Factors influencing teachers turnover in public secondary schools in Makadara district,Nairobi province,Kenya

Abstract

Employees are valuable assets of an organization and the organization should protect its vital resource. However, the management at times fails to provide supportive work culture and environment in terms of personal and professional relationship leading to workers dissatisfaction and eventual turnover. Turnover of teachers in Kenya is a major challenge as it negatively affects the delivery of quality education. Failure to address this issue in public secondary schools would trickle down to the students and negatively affect their performance, The primary purpose of the study therefore was to identify factors that influence teacher turnover in public secondary schools. The specific objectives of the study were; to establish how career development contributes towards teacher turnover in secondary schools; determine the extent to which teacher remuneration influences teacher turnover; how teachers characteristic contribute to teacher turnover and how school characteristic influences the turnover of teachers. Justification of the study was based on the fact that teacher turnover is a crucial challenge to all the stake holders in the field of education including students, parents, community, the Ministry of Education and other interest groups. This study used a descriptive survey design and targeted teachers and principals of public secondary schools in Makadara district. The target population consisted of 10 principals from 10 public secondary schools in Makadara and 315 Teachers Service Commission teachers in those schools. A representative sample of 65 teachers was obtained from the schools by use of a simple random sampling technique. Research instruments were questionnaires with closed and open ended questions for teachers and principals. A pilot study was carried out in a randomly sampled school to test validityof the research instrument and reliability which was measured by Cronbach Alpha Coefficient. Data Analysis was done using descriptive statistics with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program. Findings of the study were that teacher turnover was mainly due to poor remuneration, inadequate and dilapidated physical resources, methods of promotion, desire for career development and stagnation in the same job group for very long. The study concluded that poor remuneration, lack of motivation and conducive work environment contribute to teacher turnover in public secondary schools. The study recommended that the Government takes a census of turnover in schools and initiate measures that could curb turnover. It also recommended a countrywide study to establish actual turnover and compare turnover from the teaching profession to other fields with turnover across other non teaching professions.