Socio-economic factors influencing teachers’ effectiveness in productivity in public primary schools in Gaturi Division, Murang’a County, Kenya

Abstract

The study sought to find out the social economic factors influencing teachers effectiveness in productivity in Gaturi Division, Murang’a County, Kenya. The objectives that guided the study were remuneration, school facilities, headteachers levels of training in financial management and class sizes. The target population for the study was the headteachers and teachers in all primary schools in the Gaturi division and the District Quality Assurance and Standards Officer. They were all two hundred and seventy one in number. The simple random sampling method was used to pick the teacher and the head teacher population. The sample size for the teachers and head teachers was fifty percent of the population. One hundred and twenty teachers, fifteen headteachers and one Quality Assurance and Standards Officer were included in the sample size. The study employed the descriptive survey design. Data was collected by use of questionnaires and interview schedules. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics and thereafter presented by use of statistical means. The results were subjected to statistical tests which entailed chi-square tests and spearman rank correlation order tests. The study found out that the teachers considered their remuneration levels as inadequate and an impediment to their effectiveness in productivity. The teachers equally viewed the school facilities as not upto the standards of ensuring their optimum productivity. The headteachers training in financial management was deemed as very inadequate by the teachers thus a factor which greatly hindered their effectiveness in productivity. The class sizes in the division were considered as large by all the respondents. They argued that the class sizes stretched the teachers’ capacities to the maximum and greatly curtailed them in terms of the capacity to be effective by way of giving individual attention to the pupils. The study thus concluded that teachers’ effectiveness in productivity was impaired and affected by the remuneration levels, the school facilities, the headteachers’ training and the large classes which hindered the capacity of the teachers to be effective in terms of delivering their professional obligations and mandates to the letter. The study recommended that the teachers emoluments and salaries should be reviewed and more innovative approaches geared towards enhancing their effectiveness in productivity should be employed like putting in place performance tokens for high achievers. The study recommended the involvement of private sector participation in facilities upgrade to ensure inadequacies and shortfalls were met. The headteachers should be confirmed to the positions only after undertaking a mandatory training on financial management and get subjected to continuous learning by way of refresher courses. The class sizes should be taken care of by way of the exchequer meeting staffing shortfalls and facilities inadequacies to ensure that the pupils get value from the education systems.