Appraisal of the Functions of Evaluators  for Quality Assurance in Primary Schools  in South East, Nigeria

Ezenwaji; Ifeyinwa.Ogoegbunam; Ejionueme; Lambert K.; Ugwoke; Samuel C.; Chigbu; Baptista Chinyere.

Volume : III, Issue : III, March - 2014

Appraisal of the Functions of Evaluators for Quality Assurance in Primary Schools in South East, Nigeria

Ezenwaji, Ifeyinwa. Ogoegbunam, Ejionueme, Lambert K. , Ugwoke, Samuel C. , Chigbu, Baptista Chinyere.

Abstract :

There is a realization that the quality of teaching and learning has declined due to ineffective and inefficient monitoring of schools and this has provided an impetus for appraising the objectives which quality assurance agents of the inspectorate services is expected to achieve. A survey research-design was adopted for the study, two research questions and two null hypotheses, tested at (p < .05) level of significance, were used. Through a multistage procedure, three out of the five states were selected from South-East Zone. 371 head-teachers from public primary schools and 217 quality assurance agents of the inspectorate services (evaluators) were sampled. A 27 item questionnaire titled Primary Schools Appraisal Questionnaire (PSAQ), covering different areas of school evaluation, was developed by the researchers to get information from both head-teachers of public primary schools and evaluators. Cronbach Alpha method was used to determine the internal consistency of the PSAQ. The computation yielded reliability coefficient of 0.97, for the general cluster of the instrument. The findings of the study showed that although evaluators embark on routine monitoring and make recommendations to government based on the results of their visits, they do not close schools that are not performing up to expectation. The study also showed that evaluators lack facilities and equipment for school monitoring.