Influence of quality assurance and standards officers’ (QASO’S) instructional supervisory practices on curriculum implementation in public primary schools in Wareng Sub-County Uasin Gishu County Kenya

Abstract

In Kenya, the government’s priority in education is in ensuring that quality is maintained at the Directorate of Quality Assurance and Standards (DQAS) which is mandated to coordinate, follow up, and advise on curriculum delivery at school level. The Quality Assurance and Standards Officers (QASO’s) are members of that Directorate and are expected to uphold quality. The study investigated on the influence of QASO’s’ instructional supervisory practices on curriculum implementation in public primary schools in Wareng Sub-County, Uasin Gishu County in Kenya. It was guided by the following research objectives: regular visits to schools, provision of in-service training on effective teaching and learning methods, guidance on formulation of objectives and content delivery, coordination of co-curricular activities and doing research by using follow-ups on assessments on challenges pertaining teaching and learning in primary schools. The research study adopted a descriptive survey design. Simple random sampling was used to select 10% of the128 public schools in the Sub-County. The study sample was composed of 1 Sub-County Quality Assurance and Standards Officer and 6 zonal QASO’s who were purposively selected from each zone in the Sub-County. From the sampled 56 schools, the 56 head teachers were automatically selected and 168 teachers were randomly selected from those schools. Questionnaires were used to gather data from teachers and head teachers while interview schedule guided the interviews with the DQASO’s and ZQASO’s. A pilot study was conducted outside the study area to assist in measuring and improving the reliability of the instruments. Data was analyzed using SPSS and findings were presented in frequency tables. The study findings established that QASO’s visited other schools once per year (14.9% of respondents) but they carried out their assessments in most of the schools once a term (62.6 % of respondents). On content delivery the QASO’s advised teachers on importance of planning and use of syllabus in scheming. The study also revealed that In-service training were rarely organized (65.5 % of teachers and 62.5% of head teachers) in the zones but for the times they are organized new teaching methods are taught and other relevant knowledge for improving teaching skills. Most respondents (78.6 % of teachers and 64.3% of head teachers) hailed QASO’s that they do research on challenges facing teaching and learning. On coordination of co- curricular activities, majority of teachers (46.4 %) indicated that QASO’s rarely organized or coordinated co-curricular activities. The findings indicated that during assessments, QASO’s rarely (64.9% of teachers and 80.4% of head teachers) advised teachers and head teachers on co-curricular activities. The study recommended that QASO’s supervisory visits should be done twice in a term. In-service training programs should be organized every term on curriculum changes, new policies, latest innovations and challenges facing teaching and learning. Finally the study recommended that QASO’s should accord co-curricular activities equal measure of attention during assessment for promotion of all goals of education and development of an all-round individual in the learner.