| dc.description.abstract | Globally teaching is considered a relatively large occupation. It has been observed
that teaching is increasingly an “occupation” with relatively high flows in, through,
and out of School. The high rate of teacher mobility impacts negatively on school
improvement efforts for it disrupts the stability and continuity of teaching. The
consequence of these unfavourable transfers has been an inequitable teacher
distribution in schools and regions. Hence, the Purpose of the study was to establish
how teacher transfer influences performance in public Secondary schools in Nyamira
County. In particular, it sought; to describe the teacher transfer characteristics; to
determine the underlying reasons for teacher transfer requests and to determine the
extent to which teacher’s transfers influence the provision of quality Education.
The Human Capital Theory guided the study. Survey design was adopted targeting 91
teachers and head teachers drawn from Manga Sub County in Nyamira County using
both systematic random sampling technique and purposive sampling. Data was
collected using questionnaires and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential
statistical methods. The findings revealed that teacher mobility in the area was mainly
of the transfer type, hence, the area was not actually losing its teachers to other
professions, but that teacher movement was from one school to the next in the county.
Members of the teaching staff did not experience much conflict amongst themselves
while at work as much as they did with the school management. This emerged as the
greatest motivator for teacher transfer. However, poor staff motivation was also
contributing to the desire to move to other schools together with increasing workload
especially experienced when a teacher left the school. Teacher transfers increased the
Workload for the remaining staff as replacements were not done immediately and
when they did eventually come, their suitability was in doubt. This compromised the
quality of education and at times prompted the students to complain to the
management when they found it hard to cope with the replacement.
It was therefore recommended that; the education office in the area needs to be
considerate during teacher placement so as to suitably place teachers where they can
be most productive and settled to avoid transfers; the schools management approaches
to staff- management conflicts need to be improved to check growing teacher frustrations and desire to leave the Schools; there is need for more information
sharing among the stakeholders on the developments in teacher retention and transfer
requests by schools so that the suitable can be made in good time. It is further
recommended that more research should be done on; the impact of devolved
government’s policies on teacher mobility and; the effect of School Management
Committee structure on provision of quality education in secondary schools | |
