e-ISSN : 2620 3502

International Journal on Integrated Education

p-ISSN : 2615 3785

PRINCIPALS' QUALITY MANAGEMENT SKILLS AS

DETERMINANTS OF GOAL ATTAINMENT IN
SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN AHIAZU MBAISE LOCAL
GOVERNMENT AREA, IMO STATE
Stanley U. Nnorom1
1
Educational Management & Policy
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-0276-7830
Email: [email protected]
&
Dr. Oladotun Opeoluwa Olagbaju2
2
Linguistic Education
Legacy University Banjul, Gambia
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-0912-9199
Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT
Globally, education is regarded as an instrument per-excellence for the development of any nation.
Nigeria, like other developing countries, needs to combat unemployment, poverty, social ineptitude, scientific
and technological backwardness. The paper examined quality management skills adopted by school principals
to enhance attainment of secondary education goals in Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State.
Two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The
26 principals of public secondary schools in Ahiazu Mbaise LGA constituted the sample for the study using
the census approach. An instrument titled: Principals' Quality Management Skills as Determinants of Goal
Attainment Questionnaire (PQMSDGAQ) with a reliability coefficients 0.89 was used for data collection.
Data was collected and analyzed through the Pearson Product Moment Correlation analysis. The results
showed a significant relationship between effective 'instructional supervision, teachers’ performance
evaluation and secondary school goal attainment. It was therefore recommended that principals should
constantly carry out routine, and periodic instructional supervision and teachers’ performance evaluation to
fast track secondary school goal attainment.

Key Words: Principal, Quality Management Skills, Goal Attainment, Instructional Supervision,
Performance Evaluation.

1. Introduction
National growth and development is a hallmark of high productivity of the employees. Education is
widely acknowledged as a major instrument for promoting socio-economic political and cultural development
because it is an indispensible instrument for human progress, empowerment and capacity development. The
Federal government, in its opening statement on the National Policy on Education (NPE), maintained that
“education in Nigeria is an instrument per-excellence for effecting national development” (FGN, 2013:1). This
suggests that a nation that lacks a sound educational culture and philosophy stands the risk of decay whereas
a nation that embraces education development is bound to achieve greatness and success (Amaechi et al,
2012).
Among all the levels of education in Nigeria, secondary education is the mediator between primary
and tertiary education. Secondary school teachers determined the level of efficiency, effectiveness,
productivity and ability to achieve the educational goals in any country. Based on principals’ quality
management skills, the teachers, (Eduese, 2006) serve as the fulcra upon which the entire education system
revolves. According to FGN (2013), secondary education is a form of post-primary education given to youths
to prepare them for livelihood and higher education. This level of education provides youths with enabling
skills and necessary competencies for civic participation and economic success (Anyadike, 2013).
The attainment of these noble goals and objectives of secondary education highly depends on effective
instructional leadership as well as the adoption of appropriate quality management skills by school principals.
It is the principal with its managerial skill that plays a significant role in the attainment of the goals and
objective of secondary schools. However, goal attainment in secondary education implies the successful
inculcation of the relevant knowledge, skills, and attitude needed for successful life in the society and
academic advancement to or success in higher education. It is obvious that goal attainment in secondary school
education as stated in the NPE involves the production of functional school leavers who can contribute
positively to the development of the society as well as have the intellectual capacity to progress academically
in tertiary education. The attainment of the goals of secondary education is absolutely important, especially in
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developing countries where youths hardly pursue tertiary education. Failure to achieve the set goals of
secondary education will result to a huge damage to any nation and the world at large.
In spite of the seeming awareness of the utmost importance of secondary education by key players in
the subsector, it seems, the attainment of its goal and objectives remains a mirage especially in Ahiazu Mbaise
Local Government Area. Hence, many school leavers complete this cycle of education without acquiring the
basic skills of reading, writing and effective communication. This could be attributed to poor quality control
initiatives by most secondary school principals in the Local Government Area. However, Umeh (2018)
observed that principals' role in the actualization of national and global goals is increasingly becoming
significant with much emphasis on educational activities in school. In fact, principals are responsible for
ensuring quality education in schools. Arekewuyo (2009) maintained that the principal is the chief executive
of the secondary school in Nigeria and s/he is responsible for all that happens in the school. Therefore, the
effectiveness or attainment of the goals of secondary education to a large extent depends on the effectiveness
of the School administrators (Akomolafe, 2012) who are responsible for conducting the activities of the school.
Hence, administrative effectiveness has been pointed out as a key variable inhibiting the attainment of the
goals of secondary education. Ebuara (2012) found that effective principals work relentlessly to improve
achievement by focusing on the quality of instruction. He further stated that it helps define and promote high
expectations, teacher isolation, fragmented effort, and connect directly with teachers and the classroom.
Effective principals also encourage continual professional learning. They achieve this through effective quality
managerial skills.
Quality management is the act of overseeing all activities and tasks that must be accomplished to
maintain a desired level of excellence. This includes the determination of a quality policy, creating and
implementing quality planning and assurance, and quality control and quality improvement (Igbokwe, 2015).
Quality management skill is a comprehensive practice that aims to promote the performance of organizations
through the cultivation of sound quality culture. It is also the development of a set of values and convictions
that make every employee aware of the fact that quality is the main goal of the organization. Quality control
is a procedure or a set of procedures intended to ensure that a manufactured product or performed service
adheres to a defined set of quality criteria or meets the requirements of the client or customer. Therefore, in
the context of the secondary school, quality control measure entails a variety of procedures intended to protect
academic standards and promote/improve learning conditions such as effective instructional supervision,
teachers’ appraisal or evaluation, and strategic school visions. Adeyinka cited in Adenaike and Olaniyi (2010)
advises that school managers are expected to incorporate and build into the system in which they manage self-
regulating and effective control mechanism and measure so that the purpose of the system could be achieved.
Similarly, Adenaike and Olaniyi (2010) opine that quality management control in secondary education is
supervision and inspection. They further maintained that quality management control could be internal or
external. It is said to be an internal quality control measure when it is carried out by principals, vice-principals
and sectional heads. It is external when carried out by staff of Local Government Authority designated as
monitoring officers and inspectors from the zonal education office. The key among the internal quality
management skills adopted by principals in secondary schools in Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area is
instructional supervision and routine teacher evaluation. These control measures are very essential to the
achievement of the goals of secondary education because they are directly concerned with the quality of
teaching and learning process which determines the quality of school leavers from this level of education.
Instructional supervision has been cited by many scholars as an essential quality control measure that serves
as a catalyst in the production of desirable high quality students in secondary school. Definitively, instructional
supervision refers to fundamental activities aimed at school improvement through the enhancement of
teachers' abilities by means of careful, purposeful and intelligent guidance (Chukwubikem, 2013).
Instructional supervision is an important aspect of educational management, it can be seen as tile
process of bringing about improvement in the teaching-learning process through a network of cooperative
activities and democratic relationship of persons concerned with teaching arid learning and it is considered as
an important activity to achieve an effective education system (Oyewble & Ehinola, 2014). It is mainly
concerned with pupil learning in the classroom, and it is seen as a collaborative effort which involves a set of
activities structured with the aim of improving the teaching and learning process thereby enhancing the quality
of students (Aguba, 2009; Archibong, 2013). This means that instructional supervision is characterized by all
the activities undertaken to help teachers maintain and improve their effectiveness in the classroom as well as
the quality of educational organizations.
It is therefore logical that to promote quality teaching and learning in basic schools in Ahiazu Mbaise
LGA, stakeholders need to pay attention to instructional supervision. Lockheed and Verspoor (1991) observed
that the quality of education partly depends on how well teachers are trained and supervised since they are one
of the key inputs to educational delivery. It is universally acknowledged that improvement in educational
systems is significantly dependent on effective teacher self-evaluation. Effective teaching evaluation is a key
to the enhancement of teaching skills, improvement of the quality of instruction or students’ learning, and the
attainment of the overall goals of education. Teacher evaluations are often design to serve two purposes which
are: to measure teacher competence and to foster professional development and growth (Nwankwo, 2014).
Effective teacher appraisal can also help schools to become sensitive to individual talent, performance, and
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motivation by allowing teachers to progress in their career and take on new roles and responsibilities based on
the evaluations of their performance. It is on this note that the study examined principals' quality management
control and secondary school goal attainment in Ahiazu Mbaise LGA.
2. Statement of the problem
There is need for improvement in secondary schools management in Nigeria, precisely in Ahiazu
Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo state because of the consistent average performance in examinations
and inability to achieve the basic goals of producing quality secondary school leavers. Reasons given for this
average performance range from inadequate number of teachers especially in rural areas, lack of trained
teachers and recruiting of unprofessional teachers to teach in public schools. There is need therefore to
examine the quality management skills adopted by the school principals’ in Ahiazu Mbaise LGA of Imo state
which is the focus of this study.
3. Purpose of the study
The study sets out to:
1.Determine the relationship between effective instructional supervision and secondary school
goal attainment.
2.Investigate the relationship between teacher performance appraisal and secondary school
goal attainment.
3. Hypotheses
The following research questions were answered in the study:
1. There is no significant relationship between effective instructional supervision and secondary school
goal attainment.
2. There is no significant relationship between teacher performance evaluation and secondary school
goal attainment.
4. Methods
The study adopted a descriptive research design of survey type. The population of the study was all the
26 principals of public secondary schools in Ahiazu Mbaise LGA for the 2017/2018 academic session. The
census approach was adopted to select the 26 principals as sample for the study. This was because the
population of the study is reasonably small and manageable. Principals' Quality Management Skills and
Secondary School Goal Attainment Questionnaire (PQMSSGAQ) were used to collect data from the
respondents. The (PQMSSGAQ) had two (2) sections. Section A dealt with demographic information. Section
B had twenty (20) items. Ten (10) items each were used to assess each sub-variable. Response pattern to the
items was structured on a four (4) point Likert type scale of Strongly agree (SA), Agreed (A), Disagreed (D),
Strongly Disagree (SD) with values 4,3,2, and1 respectively. Cronbach Alpha reliability technique was used
and 0.89 was the reliability coefficient derived. The researcher with the help of two trained research assistants
administered the instruments and data collected were analyzed with the help of SPSS version 20 using means,
Standard deviation and Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) analysis.
5. Results
6. Table 1: Pearson product moment correlation analysis of the relationship
between instructional, supervision and secondary school goal attainment
7. Variables N X S.D r-cal. Df
p-val.
8. Instructional supervision 26 18.70 3.51 .523* 24
.000
9. Secondary school goal attainment 26 20.51 2.81
10. **corr. Sig. at.001; df =24
26 20.51 2.81
**corr. Sig. at.001; df =24
The results in table 1 above, the p-value .000 is less than .05 level of significance at 24 degrees of
freedom. Based on this result, the null hypothesis was rejected while the alternate hypothesis was upheld. This
implies that, there is a significant relationship between Instructional Supervision and Secondary School Goal
Attainment in Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State.
Table 2: Pearson product moment correlation analysis of the relationship between
teacher Performance appraisal and secondary school goal attainment
Variables N X S.D r-cal. Df. P-val.

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Teacher performance appraisal 26 18.70 3.51 .435* 24 .000

Secondary school goal attainment 26 14.11 3.01
. ** corr. Sig. at .001; df= 24
The results in table 2 above, the p-value .000 is less than .05 level of significance at 24 degrees of
freedom. Based on this result, the null hypothesis was rejected while the alternate hypothesis was upheld. This
implies that, there is a significant relationship between Teacher Performance Appraisal and Secondary School
Goal Attainment in Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State.
6. Discussion of findings
The results as shown on table 1 for hypothesis 1 revealed that there is a significant relationship between
instructional supervision and secondary school goal attainment. The instructional supervision is an essential
school improvement exercise to help the teachers adopt instructional best practices that directly influence the
quality of teaching and learning process for both students and teachers. The findings of the study appropriately
align with the view of Soyewole and Ehinola, (2014) that instructional supervision is fundamentally a range
of activities aimed at school improvement through the enhancement of teachers' abilities by means of careful,
purposeful and intelligent guidance. Therefore, increase in teachers’ efficiency will result to the attainment of
the overall goals of education.
The second finding of the study was that teacher performance evaluation significantly relates with
secondary school goal attainment. The reason for these findings is not far-fetched because teacher performance
is universally acknowledged as an activity that leads to improvement in educational systems. Effective
teaching evaluation is a key index in helping teachers improve their teaching, which then improves student
learning thereby resulting in the attainment of the overall goals of secondary school education. This finding
agrees with Omoniyi (2014) that the assessment of teachers by school management in terms of general attitude
to work, teaching, and management contributes to the quality of instruction and students’ learning outcomes.
The study revealed that teachers' general attitude to work and teaching for effective service delivery could be
enhanced through regular assessment of teachers in the area of curriculum delivery and capacity building by
the school management. In the same vein, Onyali and Akinfolarin (2017) in their study on principals'
application of instructional leadership practices for secondary school effectiveness in Oyo State revealed that
effective teacher evaluation practices promote effectiveness of secondary school teachers. It was also revealed
that it enhances teachers' instructional delivery, commitment to teaching, and level of compliance to school
schedules.
7. Conclusion
The findings of the study shows that effective instructional supervision and routine teacher performance
appraisal are very essential tools that facilitate teachers' preparedness for the implementation of the school
curriculum and culminate into the achievement of the overall goals and objective of education. Therefore,
instructional supervision and periodic teacher evaluation are an essential quality control measure in the hands
of a creative and innovative principal for enhancing school goals attainment
8. Recommendations
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made:
1. Principals should constantly carry out routine and periodic instructional supervision of
teachers’ performance evaluation to fast track secondary school goal attainment.
2. The Principals should democratize instructional supervision practices, and periodic needs
assessment for secondary school teachers in the local government to enhance greater gains in the
achievement of school goals.
3. Principals should introduce staff appraisal through locally designed forms to enhance
standards and engage in evaluative class observation, to ensure that a variety of teaching methods,
apart from class discussion, are utilized.
4. The Imo State Senior Secondary School Board should frequently assess the quality of
teachers posted to schools to ensure that the policy frameworks that only applicants with the teaching
qualifications are recruited and posted to schools are adhered to.
5. Secondary school Principals should take up their roles as quality assurance officers in their
schools and ensure that there is adequate departmental supervision.

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