Abstract
Supervision
of instruction is aimed at improving the effectiveness of teachers so that they
can contribute maximally towards the attainment of educational goals. In
realization of this fact, the Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board
(ESUBEB) has not only adopted the unit supervision programme, but has also held
series of workshops for teachers, head teachers and unit supervisors as part of
her efforts at providing functional supervisory services for primary schools in
Enugu State. The purpose of this study was therefore, to find out the impact of
unit supervision programme being operated by the Enugu State Universal Basic
Education Board on the performance of public primary school teachers in Enugu
State. Four research questions were posed, and four hypotheses formulated and tested.
These hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. To obtain data for
answering the research questions and testing of the hypotheses, a structured
questionnaire with 23 items was administered on a sample made up of 881
teachers and 81 unit supervisors. The findings of the study included that the
unit supervision programme has helped in improving the performance of primary
school teachers in the state, teachers in the state have positive regard or
perception of supervision of instruction; and that the involvement of teachers
in supervision, by their joint and co-operative participation in supervision
will create a kind of atmosphere that would be conducive for making improvement
in teachers’ performance. There was statistically no significant difference
between the opinions of unit supervisors and teachers concerning both the
impact of the unit supervision programme on teacher performance and on
teachers’ perception of supervision. Sequel to the findings, it was recommended
among others that for unit supervisors to continue to perform their assignments
more effectively, efforts must be made by the Board to provide them with all
the necessary logistics, especially means of transportation to facilitate their
movement from one school to another. However, where this is not feasible, their
supervision allowance should be increased reasonably to enable them visit
schools regularly and with the necessary logistics provided, unit supervisors
should be made to visit one school at least twice a week.
