SCHOOL INSPECTION

Comparative Review of Impact of School Inspection in Ghana and England

Comparative Review of Impact of School Inspection in Ghana and England

Introduction

Learning is one of the most essential elements of life. The need for learning can never end in the life of an individual. People start learning from their teenage all the way through their life and continue learning new things about different perspectives of life even in their old age. However, early education is the thing which makes base for the learning and development of an individual. For this purpose, schools are the institutions which fulfill the early learning needs of the individuals and the entire society. There include some very good schools who focus on providing quality education to their students through hiring quality staff.

On contrary, there also include schools where the education system is not that good according to the standards that it should help society produce better resource for the future. There include several reasons why such schools tend to underperform. Almost every country possesses such schools that do not perform according to the standards of their respective regulatory bodies (Black, & Wiliam, 1998). For them, there include inspection teams, who tend to assess the quality and standard of education being provided to the students, and also tend to identify what are the areas where schools need improvement.

England and Ghana are also among the countries where such kind of schools exists who do not perform according to the standards. Even though, the structure of education is different in both the countries, but this paper is intending to identify how the schools in these two countries follow the standards, and what issues they had to face while following the guidelines of the regulatory bodies of their respective countries. There involve certain issues which have deep-rooted impact and restrict the schools to perform to the standards. This paper will also highlight such issues and tend to identify how the inspection teams in these countries carry out their assessment and what impact they have on the development of such underperforming schools.

Discussion

Impact of School Inspection in England

Inspection of schools is necessary even if the schools are performing according to the standards and meeting the obligations set to them by the regulatory bodies. In England, the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) is the national inspection body who carries out independent assessment of the schools and determines whether they are performing well or not (Matthews, & Smith, 1995). The main purpose of Ofsted is to evaluate the effectiveness of the system in each school and also diagnose whether there is any room for improvement for any of the school.

Ofsted also provide a through and detailed assessment of their outcomes to the parents of the children who are studying in their respective schools. They also inform the Secretary of State for Education about their assessment and report them if they find any school breaching the code of conducts. The inspection of schools of regular basis allows the school management to follow the standards ...