Governance Practices Influencing Teacher Retention In Public Secondary Schools In Kathonzweni Sub County, Makueni County, Kenya

Abstract

For the past several years, the number of teachers leaving the profession has increased exponentially. Teacher retention problem is also seen in Kenya and the problem of teacher leaving job before their retirement in Kenya has been heightening. The purpose of the study was to investigate governance practices influencing teacher retention in public secondary schools in Kathonzweni Sub County, Kenya. It was guided by the following objectives; to determine the influence of workload allocation, provision of incentives, provision of administrative support and provision of letters of recommendation for promotion on teacher retention in public secondary schools in Kathonzweni Sub County, Makueni County, Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The target population in this study included all the teachers and principals from all extra county schools, county schools and sub county schools. The study therefore targeted 791 teachers and 38 principals. Stratified sampling was used to categorize the teachers into 3 strata that represented each school category. Further, simple random sampling was used to sample the teachers from each school. The study used a sample of 10 percent of the teachers which was 79. The sample size was therefore 38 principals and 79 teachers. The study used primary data which was collected using questionnaires and interview sessions. Interview guide was used to collect data from the head teachers while questionnaires were used to collect qualitative data from the teachers. Content validity was used to determine whether the items in the questionnaires were sufficient to answer the research questions. The reliability was determined using Cronbach’s alpha to measure the consistency of results. The study found that majority of the teachers handled 22 lessons per weeks. It was also found that the teacher student ratio was low as the teachers handled more than 40 students in a class. Most of the teachers also indicated that their workload was very demanding. The study also found that monetary incentives, administration trust, delegation of duties, gifts, trips and public announcement during prize giving days were available in the schools studied. It was found that the teachers were satisfied with the available incentives in their schools. It was concluded that Availability of incentives such as money incentives, trips to recreational sites as well as gifts increases teacher’s retention in the school. The study recommended that school administration should continually offer incentives to teachers in a bid to motivate them and retain them in the school.