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THE INFLUENCE OF WORKING ENVIRONMENT ON TEACHERS’ TURNOVER IN PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY        

Retention of valuable employees is a global challenge. Managers and top level authorities are constantly met with the issue of retaining employees, and there is a wealth of evidence that worldwide, retention of skilled employees has been of serious concern to managers in the face of ever increasing high rate of employee turnover (Samuel & Chipunza, 2009). In recent years, the focus of research on HRM has shifted from study and relationship of individual Human Resource Management (HRM) practices on business performance to entire HRM system and its influence on labor turnover (Khan, 2010).

Employee retention is an increasingly important challenge for organizations as the age of the knowledge worker unfolds (Lumley, 2011). Presently the labour market belongs to employees, because talented candidates in the global job skills market have the luxury of choice (Harris, 2007). Cascio (2006) also affirms that the costs associated with recruiting, selecting, and training new employees often exceed 100% of the annual salary for the position being filled. Thus, every turnover of skilful employees come at a cost and the combined direct and indirect costs associated with one employee leaving ranges from a minimum of one year’s pay and benefits to something more substantial. Also, when knowledgeable employees leave an organization, the consequences go far beyond the substantial costs of recruiting and integrating replacements. Consequently, most employers are seeking better ways to manage turnover in order to retain valued human resources as well as sustain competition and high performance.

Employees’ turnover is defined as employees ‘mobility towards organization and outwards organization (Rains 2008). Employees’ turnover outside the organization is considered as one of the motivational problem facing many organizations in the developed and developing world (Armstrong, 2009). Basically, there are two types of employees’ turnover. These are known as voluntary employees’ turnover and involuntary employees’ turnover. Voluntary employees’ turnover is employees ‘turnover which is done willingly by an employee whereby involuntary employees’ turnover is the turnover which is done by employees unwillingly. According to Rains (2008) the standard voluntary turnover is measured into three standard level namely high turnover 25%, moderate turnover 9% and low turnover 2% (Human Capital Index Report, 2005). According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, (2008) the standard average of labour turnover in the developed countries particularly United States of America was 3.3% in the 2000s.

Improving pupils’ learning is an obligation of policy makers, administrators, teachers, parents, students and members of the wider community. While each of these groups has an important contribution to make. What teachers do mediates the effects of almost all such contributions. And what teachers do depends on their motivations, capacities, and the conditions under which they work. (Leithwood 2006).

In delivering high-quality education, schools must attract, develop, and retain teachers. Working environments play an important role in a school's ability to do so. Schools that are able to offer their teachers a safe, pleasant, and supportive working environment and adequate compensation are better able to attract and retain good teachers and motivate them to do their best. Teachers' working environment is important to students as well as teachers because it affects how much individual attention teachers can give to students (Sumra, 2004). Large class sizes or disruptive students, for example, can make both teachings and learn difficulty. Working environment involves the physical geographical location as well as immediate surroundings of the workplace, such as a construction, site or office building. Typically this involves other factors relating to the place of employment such as quality of air, noises, lever and additional Perks and benefits of employment (Sumra, 2004).

1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The teaching environment is a major factor that determines not only the learning process but also the performance of students. The effectiveness of rural schools in producing quality graduates, therefore, lies in a good teaching environment (UNESCO 2011).

Despite the growing rate of un-employment in Tanzania and several steps made by the government to improve working conditions and centralizing recruitment process, there has been growing rate of limited teachers working in rural areas (Gayno, 1998).

The government has established a recruitment system under section 11(a) of the Public Service (Amendment) Act, Act No. 18 of 2007. Although the recruitment system seems to be effective, the recruited civil servants for rural areas are still not reporting in their working stations. It is very common that, nowday’s teachers deployed in the rural areas to tender application for transfer using several reasons including medical reasons, family problems, ongoing studies etc (Mukyanuzi and Bennel, 2005).

According to Mukyanuzi and Bennel (2005), there is a growing gap of teachers working in rural areas and those working in urban areas, which creates work load in rural areas as among the challenges of work life management. Many people and teachers are blaming the government for failure to supply and facilitate the Local Government Authorities in creating conducive environment and well managed working conditions to rural areas (URT, 2014).

The reasons could be lack of motivational factors as indicated by Upendo (2011) that teachers’ turnover in rural areas is influenced by poor infrastructure, big classes sizes, poor working conditions and few number of classrooms. Others were shortage of teachers’ housing facilities, poor transportation infrastructure, shortage of clean water, lack of electricity and many other social facilities. According to URT (2014), there is decreasing number of teaches reported in rural areas for the first appointment and those who are refusing when transferred.

1.3     OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY  

The general objective of this study is to examine the influence of working environment on teachers’ turnover in public primary school in Abeokuta LGA. The specific objective of this study include the following:

1.     To ascertain the prevalence of teachers’ turnover in public primary school in Abeokuta LGA.

2.     To find out the nature of working environment in in public primary school in Abeokuta LGA.

3.     To examine if working environment affects the job satisfaction of teachers in public primary school in Abeokuta LGA.

4.     To determine the causes of teachers’ poor working environment in public primary school in Abeokuta LGA.

5.     To investigate the impact teachers’ poor working environment on the academic performance of students in public primary school in Abeokuta LGA.

1.4     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The relevant research questions related to this study include the following:

1.     Is there a prevalence of teachers’ turnover in public primary school in Abeokuta LGA?

2.     What is the nature of working environment in in public primary school in Abeokuta LGA?

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