Principals' Attitude towards Quality Assurance and Standards Assessment: Implications to Secondary School Supervision in Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Quality assurance and standards assessment enables a country measure whether the quality of education it provides to its citizens meets the set threshold, relevant and is continuously maintained..Principals as firstline and internal quality assurance and standards officers are challenged to embrace quality assurance and standards assessment for improvement of the various dimensions of supervision in their schools. Literature reviewed identified  a gap connected to attitude, implying that principals' attitude towards the assessment have effect on the way they do supervision in schools. The study was guided by two question The study resonated with the Deming's supervision theory, Collegial and the Developmental supervision models. The embeded mixed research design. Questionnaires, interview guides and document analysis guide were used to collect data. Nine (9) Quality Assurance and Standards Officers and 83 principals were the target population. The sample consisted of 9 Quality Assurance and Standards Officers and 30 principals which was arrived at by use of purposive and sratified sampling techniques. All quantitative data from the questionnaires was entered into the SPSS computer program for descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics was analyzed into frequency counts, means and percentages. The inferential statistics and regression analysis of results was done for statistical relationship variables. The major findings were that principals had some negative attitude towards assessment. They reported that quality assurance and standards assessments were important but infrequent in secondary schools' supervision. The study found out that principals were not happy with some of the approaches used by quality assurance and standards officers while conducting assessments, which made them have negative attitude towards assessment. They desired frequent assessments, a positive approach to assessment by the officers and mandatory follow-up assessments. The assessments. The results showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between principals‘attitude towards assessment and effective supervision (rho = 0.527, p value <0.05). The study recommends that the Ministry of Education employs more officers and to in-service existing ones to make them have a positive and collegial approach while carrying out assessments. The Ministry should also avail sufficient resources to the officers to enable them undertake their work effectively. All principals should also be sensitized on the process of quality assurance and standards assessment benefits for them to embrace it.