School based practices influencing teacher turnover in private secondary schools in Embakasi sub-county, Nairobi county, Kenya

Abstract

A lot of resources have been put in place by the government to ensure that all Kenyans have access to education. The government of Kenya through the public education sector is the main provider of education services. Due to the high education demand the private sector has chipped in to play a pivotal role in education provision. The purpose of this study was to investigate how labour policies and practices on remuneration, workload and work conditions influence teacher turnover in private secondary schools in Embakasi Sub-County, Kenya. This study adopted the descriptive survey design. According to the district education office, Embakasi sub-county has around 410 private school teachers, a number which was estimated because of the rampant teacher turnover in the subcounty. The study targeted 100 teachers who were randomly selected from 15 private secondary schools in Embakasi sub-county. The study also targeted the principals of all the 35 registered private schools in Embakasi Sub-county. The main types of instruments employed in this study were a questionnaire and an interview schedule. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics more so the measures of central tendency and with the help of the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS).Qualitative data were analyzed thematically through content analysis technique. The study found that the level of remunerations has to a large extent influenced teacher turnover. Majority of the respondents (56.8 percent) were not satisfied at all with their current remuneration rates and would quit their current jobs if a better opportunity presented itself. The study also revealed that work conditions and workload are among the key policies that influence teacher turnover in most schools in Embakasi District.Remuneration was found to be the biggest contributor to teacher turnover in Embakasi sub-county as compared to work conditions and workload. The study revealed that most employers in private schools in Embakasi have not been guided by these labour policies in their engagements with their employees resulting in high teacher turnover. Understanding the problem of employee turnover and putting in place effective and efficient mitigating factors in place would benefit private education sector and the government at large in its bid to provide quality education to the citizens.This study recommends total adherence by employers to the existing labour polices, guidelines and documents in order to curb rampant turnover. Further research studies can be done on the role of salaries and reward schemes in relation to the teachers’ workload and how they affect turnover.