusive, adaptive,
proactive, comprehensive, and conclusive.
REFERENCE
Ehren, M. C. M., & Visscher, A. J. (2008). The relationship between school
inspections, school characteristics and school improvement. British Journal of
Educational Studies, 56 (2). 205-227.
Ekundayo, H. T., Oyerinde, D. O., & Kolawole, A. O. (2013). Effective Supervision
of Instruction in Nigerian Secondary Schools: Issues, Challenges and the Way
Forward. Journal of Education and Practice, 4(8), 185-191.
