1.1 Background of the study.
Education is seen as the backbone of
development in any nation. It improves the quality of life of a society
through refinement of its potentials. Education further enhances the
application of man’s achievement towards improvement of his environment.
In every known great nation, therefore, national development was
preceded and accomplished by educational advancement. Today, there is an
increasing faith in the casual relationship between education and
economic development especially in the developing countries like
Nigeria. Education has been seen as a vehicle for economic,
social-cultural and political development of nations and individual
(Obayan, 2006). Education is a social process in which one achieves
societal competence and individual growth. Education s the art of
learning about one-self and one’s environment for the purpose of
self-development (Oyedeji, 1998).
Education is a tool for building a
united, independent, wealthy and egalitarian society that can maintain
its’ tradition and values. In the past however, there was no
well-planned and programmed educational system and this was precisely
1882, when most schools were mainly being maintained, owned and financed
by the missionaries. Historically, Western type of education came to
Nigeria in 1842 by the missionaries which led to the establishment of
the first school called “the Nursery of the Infants’ Church” at Badagry
in 1843. (Muraina, 2012; Jacob and Weigman, 1973). This ownership of
school by the missionaries has not given room for inclusion of
principalship into educational system. Even most of the schools then
were being headed by the missionaries with the sole aim of teaching
Nigerians the gospel of evangelism and inclusion of reading, writing and
Arithmetic (3Rs) in their curriculum; not until when the first and most
acceptable educational ordinance was passed across, that is 1887
education ordinance, which among others paved way for proper planning of
the schools, standardization of schools, grants-in-aids, setting
procedures for opening and closing of schools, division of schools into
private and public schools, etc. This thereby give rise to government
inclusion of principals into the secondary schools in the country. Thus,
the origin of the principalship in secondary education could be traced
to 1887 when the government began to finance, established and own some
secondary schools as a result of the 1887 Education Ordinance. The
secondary school system is however a very crucial level of educational
system. It is a gateway to the tertiary education and a ripe age for
developing students’ potentials. Its benefits should be commensurate
with the cost, for this reason, the performance at this level is of
significant importance to educational planners and managers. The school
as a formal organization is the centre for all teaching-learning
processes. The principals and teachers as human resources are
significant in goal achievement of the school instructional leadership,
pupils relationship, academic achievement of the students, manipulation
of facilities and other areas of teaching task must be performed at the
school building and within the community level.
Oyedeji (1998), observed that of all the
major functions of the school principals are called upon to play, while
speaking on the supervising skills of the principals, no one is greater
than their functions as supervisors, instruction and curriculum
planners. Supervision includes supporting services to teachers, in that,
it helps the teachers to learn what their problems are and then seek
the best methods of solving them. Good’s Dictionary of Education (1998)
defined supervision as all efforts designed to school officials towards
providing leadership to the teacher and other educational workers in the
improvement of instruction. Ojo (1991) defined supervision in the
school context as “a process which dynamic and on-gong in outlook
towards realizing the creative ability of children, teacher and the
community for the development of the best possible educational
programmes. The principals are however, the overall supervision of the
school programmes and will help to influence the administrative
effectives of principals as a whole. The supervising skills of the
principals will help in rating teachers, help the teachers to use
various measures of self-evaluation and to a large extent make the
principal to provide suitable enabling environment for teaching/learning
activities.
Talking on principals’ communication
skills and administrative effectiveness, Mbiti (2000) remarked that
communication is the life blood of any organization. No institution can
meet the need of its people without proper communication. Information
has to flow from the school management to the staff and students, head
of department must be briefed by the principals before disseminating the
news to other members of staff and students. Principals should however
make judicious use of communication skills to encourage good
communication between the school and community, establish close
relationship between parents by holding meeting with them at intervals,
building parent teacher link. The importance of communication skills in
administrative effectiveness of the principals cannot be over emphasized
perhaps, that is why Morgan (2002) lamented that; possibly the most
vital and fundamental element in the management process is based on
working with people, which is done through some forms of communication.
He stated further that the success of managerial actions depends to a
large extent on the effective use of communication process. Nwankwo and
Luisggel (2002), also stated that keeping everyone informed is a
positive way of ensuring effective leadership, co-operation,
co-ordination, support and commitment.
1.2 Statement of the Problem.
The standard and effectiveness of a
school depends mainly on the administration of the school. Therefore
there is need to research the innovative administrative measures needed
to enhance instructional effectiveness of secondary schools.
1.3 Objective of the study.
The main objective of the study is to
research innovative administrative measures for enhancing instructional
effectiveness of secondary schools.
1.4 Research questions.
What is the meaning of innovation?
What is the meaning of administration?
What is the effect of good administration on secondary schools?
What are innovative administrative measures for enhancing instructional effectiveness of secondary schools?
1.5 Significance of the study.
This study will help the nation in
determining the innovative administrative measures needed to enhance
effectiveness of secondary schools in Nigeria.
1.6 Scope of the study.
This study focus on researching the
innovative administrative measures needed for enhancing instructional
effectiveness of secondary schools.
1.7 Limitation of the study.
This study is limited to administration of secondary schools.
References.
Good, C.V. (1998). Dictionary of Education. New York, McGraw hill book loy.
Jacob, L. and Weigman (1973). The Principalship. New perspective: Practical Hall Inc. New Jersey: Eagle wood cliff.
Muraina, M. B. (2012). An introduction to history and policy of education in Nigeria. Ilorin: Website prints.
Morgan, J.F. (2002). Principle of administration and supervision management. New Jersey: Prentice hall.
Nwanwko, J.I. and Luisegged, A.M. (2002). Effective management executives. Ibadan: Durapres Ltd.
Obayan, P.A. (2006). Revitalizing Education in Africa. Ibadan: Striling Horden Publishers. Nigeria.
Ojo, A.O. (1991). Supervision of
instructional programmes. In tella, Awoyele and Alani (Eds).
Introduction to administration in education. Lagos: Basic book
Publishers.
Oyedeji, N.B. (1998). Management in education, principles and practice. Lagos: Aras Publishers.