CHALLENGES OF SCHOOL MANAGEMENT IN IMPLEMENTATION OF QUALITY ASSURANCE IN PRIVATE CATHOLIC CHURCH FOUNDED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KAMPALA ARCHDIOCESE, UGANDA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v7i10.3320Abstract
The study examined the challenges of school management in implementation of quality assurance in private Catholic Church founded secondary schools in Kampala Archdiocese, Uganda. A mixed method research particularly embedded design guided the study. The study involved all head teachers, teachers, students, Inspectors of schools and, the Diocesan Education Secretary in Kampala Archdiocese. Non probability sampling especially purposive sampling techniques were used to select a sample size of 11 head teachers, 120 students, 5 Inspectors of the directorate of education standards and 1 Education Diocesan Secretary. Probability sampling involved the use of proportionate sampling technique to select 11 schools and 312 teachers to take part in the study. Data collection instruments that were used were a self-administered questionnaire, an interview guide, a focused group discussion guide, and an observation checklist. Research instruments were subjected to both content and construct validity. Cronbach’s alpha was used to determine reliability of the questionnaire while credibility and dependability were used to determine reliability of the qualitative items. Quantitative data was analysed by cleaning, coding and keying in computer Statistical Package for Social Sciences software version 21 to generate frequencies and percentages that summarized data. Qualitative data was analysed using content analysis. Ethics in research were observed throughout the process. Key findings showed that the schools studied have many challenges in implementing quality assurance. The major challenge experienced especially by poor schools was funding with its associated challenges such as teaching resources, student-teacher ratio and workload of teachers. However, professionalism of teachers, their quality, professional development and empowerment, supervision/evaluation, existence of quality assurance/ control units, attention to a culture of quality and top management in schools, lacking commitment and belief in quality assurance were not serious challenges in the implementation of quality assurance in the schools. Therefore, it was concluded that only funding and its resulting challenges such as inadequacy of teaching resources, student-teacher ratio and workload of teachers pose a challenge in the implementation of quality assurance especially for the poor schools. Thus, it was recommended that head teachers, boards of governors, and the Archdiocese Education Secretariat should make effort to put in place measures besides students’ tuition fees to enable even poor private schools implement quality assurance easily.
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