Abstract:
Retaining employees in order to benefit from their talent and skills remains a primary concern for many organizations, for intellectual capital has become a critical component of wealth creation. However, statistics show that over 600 teachers leave the teaching profession voluntarily per year in Kenya for other jobs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the factors influencing turnover amongst trained secondary school teachers in Kisii Central district. More specifically the study sought to determine if the factors: job satisfaction; personal characteristics; wages and other conditions of work; motivation; security; existence of alternative opportunities; communication; and career development influence trained teacher turnover. The study adopted a survey research design which was cross-sectional in nature. The target population was 376 teachers from 47 public secondary schools in the district. Purposeful stratified random sampling technique was used to obtain a sample of 188 teachers comprising 47 Principals and 141 trained teachers. A self-administered questionnaire with open and closed-ended questions was used to collect primary data from the secondary school teachers sampled. The data collected was analyzed using the excel spread sheet software. Chi-square analysis was carried out to test whether the factors significantly affected trained teacher turnover and commitment to their work respectively. The results were presented in the form of tables and histograms. The study established that the factors: observing health and safety conditions, re-branding the teaching profession, encouraging informal groups and capacity building do not significantly affect the commitment of teachers to their work, whereas creating a career path, designing a competitive pay package, motivating teachers to do their work, enhancing trained teacher appraisals and communication channels within the teaching profession, challenging teachers to perform their work, regularizing internal promotions and conducting appropriate induction of newly employed teachers to their work, were found to affect commitment of trained teachers to teaching. Further, all the factors tested were found to affect trained teacher turnover. The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) should therefore address the factors which have been established by this study to affect teacher commitment to their work and trained teacher turnover. The findings of the study are expected to inform policy formulation by the TSC in its efforts to retain teachers in the teaching profession so as not to aggravate teacher shortage scenario in public secondary schools.
