BRIDGING THE GAP OF QUALITY EDUCATION PROVISION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS: A REFECTION ON EXISTING INSTRUCTIONAL SUPERVISORY PRACTICES

The impact of instructional supervision in enhancing provision of quality education in learning institutions appears to be in doubt worldwide. The overall objective of the study was to establish the effectiveness of the instructional supervisory practices exercised by instructional supervisors in schools and their contributions towards quality education provision in secondary schools in Nairobi and Machakos counties, Kenya. The study sought to find out how Quality Assurance and Standards Officers prepared for conducting instructional supervision, assess how Quality Assurance and Standards Officers conducted instructional supervision in schools, evaluated and how Quality Assurance and Standards Officers provide preliminary instructional supervision reports and feedback in schools. Findings revealed that although the instructional supervisory practices exercised by QASOs in the schools appear well organized, there are certain inadequacies; the QASOs don?t do sufficient preparations before conducting instructional supervision in schools, QASOs hardly engaged principals and heads of departments in pre-observational conference, QASOs spend most of the time checking teachers? professional records, and there was usually no sufficient time for delivering feedback and engaging teachers in the plenary meetings. The study recommends that to reverse the trends, instructional supervisors need to be taken through intensive capacity building training to improve on how they exercise their instructional supervisory practices.