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THE ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL SUPERVISORS TOWARDS IMPROVING TEACHERS

PERFORMANCE

Article · February 2018

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Al-Munnir Abubakr
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THE ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL SUPERVISORS TOWARDS
IMPROVING TEACHERS PERFORMANCE

BY

AL-MUNNIR ABUBAKAR

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

FACULTY OF ARTS AND EDUCATION

BAUCHI STATE UNIVERSITY, GADAU-NIGERIA

abubakarmunnir81@gmail.com

mibnfat@yahoo.com

+2348026911525

+2348034456193

2015

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 Abstract
The supervisory role is one of the functions of a school operation that has been and
continues to be a very challenging aspect of administration in secondary schools.
This challenge involves a continuous process of assisting teachers to improve their
instructional performance in accordance to the professional code established by
the Ministry of Education. Supervision is very important in schools to ensure that
the standards set by the Ministry are adhered to and not only the institutional
goals but also the national goals are met. If supervision is enhanced then the
teachers’ job performance shall be monitored and timely effective corrective
measures implemented to ensure improvement of teacher competencies and
general professional growth. Instructional problems can be easily detected
through observations and appraisals.

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Key Words: Educational, Supervisor, Teacher
Introduction
Educational supervisors are the main administrators at educational institutions. A
principal or head teacher is the most common type of educational supervisor. You
must first be kind and gain experience of teaching if you wish to move into a
career in administration as an educational supervisor. You also need a high level of
education, excellent administrative skills and the ability to balance needs of
teachers with those of students and their parents.
Educational supervisors are responsible for overseeing all the administrative duties
at elementary and secondary schools, though they may sometimes work at
postsecondary institutions as well. An educational supervisor keeps the school
running. Budgets, teaching schedules, supplies, disciplinary actions, teacher and
staff evaluations, and communications with the public fall under the purview of
educational supervisors. They also have a hand in planning school events and
implementing curriculum.
Educational supervisors must also ensure that their schools follow the educational
directives set by local governments, state governments and the federal government.
It is the responsibility of the educational supervisor to make sure that their school
meets testing, budgetary and other standards set by their district or state. They must
make sure that every person working a school, including custodial teachers and
bookkeepers, are ultimately under the scrutiny of the principal and assistant
principal.
Supervision is the by overseeing of the performance or operation of a person or
group. It is the act of watching over the work or tasks of another person who lack
full knowledge of the concept at hand. Supervision does not mean the control of
other but guidance in a work in professional or personal context.

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Principals are answerable only to superintendents, who are technically educational
supervisors as well. Superintendents oversee all the schools and staff in their
district. They perform the same basic functions as principals but on a larger scale.
School superintendents must comfortable handle large amount of pressure and
responsibility. They should have excellent diplomacy and interpersonal skills as
they work closely with school boards and the administrative staff in their district
and others. Post secondary educational supervisors have duties that are more on
targeted depending upon the branch of the university for which they work. Some
postsecondary educational supervisors may have mainly business duties while
others are more research or academic pursuits.
The place of a teachers supervisor in secondary schools is an old in formal
education setting. It is very paramount to note that secondary schools, whether
government or private, always required mechanism for supervision geared towards
the development and enhancing the teachers performance. Consequently therefore,
the realization of the objectives of the curriculum depends essentially on the
quality of the teachers and the supervisors.
Literature Review
According to Smith (1996), supervision was found in the growth of charitable
social agencies in Europe and North America during the nineteenth century and it
involved the recruitment, organization and oversight of a large number of
volunteers and later paid teachers. Petes (1967: 170) pointed out that one of the
overseer’s job was to ensure that work was done well and to standard, and this
could be viewed as an administrative task.
Howley & Pendarvis, (2002) suggested that in order to reduce pressures for head
teachers, there is need to provide professional development programmes that
enable new administrators to meet challenges in educational leadership, which
obviously involves supervision.
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Stark, et al (1986) observed that to conduct oneself as a professional (exhibiting
“professional behaviour”) would indicate that the person’s actions remain in
accordance with specific rules, written or unwritten, pertaining to the standards of
a profession. In Uganda, the rules and regulations pertaining to standards of
education include the teachers’ code of conduct, education acts, legislative
instruments, executive instruments, policy guidelines and administrative
instructions and directives. The laws and regulations are operationalized through
policy guidelines which are issued by the Ministry of Education and Sports and
other authorities in form of administrative instructions, directives and circulars.
In supervising the principals gives direction to the teachers base on the
professional code of conduct. This should be geared towards enhancing the
teachers’ job performance in the institution. Lubanga (2004) confirms this when he
observed that it is the duty and responsibility of head teachers to acquire and
acquaint themselves with the Uganda government standing orders, to enable be
aware of their rights, privileges, obligations and responsibilities.
Glickman (1990) has noted that the supervisory goal of headteachers is to improve
classroom and school instruction by enabling teachers to become more adaptive,
more thoughtful, and more cohesive committed their work.
Kadushin (1992) observes that in the primary goal of administration and
supervision is to ensure the adherence of policy and procedure of work. The head
teachers are given authority to supervise the teachers to ensuring the correct,
effective and appropriate implementation of agency policies and procedures.
Supervision, according to Harris (1975), is what school personnel to maintain
teaching resource or change the school operation in the way that it directly
influence the teaching process employed to improve pupil learning. It is therefore a
highly instruction-related operation directed towards both maintaining and
improving the teaching–learning processes in the school but not highly pupil-
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related.
Garubo and William (1988) define the supervisory process as the procedure of
providing staff members with ego (self esteem) support and a way of solving
classroom problems in order to help them to grow and develop as professionals and
persons. Supervisors use skills and knowledge of human behaviour and the group
process to enable teachers increase their effectiveness and sensitivity in the
classroom through direct observation and appraisals.
Roles of Educational Supervisor
Supervisor has an important role to play in factory management. Supervision
means overseeing the subordinates at work at the factory level. The supervisor is a
part of the management team and he holds the designation of first line managers.
He is a person who has to perform many functions which helps in achieving
productivity. Therefore, supervisor can be called as the only manager who has an
important role at execution level. There are certain philosophers who call
supervisors as teachers. There are yet some more philosophers who call them as
managers. But actually he should be called as a manager or operative manager. His
primary job is to manage the teachers at operative level of management.
A supervisor plays multiplinary role at one time like -
1. As a Planner - A supervisor has to plan the daily work schedules in the factory.
At the same time he has to divide the work to various teachers according to their
abilities.
2. As a Manager - It is right to say that a supervisor is a part of the management
team of an enterprise. He is, in fact, an operative manager.
3. As a Guide and Leader - A factory supervisor leads the teachers by guiding them
the way of perform their daily tasks. In fact, he plays a role of an inspire by telling
them.

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4. As a Mediator - A Supervisor is called a linking pin between management and
teachers. He is the spokesperson of management as well as worker.
5. As an Inspector - An important role of supervisor is to enforce discipline in the
factory. For this, the work includes checking progress of work against the time
schedule, recording the work performances at regular intervals and reporting the
deviations if any from subordinate. He can also frame rules and regulations which
have to be followed by teachers during their work.
6. As a Counselor - A supervisor plays the role of a counselor to the worker’s
problem. He has to perform this role in order to build good relations and co-
operation from teachers. This can be done not only by listening to the grievances
but also handling and fix your the grievances to teachers.
Therefore, we can say that effective and efficient supervision helps in improving
better work performance, building good human relations, creating a congenial and
co-operative environment. This can really helps in increasing productivity.
Supervisor, being the manager in a direct contact with the operatives, has got
multifarious function to perform. The objective behind performance of these
functions is to bring stability and soundness in the organization which can be
secured through increase in profits which is an end result of higher productivity.
Therefore, a supervisor should be concerned with performing the following
functions -
1. Planning and Organizing - Supervisor’s basic role is to plan the daily work
schedule of the teachers by guiding them the nature of their work and also dividing
the work amongst the teachers according to their interests, aptitudes, skills and
interests.
2. Provision of working conditions - A supervisor plays an important role in the
physical setting of the school and in arranging the physical resources at right place.
This involves providing proper sitting place, ventilation, lighting, water facilities
7
etc. to teachers. His main responsibility is here to provide healthy and hygienic
condition to the teachers.
3. Leadership and Guidance - A supervisor is the leader of teachers under him. He
leads the teachers and influences them to work their best. He also guides the
teachers by fixing production targets and by providing them instruction and
guidelines to achieve those targets.
4. Motivation - A supervisor plays an important role by providing different
incentives to teachers to perform better. There are different monetary and non-
monetary incentives which can inspire the teachers to work better.
5. Controlling - Controlling is an important function performed by supervisor. This
will involve
Recording the actual performance against the time schedule.
Checking of progress of work.
Finding out deviations if any and making solutions
If not independently solved, reporting it to top management.
1. Linking Pin - A supervisor proves to be a linking pin between management and
teachers. He communicates the policies of management to teachers also passes
instructions to them on behalf of management. On the other hand, he has a close
contact with the teachers and therefore can interact the problems, complaints,
suggestions, etc to the management. In this way, he communicates teachers
problems and brings it to the notice of management.
2. Grievance Handling - The supervisor can handle the grievances of the teachers
effectively for this he has to do the following things :-
He can be in direct touch with teachers.
By winning the confidence of the teachers by solving their problems.
By taking worker problems on humanitarian grounds.

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If he cannot tackle it independently, he can take the help and advice of
management to solve it
3. Reporting - A supervisor has got an important role to report about the cost,
quality and any such output which can be responsible for increasing productivity.
Factors like cost, output, performance, quality, etc can be reported continually to
the management.
4. Introducing new work methods - The supervisor here has to be conscious about
the environment of market and competition present. Therefore he can innovate the
techniques of production. He can shift the teachers into fresh schedules whenever
possible. He can also try this best to keep on changing and improving to the
physical environment around the teachers. This will result in
Higher productivity,
High Morale of Teachers,
Satisfying working condition,
Improving human relations,
Higher Profits, and
High Stability
5. Enforcing Discipline - A supervisor can undertake many steps to maintain
discipline in the concern by regulating checks and measures, strictness in orders
and instructions, keeping an account of general discipline of factory, implementing
penalties and punishments for the indiscipline teachers. All these above steps help
in improving the overall discipline of the factory.
A supervisor holds a job position that can vary tremendously from school to
school. In many businesses, the supervisor’s job is to oversee the actual work the
school produces, train new employees in their jobs, give performance reviews, and
create work schedules. Thesupervisor in some settings may do some of the work,
or they may merely implement management’s wishes and work on employee
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training and production, acting as a go-between for employees and managers, and
occasionally assist with work as needed.
The position can hold a lot of responsibility or relatively little depending upon each
school’s definition. Sometimes the supervisor is merely the lead person for a
particular section of a school. In sales, supervisors commonly are required to sell
merchandise too, and occasionally, the title supervisor is given to
trustworthy personnel in retail stores who handle a few more tasks than the average
sales person, like granting returns and doing the books for the night.
In larger companies, supervisors can have numerous tasks. They may need to
address employee problems directly, taking disciplinary action when necessary.
They’re often involved in the hiring process of new employees and may sit on a
panel with managers and other supervisors to make choices about who gets hired.
They implement employee safety recommendations, and naturally they give orders
as requested by heads or managers of companies.
Most supervisors don’t directly get to hire or fire people. At least they don’t
necessarily make the decision of who stays or goes at a school. Many do have the
disagreeable task of conveying the news to employees that their services are no
longer required, and may take care of any last minute details associated with
terminating a person’s employment.
Supervision has three primary purposes
1. Develop knowledge and skill:
a) to receive feedback and reflect on the content and process of your work from
more than one perspective
b) to develop skills through the exchange of information, observation and practical
experience
c) to review and discuss individual client issues
d) to learn from others’ experiences, approaches, theories, models and techniques
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2. Maintain quality standards and ethics:
a) to promote the welfare of your clients
b) to fulfill requirement for your certification and accreditation
3. Support:
a) to enjoy professional and personal support
Educational Supervision as a Challenge

The educational supervisor is responsible for providing adequate support to the

trainee for the development of their learning requirements and ensuring that
appropriate training opportunities are made available to acquire the necessary
competencies. Through a regular appraisal process the educational supervisor
should also ensure that the trainee follows a programme which meets the
educational objectives as laid down by the training body. Learning outcomes
are discussed and agreed with the trainee, as well as the clinical supervisor in
charge of that period of training when appropriate. Unlike the clinical
supervisor, the educational supervisor may not be in direct clinical interaction
with the trainee but should have a good overview of training needs. This does
not mean that the same person cannot do both, though it is arguable that it is
best to separate the two posts and responsibilities.

Educational supervision therefore requires time, dedication and, more

importantly, adequate training to qualify for the role. Although it is
recommended that educational supervisors should have an understanding of
educational theories and practical educational techniques including constructive
feedback, communication skills and dealing with difficulties, regrettably this is
not the case. It is a matter of fact that all consultants are expected to become
qualified educational supervisors with minimal training or interest.
Furthermore, even those who are qualified in education find themselves taking

11
 on this role with little or no time allocation in their job plans and as an add-on
to their clinical commitments. Few would disagree that very little investment
has been made in this area. One of the major challenges facing postgraduate
education is meeting educational demands through formal training in
educational supervision. This admittedly would require time and resources.

Until then it may be advisable to limit educational supervision to those qualified

to do so and with adequate time allocation.

Conclusions
From the foregoing discussions, the study made the following conclusions:
Continuous training in supervisory skills for teachers and headteachers can create
an enabling environment where roles are appreciated in developing teaching
practices to enhance professional advancement.
Active involvement of teachers and inspectors in monitoring the teachers’ job
performance against set standards especially at departmental level and district level
promotes loyalty, commitment, professional relationship, classroom environment
and evaluation and assessment that ensure acquisition of professional competence.
Involvement of teachers and head teachers in making policies and decisions that
affect them and providing timely guidance from the district education officials and
inspectors equips headteachers with knowledge and managerial competencies to
improve on the head teachers’ supervisory role in sustaining the teachers’
motivation in the teachers’ job performance.
Recommendations
The findings from the study have prompted the researcher to make the following
recommendations.

12
1. Head teachers ought to get obligatory continuous in-service training to equip
them with managerial competencies for the development of teaching practices in
secondary schools.

2. Heads of departments and district officials must be take part in participatory

supervision through classroom observation to ensure effective monitoring of the
classroom teaching to enhance teachers’ professional competencies.

3. Education officers and inspectors of schools must be involved in the monitoring

of teachers’ job performance in secondary schools through periodical inspection to
promote quality control measures that promote and sustain enthusiasm in the
teachers’ job performance and improve on the supervisory role of headteachers.

References

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