ASSESSMENT OF STAFF SUPERVISION AND DEVELOPMENT IN SELECTED DAY SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN MALAWI

Abstract

The Malawi‟s government has introduced several policies to improve the quality of education. One of them is the National Educational Standards for primary and secondary schools which was introduced in 2015. The main problem for this study was that, despite the agreements by many scholars that effective staff supervision enhances teacher development, students‟ performance in Community Day Secondary Schools is poor. The purpose of the study was to assess the implementation of staff supervision and development in the National Education Standards Policy document in the selected Community Day Secondary Schools in the South West Education Division. The study employed a qualitative research design, to be specific, a case study strategy was adopted. In-depth interviews and Focus group discussions were methods adopted to collect data from two CDSSs in Blantyre district. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the data. The study revealed that both staff supervision and staff development were conducted in the schools although not regularly as spelled out in the policy document. Additionally, the study found that most participants agreed with the stipulated procedures of staff supervision and development in the NES policy document to be maintained. The contextual challenges that school supervisors encounter include: lack of funds, responsibility demands of supervisors, negative attitude towards supervision and staff development and among others. In view of the findings, the following policy and practice implications were made: Firstly, it is the researcher‟s view that the government through MoE needs to allocate more funds into schools specifically allocated for staff supervision and staff development for smooth implementation of staff supervision and development. Secondly, to enhance staff development practices, the Head teachers must encourage the participation of teachers through the HoDs in the identification of their professional needs and school improvement priorities. Finally, the government through MoE needed to train all the senior staff on the skills, competencies, and attitudes towards school-based supervision and CPD if the standard is going to achieve its intended goals. Further research should employ a quantitative methodology in order to generalize the findings to a larger community.