Influence of Teacher Workload on Performance in Public Secondary Schools in Kiambu Sub County

Abstract

Employee performance is an important building block of an organization and factors which lay the foundation for high performance must be analyzed by the organization environment. For an organization to operate efficiently and effectively, it must know what its workload is. Assessing, predicting and adjusting workload can help achieve an evenly distributed manageable workload and also determine the resources needed. The objective of this study was to establish the influence of teacher workload on performance in public secondary schools in Kiambu Sub-county. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The population comprised 19 public secondary schools that are registered for KCSE. Stratified random sampling was used to select a sample of 88 teachers from all the schools The sample from each school was obtained using proportional technique in reference to the number of teachers per strata. The study used questionnaires to collect data on workload while secondary data on performance was obtained from the County Education Commissioner‟s office in Kiambu. Data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Pearson correlation analysis showed there was no statistically significant correlation between workload and performance. Overall, heavy teacher workload is related to low performance. The study also established that there is a shortage of teachers in the sub-county since. student-teacher ratio is much higher than the recommended. The study concluded that lack of time to closely interact with their students in class leads to teachers missing out on crucial instructional practices like proper planning, giving individualized attention to weak students as well as adequate assessment and assessment evaluation. The study recommends that more teachers should be employed to especially in sub-county schools where student teacher ratio is very high. School managers must regularly supervise teachers‟ work to ensure the curriculum is being implemented. Further research should be done on private secondary schools in the county and in other East African countries to give more insights on the nature of the relationship between the variables in the study.