INTRODUCTION

Academic performance is the outcome of students' effort in examinations. Students'

academic performance is determined by a number of factors (Francescucci & Rohani,

2019). Academic achievement is important for the successful development of young

people in society. Students who do well in school are better able to make the transition

into adulthood and to achieve occupational and economic success. According to Costa

and Faria (2018) academic performance is the measurement of student achievement

across various academic subjects. Konold et al. (2018) maintained that teachers and

education officials typically measure achievement using classroom performance,

graduation rates and results from standardized tests. Having education in an area helps

people think, feel, and behave in a way that contributes to their success, and improves not

only their personal satisfaction but also their community.

Students’ academic performance is affected by many factors including gender, age,

teaching faculty, students schooling, father/guardian social economic status, residential

area of students, medium of instructions in schools, tuition trend, daily study hour and

accommodation. Ankoma-Sey and Maina (2016) asserted that management and

supervision has an influence on academic performance of pupils in schools. In all facets

of life, supervision has become a cross-cutting edge tool and a pivot around which

performance revolves. There are widespread and on-going debates centered on the

influence of effective supervision on academic performance in our academic institutions.

Supervision is viewed as a means or process to an end. This is supported by Mian et al

(2020) who that supervisors are expected to assess the extent to which educational

objectives are actually being realized, to collect some data in terms of previously stated

objectives in which some judgment can be assessed.

subordinates are all contributing towards effective learning process. Helda and Syahrani

(2022) stated that supervision attempts to look into the organization of learning

programmes, the grouping of pupils, method of evaluating, reporting and determining

pupil’s progress, the content of the curriculum, the teaching methods, the philosophy and

practicing of discipline, the time schedule, place and procedure of staff meetings,

procedures used in parents conference, the study and use of the community resources. All

these are evaluated and thoroughly discussed in the attempt to improve the learning and

growing of the students. The concept of supervision is one that describes a process that is

common to all professions and occupations. No organization can function effectively

without it. Supervision is an interaction between at least two persons for the improvement

of activity.

The School is an organization of complex activities which are carried out by people and

are coordinated by different persons. Thus, management is necessary in school to co-

ordinate the various activities of the units for goal achievement. Management in school

entails working with and through teachers, non-teaching staff and pupils or students to get

things done effectively. School management has its attention primarily on the school. It is

more concerned with the institution, its goals, policies and execution of these policies. In

school management, the primary aim has to do with the improvement of teaching and

learning, and all the activities of the school (Shaturaev & Bekimbetova, 2021).

Tanjung (2020) defines management as a process consisting of planning, organizing,

actuating and controlling, performed to determine and accomplish the objectives by the

use of people and resources. It can be deduced from the above definition that, effective

management involves critical thinking of an action in advance, coordination of both

human and material resources at one’s disposal, motivating and giving direction to
subordinates and controlling to ensure that there is no digression from the set target.

Andriani et al. (2018) indicated that educational management is the process of planning,

organizing, directing and controlling the activities of an institution utilizing human and

material resources so as to effectively and efficiently accomplish the function of teaching,

extension work and research. Educational management is concerned with people. It is by

through and for the people.

The contributions of education to national development are uncountable and very

important to every nation in the world. A nation’s education therefore functions to

maintain and integrate the national structure. It is through education that a nation prepares

within its children, the essential conditions of its very existence. The school system has

the task of training the future leaders of the nation to be imbued with the right attitudes,

values and skills that will help them to make intelligent decisions, and be abreast with the

fast moving and dynamic world around them. Education has therefore been identified by

many as the vehicle through which socio-economic development of a nation can be

attained. To this end, many countries, including Ghana, have been making efforts to

expand and improve upon the educational system as part of their overall development

plans to relate education to the programme of national economic and social development.

School inspection in Ghana is as old as the introduction of the western system of

education. According to Musaazi (1985), it started in missionary schools and became

government concern in 1882. According to Coe (2002) supervision of the instructional

process began in the Gold Coast schools around 1887. There were visits by officers who

were generally referred to as inspectors. In 1900, the remuneration of a teacher was

determined by the level of academic performance of his/her pupils; this system was called

“Payment by results”. It was assumed that it would motivate the teacher to give off his
best. Payment by result was abolished in 1906 because pupils were over beaten to force

them to learn to pass exams.

At the district level, supervision and management is headed by an Assistant Director of

Education who works under the District Director of Education. At the district level there

are circuit supervisors who are supposed to be principal Superintendent in rank and work

directly under the Assistant Director in charge of supervision. There are also subject

coordinators for all subjects, who supervise the activities of the teachers at Primary and

Junior High School levels. The staff at the supervision division has the responsibility for

improving the standards and quality of education at the pre-tertiary level. Their other

functions, apart from leading teams of inspectors; include constant consultation with the

division of curriculum and instruction in schools.

Modern day supervision however should not be considered as a mere classroom visits,

individual teacher conferences, rating of teachers and writing of reports. Supervision has

grown to include the curriculum, materials for instruction, the school community and

other administrative functions. (Elesbree, Harold & Willard 1979). These administrative

functions are curriculum organization, policies on pupils’ progress, method of pupil

assessment and reporting to parents, allocation of funds for materials and equipment and

morale of staff. All these administrative functions affect the teaching and learning process

and cannot be divorced from supervision. Supervision, therefore, becomes an integral part

of administration. From the above, it could be said that any leadership that is primarily

concerned with the school is considered management and supervision itself is a major

division of educational administration.

The decline of standards in the quality of teaching and learning in Schools in Ghana

continues to be a worry and concern of government, parent and all stakeholders in

education (Sawyerr, 2004; Agbenyega, 2007). According to statistical reports on the

performance of the candidates commissioned by the Eastern Regional Directorate of

Ghana Education Service (GES) conducted on the 5th of August, 2021, only 21655

candidates out of a total of 49216 candidates who wrote the examination in 2020 passed

by securing aggregates between 6 and 30, representing 44%. In view of this, hardly a

week passes without a mass media report or comment on the poor performance in the

Basic Schools and in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). According to

Wiles (1967), supervision is an effective method that could be used to promote good

results as far as teaching and learning are concerned. It then follows that where there is an

effective supervision of instruction coupled with enough teaching and learning resources

available, pupils’ performance is expected to be good. Management and supervision of

schools for the purposes of achieving educational goals in the state has been the desire of

every right thinking educational administrators.