How digital tools are exposing big flaws, breaches in school inspections

School inspectors have traditionally relied on manual checklists, paper reports, and impromptu visits to assess compliance with educational standards.

However, the rollout of the Integrated Inspection System (IIS) by the Education ministry’s Directorate of Education Standards (DES) has exposed inconsistencies and gaps in inspection, writes YUDAYA NANGONZI. During a recent five-day training for inspectors and District Education Officers (DEOs) at Teso College Aloet in Soroti, the acting director of DES, Frances Atima, revealed major discrepancies in electronic inspection reports.

Atima noted that some local governments had recruited inspectors who lacked the requisite skills and knowledge to do their work. This is in addition to the newly introduced digital inspection tool which further revealed critical gaps.

“During our evaluation meetings, we noticed that most inspectors were not doing their work professionally. Over time, their inspections did notreflect the desired outcomes in national examinations,” Atima said.

The training, which involved inspectors and DEOs from 20 districts with poor results in the 2023 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), aimed at equipping the officials with hands-on skills to effectively use the digital inspection tools, monitor teacher attendance and provide real-time data to improve learning outcomes.

Districts represented were; Adjumani, Amuru, Oyam, Agago, Pader, Otuke, Dokolo, Terego, Lamwo, Alebtong, and Madi-Okollo – all from the Northern region. The Eastern region comprised Budaka, Sironko, Butebo, Bulambuli, Kween, Pallisa, Manafwa, Namisindwa, Kibuku, and Bukwo districts.

DES, the quality assurance body of the Education ministry, introduced the Integrated Inspection System (IIS) to promote effective school leadership, teaching, and learning in schools to improve learning outcomes. The IIS incorporates two digital systems; the Teacher Effectiveness and Learner Achievement (TELA) to track the attendance of teachers, head teachers, and learners and the electronic inspection system to assess the quality of education in schools through real-time digital data.

GAPS IN INSPECTION REPORTS

On the TELA system, when teachers attend classes at 40% and below, the school is rated poor, 40%-59% fair, 60- 79% good, and very good for those with 79% and above. Atima observed that in most local governments, the schools were rated as “good” by inspectors, even when the TELA data indicated teacher absenteeism or low attendance.

With no records of teachers clocking in or out, some schools received favourable ratings which pointed to systematic lapses in inspection processes and insufficient checks on prior reports.

“A very good school means you have major strengths across the board from teacher attendance to learner achievements. It is disturbing that a school with poor performance in one term can suddenly achieve a good rating in inspection reports without significant changes in teacher attendance or learner outcomes,” Atima said.

She asked: “What extraordinary things did the schools do which failed to be achieved last term? There’s completely no linkage of the results. Are inspectors feeding the system with wrong data?”

Atima insisted that a school cannot appear as “good” on the digital system yet Uneb results, the only yardstick to grade the impact of inspections, remain poor consistently.

The 2023 PLE data showed that the western region had the highest pass rate at 91.37%, followed by the central region with 88.94%. The Eastern region averaged 80.78%, with Bukwo recording the lowest pass rate, while the Northern region had a pass rate of 79.20%, with Madi Okollo trailing in performance.

The performance index, which measures overall result quality, similarly revealed inadequacies in the 20 districts whose DEOs and inspectors were trained. DES data also revealed that many schools were inspected less frequently than required, with some inspections failing to meet the minimum termly target.

“We know that inspecting schools cannot be achieved to 100% but at least, inspectors should endeavour to cover 75% of schools in their local governments every term,” Atima said.

HOW TO INSPECT SCHOOLS

With no training institutions for inspectors amidst the growing number of schools, most inspectors are learning on the job. According to Fred Lwanga, a senior inspector at DES, inspections should be conducted without preconceived ideas to improve learning outcomes.

“Inspectors should arrive at schools as early as possible during the school day. You must report to the head teacher’s office professionally to explain the purpose of the school visit,” Lwanga said.

He shared key elements of school inspection such as class observations and giving feedback to the individual teachers, teacher attendance checks, joint lesson observations, interviewing learners, school leadership, parents, and members of the school management committee.

During full inspection, Lwanga explained that a minimum of six lessons should be observed; even if it means observing the same teacher more than once. Each lesson observation will take at least 40 minutes for primary schools.

“An inspector should minimize interruptions made to the lessons; the teacher should not involve the inspector in the lesson and the inspector should also not involve him/ herself in the lesson. While in the classrooms, one must also review at least five learners’ workbooks,” he said, adding that the class checks should also be done once in the morning at the beginning of the inspection and once in the early afternoon during lesson times.

At the end of the inspection day, which should be concluded within the official working time, the inspection team must leave a copy of the summarized inspection report at the school.

INSPECTORS SPEAK

Commenting on the discrepancies in inspection reports, inspectors cited technical challenges such as network outages and unfamiliarity with digital tools.

“Some inspectors are not giving faulty information but most schools in rural areas experience network and power challenges, hence abandoning the system. Whereas the DES trained people about the electronic inspection and TELA systems, some head teachers and inspectors are still not conversant with operating smartphones comprising the digital applications,” Alfred Azim Okello, an inspector from Pader, said.

Francis Okema Oryema, an inspector from Agago, attributed the variations in data to the freezing of phones which leads to irregular usage of the digital system to guarantee efficiency. This, he said, partly explains why some schools reflect absenteeism of teachers on TELA yet during physical inspections, the teachers are available in the schools.

“It is almost one and a half years of using the digital tools. The ministry of Education needs to intensify the sensitisation drives because the tools are game changers in inspection but efficiency must be realized with more capacity building of head teachers and inspectors in rural areas,” Okema said.

The TELA system operates an online and an offline mode but one needs internet connectivity to synchronize information before sending the data to the system.

“We have a TELA call center and WhatsApp support groups to assist the schools but a few reach out to us. When the system freezes, chances are high that the head teacher has not updated the app termly because it runs alongside the school calendar,” one DES digital official said.

“To clock in, a teacher must show motion like blinking or smiling so that the system detects whether it is a human being. We used to have cases where absent teachers sent photos to colleagues to register attendance.”

The system has since been updated with live facial recognition to prevent fraudulent clock-ins at the school level. To improve the quality of electronic inspections, DES plans to deploy focal point officials to assist regional inspectors next year. Every quarter, the officials will focus on districts lagging in inspections and national examinations performance.

nangonzi@observer.ug