An Assessment of Inspectors’ Compliance with Inspection Principles in Public Secondary Schools in Nigeria

Public secondary school education is rapidly growing in Nigeria, requiring huge investments by government. To justify the level of investments and improve the quality of education in the secondary schools, there is need for proper monitoring and evaluation through inspection. This paper examines the extent to which inspectors complied with inspection principles of independence, impartiality, transparency and mutual respect in public secondary schools in Ekiti state, Nigeria. This is with the view to improving the quality of education in the state. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 147 respondents, comprising 120 teachers, 12 principals, and 15 inspectors. Data were collected using survey questionnaires complemented with interview guide. Data were analysed with the use of frequency counts, percentage and means. Results showed that 46.7% of the inspectors indicated compliance with the inspection principles of independence, 40% with impartiality and transparency, and 53.3% with mutual respect. On the average, about 47% of the inspectors indicated compliance with all the inspection principles. The study concluded that inspectors’ compliance with inspection principles is low and therefore, intensifying their compliance with inspection principles is imperative to improving the standard of education in public secondary schools.