Quality Assurance for STEM Education

Educational quality assurance is essential for strengthening institutional conditions that support effective teaching and learning, including STEM education. However, the effectiveness of school inspection depends not only on compliance with evaluation procedures but also on school leaders’ capacity to implement recommendations for institutional improvement. This study examines school inspection practices, principals’ engagement with inspection recommendations, and implementation challenges in lower secondary schools in Cambodia. Employing quantitative data collected from 38 teachers. Teachers’ ratings indicated favorable perceptions of principals’ inspection-related practices before (M = 4.16, SD = 0.70), during (M = 4.05, SD = 0.74), and after inspections (M = 3.91, SD = 0.82). Perceived engagement with inspection recommendations was also positive (M = 4.01, SD = 0.78). Nevertheless, implementation was constrained by limited financial and human resources, delayed inspection reports, insufficient communication of findings, limited community involvement, and infrequent follow-up inspections. The findings highlight a distinction between positive engagement with quality assurance procedures and the institutional capacity to translate inspection feedback into sustained improvement. For STEM education, this distinction underscores the importance of examining whether school quality assurance systems provide the organizational and instructional conditions necessary to support effective teaching and learning. The study contributes context-sensitive evidence to international discussions on educational quality assurance while identifying implementation conditions that warrant further investigation in STEM-specific settings.