Influence of Personal Characteristics on Teacher Attrition in Public Secondary in Kenya

Abstract

Attrition of teachers has been a challenge facing most public secondary schools in Uasin Gishu County Kenya. Research studies have been conducted to check on the factors that influence the attrition trend in Kenya but none has focused on specific teacher characteristics relating to their demographic features. This paper looks at various personal characteristics of teachers’ influences attrition in public secondary schools in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The target population comprised of all public secondary schools principals (166), County Education officials (6), and teachers (30) who had been affected by attrition. Principals (50) and educational officers (6) were selected through purposive sampling methods while former teachers (30) were selected through snowball sampling methods. Data collection instruments included questionnaires, interview schedule and document checklist. The study found out that there has been increased trend of teacher attrition from various public primary schools in the county. It was found out that attrition rate was higher in boys’ (M=3.39) school followed by girls (M=2.98) and the least was in mixed day (M=2.67) secondary schools. The study found out that most teachers who had left leave the teaching profession were males (65.0%) with 35.0% being female. Further, 80.0% of teachers who had left the profession were married with 59.0% of those who had left the profession aged between 41-50 years. In terms of working experience, 70.0% of the teachers who had left the profession, had been in service for between 20 years and above. The paper concludes that teacher characteristics in terms of gender, age, work experience and marital status contribute to attrition in public secondary schools in Uasin Gishu County. The study recommends that appropriate measures need to be taken by the TSC to ensure that proper conditions of workplace and employment are created so as to retain the category of teachers who are moving from the profession in large numbers

Keywords: attrition, secondary schools, teachers, characteristics, demographic

JEL Classification: I21