Influence of Teachers' transfer on srudent academic performance in Public Secondary schools in Kenya

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