EFFECTIVENESS OF SCHOOL INSPECTION IN STAFF DEVELOPMENT IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN WAKISO DISTRICT, UGANDA

Abstract

The study investigated the effectiveness of school inspection in staff development in secondary schools in Wakiso District, Uganda. The reviewed literature discussed the problems in school inspection practice including poor inspector skills and an emphasis on control with little support to schools especially in staff development. The researcher used a mixed methods approach combining the phenomenology and survey designs. The target population was 101 headteachers and 5050 teachers in 101 secondary schools and 13 regional secondary school inspectors. The actual sample consisted of 137 subjects including 27 headteachers, 104 teachers, 5 inspectors and one director at the Directorate for Education Standards. The study was guided by Ali’s (1998) Supervision-For-Teacher-Development model which is anchored on the philosophy of professional learning communities. Questionnaires for headteachers and teachers, an in-depth interview guide for inspectors and a document analysis guide were designed to collect the requisite data. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 16.0. Frequencies, percentages and means were used to analyse and interpret the quantitative data. Qualitative data were analysed by coding and identifying emerging themes for interpretation. Findings revealed that school inspection was weak in facilitating staff development in secondary schools because the process lacked in evaluating teacher practice, in providing adequate feedback and in post-inspection follow up; and that headteachers based staff development activities more on outcomes of internal evaluation than on those of school inspection. The study recommends that inspectors be offered further training to attain new knowledge and skills; and that teachers and headteachers be trained in school internal evaluation to complement school inspection.