Focus Areas of School Monitoring and Supervision –A Brief Prologue

The focus areas of school monitoring and supervision, as we all know, should be based on three level model of input-process-output. Equal focus at all levels is considered as the ideal condition for the better performance.

v Input Level Components

a. Availability of sufficient learners;

b. Provision of Infrastructure and Human resources, and

c. Provision of improved curriculum and teaching-learning materials

The learners (children) are the major input of education system which determines the utility of other input components of the system or the existence of the whole system. The infrastructure, human resources, curriculum and teaching-learning materials (TLMs) are subsequent requirement to initiate educational processes.

Therefore, the supervising officer should collect the information about the gender-wise, community-wise and age group-wise total children population of the particular school’s catchment area. S/he also needs to collect the gender-wise, community-wise and age group-wise children attending school. The records of out of school children in both the category viz. never enrolled and dropouts are to be maintained separately and the work plans should include the locality specific strategies designed to enroll these children in the school system.

The maintenance of Village Education Register in the school will provide catchment area-wise children population. It also provides the information about the number of specific age group children attending school and out of school. However, the concerned supervising officer has to earmark the school catchment area carefully to avoid duplication and isolation of any households. Hence, the supervising officer should ensure the maintenance of Village Education Register in each school of her/his jurisdiction.

The attendance rates of teachers and students are to be calculated periodically and feedbacks are to be provided to the teachers with a view to improve institutional performance.

The availability of infrastructure (blackboards, classrooms, furniture etc.) and the human resources (school head, teachers, pre-primary teachers etc.) in the school is to be reflected with the performance of the school. Records of infrastructure and human resources available in the school are to be maintained monthly and to be submitted to higher authority in the beginning, mid and end of every academic session.

We know that the curriculum should fulfill the aspirations of the civil society and the government. Thus the supervising official should collect the perceptions of the civil society on curriculum being followed in the schools and keep records of it to integrate in the subsequent curriculum frameworks.

Teaching-learning materials are of two types viz. readymade like globe, maps, models, charts etc and developed by the teachers using locally available materials. The locally developed TLMs are more relevant and content specific than readymade one (procurement procedure decides this). Thus the supervising officer should ensure the development and use of both types of TLMs in teaching-learning processes by the teachers.

The supervising officer should also ensure the maintenance of inventory of TLMs of both types alongwith the reference books and other assets available in the school.

v Process Level Components

a. Improved teaching-learning methodologies and classroom processes with emphasis on learner’s attainment levels

b. Enhancement of institutional capacities

c. Institutional assessment and evaluation

Process is the activities conducted by using inputs to obtain desired outputs. The process of education includes the improved teaching-learning methodologies, classroom processes and institutional assessment and evaluation as mentioned above.

The teachers always talk about the Learning Environment of the children in their family. It is true that the maximum numbers of children enrolled in the government school are from socially, educationally and economically disadvantaged households which generally cannot provide suitable learning environment in their family. In addition, we have not to forget that the learning of a child also depends on the pedagogical process in the classroom; teacher competencies and teacher behaviour.

So it is the duty of every supervisory official to observe the Learning Environment (learner-friendly, conducive and stimulating) provided by the teachers to students in the school and in the classrooms. The schools need to create conditions in which optimal learning can take place, conditions (climate or environment) in which children feel psychologically and emotionally secure and where meaningful interaction takes between them and the facilitator (teacher) and their peers.

The supervisory officials should observe the social quality of the school and classrooms and ensure whether the learning is taking place with minimum stress and maximum effectiveness or not.

Improved teaching-learning methodology means the shifting of teaching-learning methodology from ‘Chalk-Talk-Text’ to ‘child centered activity based’ methodology. It pertains to interactive and joyful teaching-learning process like cooperative learning, group work, questioning, exploration/discovery, project approach, self learning, role play, dramatization, excursions, etc.

The supervisory officer should observe the classroom teaching of teacher if felt necessary. This activity is rather challenging and decisive for the supervisory officer and the teacher. This may cause misunderstanding if the supervisory officer is unknown about the ground rules of Classroom Observation. Hence, following ‘Ground Rules for Classroom Observation’ [interested readers can refer Marmar Mukhopadhyay’s Total Quality Management in Education, p. 226] may be useful for supervisory officers to conduct Classroom Observation.

The supervisory officer should ensure that s/he is not observing the class in fault finding way. S/he should record both the strengths and weaknesses of the teacher. Harsh words should not be used to record the teacher’s weaknesses which egg on de-motivation. After observation, the teacher should be called for the meeting and tell her/him about her/his strengths first, appreciate her/his good classroom practices with appropriate examples that the supervisory officer has recorded during her/his class observation. At last cordially inform her/him about the corrections/updations required for her/his classroom teaching. Give some examples that need corrections/updations and suggest some remedies.

Further, the supervising official should observe how a teacher utilizes his opportunity time; whether it is planned as per the prescribed syllabi or not. The time utilized by the teacher in non-academic works on special government duty is to be recorded separately.

The ‘Process’ also includes the teachers’ need assessment on pedagogical issues and the issues related to content areas of the textbooks. Thus, the diagnosis and recordings on these subjects needs to be done by the supervising officials at their respective levels during their school visits conducting classroom observation.

The community ownership with community monitoring is the new concept included in the ‘processes’ of education in government sector to make it more customer-based. Thus, it is expected to observe the involvement of community in plan formulation of every educational institution (Annual School Development Plan). The frequency and attendance of SMC meetings, Parent-Teacher Meetings, Mother-Teacher Meetings, etc. conducted in the school shows the extent of involvement of community in the school processes. The supervisory officer should take note of the resolutions and focus areas of such meetings and suggest the major areas concerned for quality improvement if required.

Assessment and evaluation are important components of teaching-learning process. Hence the next component of ‘Process’ is the assessment and evaluation. The techniques of evaluation determine the achievement of targeted components at ‘Output’ level. It is of two types viz. assessment of learners’ performance and teachers’ performance.

As we know that assessment and evaluation of the student help the teachers to identify strengths and weaknesses of individual children and provide scope for remedy. It is important that the teacher should use both formative and summative techniques of evaluation. In addition, the assessment and evaluation should target both cognitive and non-cognitive aspects of teaching-learning processes. It is highly expected to evolve appropriate tools of measurement to collect the grade-wise outputs in the school by the teachers.

The supervising official should see the pattern of questions prepared by the teachers to evaluate students in the school. The Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation is to be encouraged as it covers broader objectives of learning.

Assessment of ongoing classroom processes by conducting classroom observation with ample knowledge of teaching-learning methodologies and content areas of textbooks by the supervising official helps to promote school improvement.

In addition, the Performance Appraisal of Teacher is one of the best tool for the identification of levels of Teachers’ Performance Standard. It has following advantages:

ü Helps the teachers to recognize his own strengths and weaknesses;

ü Helps the teachers to improve his performance in a given role;

ü Helps the teachers in realistic goal setting;

ü Helps in creating desirable culture and traditions in the school;

ü Helps identifying teachers for the purpose of motivating and trainings;

ü Generates “significant, relevant, free and valid information” about teachers and their capabilities.

v Output Level Components

a. Number of graduates (effectiveness) and

b. Behavioural, academic and physical qualities of students and the graduates (efficiency).

Supervision is the activities that contribute to the achievement of preset goals of the plan targets. Thus the achievement of the goals by using inputs and processes is by and large called the output.

The number of children entered into the system clears all the grades of the level without repeating any of the grades with all the qualities indicated in (b) above is the required outputs of an efficient educational institution.

The following are the major key indicators of Outputs:

§ Grade-wise Net Enrolment Ratio;

§ Inter-grade transition;

§ Performance in curricular and co-curricular activities;

§ Selection of students in public examinations e.g. JNV Test, RIMC Test, Merit Scholarship Test, etc;

§ Level of ethical values in students’ behaviour.

The monitoring and supervision of schools are being done in Sikkim since the first inspector of school appointed in 1945. However, the modes and parameters for conducting supervision of schools are always been changing as per the change of educational concerns and perspectives. On the other hand, the effectiveness of monitoring and supervision always depends on its frequencies and follow ups. As such, the supervisory officers, if they are not school heads, should be equipped with feasible conveyance along with the capacity of conducting improved monitoring and supervision at their respective levels.

Namchi, June 2009