Role of quality assurance and standards officers in performance of Kenya certificate of secondary education in Kasarani District Nairobi county
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Date
2012-09-12
Authors
Mosigisi, Teresa Erica
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Abstract
Quality Assurance and Standards is important to school success in terms of its mission, goal and objectives. It is therefore imperative that school leadership put in place mechanisms to ensure that quality assurance practices are being followed in their schools with a sole aim of improving education quality and standards. However, in Kenyan secondary schools, there have been concerns expressed by government bureaucrats, politicians and a big proportion of the public over what they perceive as lack of and/or inadequate Quality Assurance practices in schools. The Sessional Paper No.1 notes that secondary education has been characterized by poor performance in national examinations, high pupil-textbook shortages, and a shortage of teachers, overburdened curriculum, and teacher promotion based on qualifications rather than performance. Quality Assurance and Standards Officers, being outsiders, educational administrators and teachers consider them as "intruders" into an area that they know little about considering the fact that currently there is no special training they undergo in the colleges of education in Kenya. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of Quality Assurance and Standards Officers in improving performance in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in Kasarani District. The target population for this study comprised of all the seven public secondary schools in Kasarani District, 184 teachers, all the seven principals of the schools, District Education Officer and the Quality Assurance and Standards Officer for Kasarani District. The study adopted a description survey design. Simple random sampling was used to sample teachers in all the seven secondary schools. The respondents comprised 49(26.63%) of the targeted teachers. Purposive sampling was used to sample the administrators who are the principals, the DEO and the QASO. Data was collected by use of the principals, teachers and QASO's questionnaires; and the DEO's interview schedule. Qualitative data was organized into themes, categories and patterns relevant to the study by tabulation. Quantitative data was coded and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) then results presented using descriptive statistics such as percentages, means frequency distribution tables and pie-charts. Findings of this research were reported by themes derived from the research objectives. From the study, QASO roles were found to be important in improving the quality standards and hence academic performance in public schools in Kasarani District. The key recommendation of the study was that there should be strengthened partnership and interaction between the teachers and the QASOs.
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102P.