Quality Assurance: Educational Short SUMMARIES. -Notes FOR PUBLIC-
By
Ma’aji Caleb Zonkwa
KADUNA STATE QUALITY ASSURANCE BOARD,
ZONKWA ZONAL OFFICE,
NIGERIA.
APRIL 2014
INTRODUCTION
When providing education to children and don’t know where the
education is going, you may wind up somewhere else not comfortable. More so, when collectively supporting and applying our hopes and energies in improving our children education
and the communities; how do we know if we are making the right educational
choices along the way? How do we notice when we are providing the right
educational support/provision and what changes can we make? More so, how do we
know we are making a difference for our children growth? And how do we know
what success of educational growth looks like to everyone in the local Communities,
States and the Nation? Through a
community participatory – based approach of educational investigation we create
an opportunity to engage all people in a new type of findings –QUALITY
ASSURANCE- that can help answer questions forwarded. These short notes
below, discuss the key concept of Quality Assurance and some tips for applying
findings.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
Quality
assurance is all about guaranteeing ‘academic’ standard and quality of
educational provision – ‘requirement’.
ACADEMIC STANDARD (AD) Academic
standard is about the level of accomplishment one has to complete to get an
award: it's what ensures a certificate from one school is the same ‘quality’ as
a certificate from another similar school.
ACADEMIC QUALITY (AQ) Academic
quality –worthiness- is about how well a school (educational prerequisite)
support learners in learning:
a. The teaching,
b. The support available.
(i.e. People who help the School)
c. How the learners are assessed.
d. And resources available.
(i.e. Supply or Material for School Use)
WHAT IS QUALITY ASSURANCE? Quality Assurance is Ultimately, Democacy in Education: It all about monitoring in an effort for raising standard
and ensuring
learners have the best ‘possible’ experience at school.
BUT WHAT IS THE POINT OF ALL THIS “QUALITY ASSURANCE?”
Getting involved;
means that your voice can be heard, and the views of Learners/Parents (with the
local community) are made Central to the process of educational resolutions -to raise or maintain standard in
schools-.
STANDARD IN SCHOOLS (SS) SS
- are set and drawn, based on the following:-
·
The Constitution
·
National Policy on Education
·
States requirements (bench marks} and the Local communities
need’s where the school is situated
SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT PLAN (SDP)
SDP - is normally a three (3) years outline
for School Improvement. Through strategic preparation, implementation and
continuous monitoring -as well as assessment- of the plan ‘effectiveness’ that
has been put in place: The ultimate aim of SDP is enhancing learners’
achievement.
The purpose
of SDP for a school is to put in place, clear direction for growth; namely:-
a.
Major concerns
b.
The targets
c.
The time Scale and
d.
The broad Strategies
On the basis
of a holistic review on school performances, which are in line with:-
1.
The School’s Vision and Mission
2.
The Education Policy.
ANNUAL SCHOOL PLAN (ASP)
ASP - is a concrete preparation (action
plan) for one year implementing the SDP. It enables teachers appreciate and
have understanding of:-
a.
The targets
b.
Success Criteria
c.
Strategies
d.
Methods of evaluation
e.
Time Scale
f.
People in charge and
g. Resources required,
of the major
concerns so that they can support the implementation
SCHOOL REPORT (SR)
SR - should aim to provide an account of
the effectiveness of school work and the extent to which the school’s major
concerns are achieved, with reference to Data Analysis and Evaluation of
results.
By
reflecting on past performance, it serves to inform future planning and puts
continuous improvement in action.
SR also
provides a channel for the school to report to stakeholders on
the major takes in various areas, thus
enhancing accountability.
EVALUATION
PROCESS OF QUALITY ASSURANCE
What
is Evaluation? Evaluation
may be defined as a process to determine (and keep track of), the extent of
compliance with the objective for which an organization is set up (like a
school). **
**Evaluation
to all intents and purposes is about:
1. school doing the right thing,
2. *are we/they doing it right and
3. *are there better ways of achieving results?
TYPES
OF EVALUATIONS
WHOLE
SCHOOL EVALUATION (WSE)
WSE- is a process of a more interactive procedure which includes
both the
School
SELF-EVALUATION and EXTERNAL EVALUATION. The
School
community contributes information using the National School
Self-
Evaluation Forms or tools to determine how well school is
doing.
NOTE:
WSE - is carried out by a team of accredited
evaluators drawn from the National Education Quality Assurance Body and State
Education Quality Assurance Bodies nationwide (SEQA’s’). The combined processes of school
Self-Evaluation and External Evaluation together form WSE
EXTERNAL EVALUATION (EE)
EE is a laid down finding
(investigation) carried out “on a school” by experienced professionals
“educationists” that focus on monitoring of quality and compliance to ‘standard
requirements’ or set values.
SPECIAL EVALUATION (SE)
It is
organised as the need arises.
-
Asses any aspect –
feature of a school’s PROVISION to either get a state or National view of a
Topic or ISSUES, e.g. to evaluate girl’s or Computer and Technical Education.
The overall relationship between School and State Education
Quality Assurance Bodies nationwide (SEQA’s’) evaluations will be that of
MENTORING* rather than POLICING** *MENTOR: experienced adviser
and supporter: somebody, usually older and more experienced, who advises and
guides a younger, less experienced person
**POLICING: to
supervise the school operation, execution, or administration of the
School to ‘Prevent’ or
‘Detect’ and prosecute violations of rules and
Regulations
b: to exercise such supervision over the
policies and activities of a school
Organization
SELF-EVALUATION (SE)
SE - main objective is for school/Teachers
to find out how well it is fulfilling its educational mission and vision as set
out in National, State, Local educational policy guidelines and the needs of
the local community; in order to improve further the quality of school
provision and school performance.
Self-evaluation is complex and demanding, but
it is also a rewarding process. It takes between
several months and one school year to be properly prepared.
SE includes: a. Evaluation
by Head Teacher
b. Evaluation by Learners
c. Evaluation by communities
FRAME – WORK OF EVALUATION SCHEDULE
(evaluation instrument) -NIGERIA-
The frame work
consist of two main domains and eight areas
The Domains
are –
1. Outcome
of learners; sub-divided into:-
·
Achievement and Standards
·
Personal Skills and Participation
2. Quality
of Provision; having six areas:-
a.
Quality of Teaching and Learning
b.
Curriculum and other activities
c.
Care, guidance and support
d.
Learning Environment
e.
©Impact of Leadership and Management
f.
©Overall effectiveness
THE LOCAL
COMMUNITY SCHOOL
– BASED MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE (SBMC)
SBMC - are an essential connection between
School, Government and the Communities they serve.
-1. They are made up of a range of local people involved with
their school
-2. Work to increase communities’ involvement with education and
-3. Help to improve the quality and effectiveness of school.
They provide a way of helping education
authorities to listen to what adults and Children want from schools and a way
of increasing the contributions of everyone in the local areas to making
education meaningful {in addition work well}.
MEBERSHIP OF SBMC’s
SBMC - shall be composed of a maximum of 17* members
1. At least eight members should be women* ‘if available’
2.
CHAIRMAN
– a retired teacher
3.
Vice
Chairman –
4.
SECRETARY**
– the Head teacher of the school
5.
TREASURER
– should not be a member of the school administration or a teacher
6.
PRESS
RELATION OFFICER
MEMBERS Will:
1.
Serve for three (3) years renewable based on satisfactory
performance.
2.
Meet twice per school term
3.
Call emergency meeting when need arise
4.
NOT MEET WITH LESS THAN TWO THIRDS OF THE SBMC MEMBERS PRESENT.
5.
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POINT TO NOTE IN CONCLUSION
Quality control [INSPECTION] and quality assurance, how they differ:
In general, the two expressions 'quality control' and
'quality assurance is often used interchangeably and indeed synonymously. Practically, they are world apart in meanings
and usage.
Quality control (QC) –Inspection- represents an
attempt to impose control on a school system. In essence, a QC (inspection) approach
says: "We who are in authority know best -not only what to do, but how to
do it. You –the Head Teacher, co workers and learners - will do exactly as we
tell you. And we will set up a "policing force" –the Ministry Headquarters- which will check to make sure that you are doing the right
things.'
A Quality Assurance (QA) approach, on the
other hand, says, 'Let's agree what education should be doing. Then we -those
with the democratic responsibility, those in authority -recognize that this is
a complex and difficult task, and you -the workers, learners and the school
communities- know far better (than we do) how to do this effectively.
Therefore, we mentors will create the
conditions that allow you to exercise your own judgement as to what needs to be
done. We will provide the support for you to put the strategies in place and,
in a spirit of collaboration, monitor and mentor progress to make the right things happen
USE FULL SITE:
1. http://vocational-problemszonkwa.blogspot.com/
2. http://www.ofsted.gov.uk 3. http://public.mzos.hr/fgs.axd?id 4. http://www.edb.gov.hk/
USE FULL SITE:
1. http://vocational-problemszonkwa.blogspot.com/
2. http://www.ofsted.gov.uk 3. http://public.mzos.hr/fgs.axd?id 4. http://www.edb.gov.hk/
