Abstract:
Supervisory skills are important in ensuring curriculum implementation. Education system in Kenya is examination oriented and its quality is measured in terms of the number of students passing national examinations. The issue of poor academic performance in examination signifies a critical impediment in any country since education is a major contribution to economic growth. The declining performance of students in KCSE in the country was worrying since majority of the students could not be considered for further education. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between instructional supervisory skills used by Headteachers and students’ academic performance in KCSE in Machakos County. The research adopted a correlational study research design of the ex-post facto method. The target population was 270 schools and the sample for the study was 41 schools equivalent to 41 headteahcers. Data was analysed using quantitative and qualitative techniques. The statistical significance of the difference between the sample means was tested using two sample t-test of equal variance while the relationship between dependent and the independent variables was tested using pearson product moment correlation. A coefficient value of 0.7289 was obtained and this was good enough to judge reliability of instrument (Grinnel, 1993). Findings on the relationship between supervisory skills and students’ academic performance revealed that there was a significant relationship between supervisory skills used by Headteachers and students’ academic performance in KCSE in Machakos County which was shown by the P-Value of O which was less than 0.1. This implied that students’ performance improved depending on the headteachears’ application of instructional skills. The study recommended that capacity building should be incorporated in teacher colleges and universities as this would enhance better performance in KCSE.
