Week-3 & 4: Supervision and Inspection

Educational activities need supervision and inspection to achieve educational objective. ... Teachers need supervision and inspection to work harder no matter their level of experience and devotion. Without supervision both teachers and school administrators backslide rapidly in their performance.

Inspection and supervision terms are oftentimes used interchangeably in many applications. There is, however, a notable difference between the terms. Also, there is a significant difference between the scope of work done by inspectors and supervisors. This article unfolds these difference to clear the confusion in interchangeable usage of these two terms.

What is an inspection?

An inspection is a task or assessment of fault-finding and fact-finding in many job settings. In the education system, for instance, an inspectorate system may be implemented to carry out inspection roles and responsibilities. The system’s duty would be to continually assess the standard and quality of education provided to learners. It will, among others, inspect how teachers deliver education, and how are the objectives of the national department achieved.

Inspectors in any job setting could be tasked with the roles to ensure that work is done effectively and perfectly. The inspection may be scheduled on a time to time basis whereas supervision, on the other hand, is oftentimes continuous.

There could be government inspection officers who inspect certain entities to ensure that laws, regulations, and rules are being implemented. For example, the Chicago Department of Buildings may send inspectors for inspections of compliance with the building codes and standards set. These inspections may be on a scheduled basis or complainant-based.

Health inspectors, also, could be tasked to inspect restaurants and other food outlets to ensure the compliance of food safety standards. This is done to spot faults and perhaps enforce compliance or submit the inspection reports to relevant authorities. Inspection can be used to improve quality by making recommendations to relevant authorities about the pitfalls in a particular system.

What is supervision?

Supervision, on the other hand, gives an oversight on the subordinates on a continuous basis to ensure that they are executing the tasks as requested. When an employee is under supervision, he or she is not allowed to do any task without the approval of the supervisor. He reports to the supervisor who may be the line manager.

In the education system, head of departments or school principals may act as supervisors of the teaching team to ensure that they continually teach. An inspectorate team may do fault-finding and fact-finding on the supervisors to prove if they are doing their supervision roles and responsibilities properly. A supervisor may issue a task to a subordinate and later inspect to see if the task has been completed. This shows some overlaps, although minor, between inspection and supervision. But, supervision is generally continuous, and supervisors are thus present on a day-to-day basis to ensure that tasks are being carried out as instructed.

Supervision may be hierarchical from immediate supervisors to senior management in any organization. The roles and responsibilities of supervisors are mainly the same across all organizations. Other organizations may incorporate inspection roles and responsibilities in the supervision scope of work. This is what creates an interchangeable usage of the terms and thus the confusion.

 

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