ABSTRACT
The general objective of the study was to determine strategies that influence the retention of qualified technical teachers in the teaching profession in Katsina State vocational and technical schools. The study was a survey. The population comprised 19 School Administrators and 91 Qualified Technical Teachers. No sampling was carried out as the whole population was used. A structured questionnaire containing 72 items was designed and used for data collection. A total number of 110 copies were distributed and 109 copies were retrieved given a return rate of 99.1%. The data was analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions. And t-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed the causes of the exodus and the motivational factors to reduce the exodus. The findings also revealed the Job satisfaction factors and the School administrative factors that influence the retention of qualified technical teachers. The researcher recommended that the revealed factors for retaining technical teachers should be fully implemented by the State government in order to check the constant exodus of this important category of teachers so as to improve the student academic performance for the very much needed technological development.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Technical skills are necessary and instrumental to technological advancement of any nation. The technical teachers are required to impart these skills to the learners. Olaitan (1996) described the teacher as a transformer on which the learners depend upon for most of the skills and competencies needed. The importance of teachers in the school has been expressed in various forms. For instance, Power (1996) stated that one teacher in a school is worth more than 100 volumes of books scheduled for the required knowledge, skills and attitudes to learners. Supporting this view, Sawyer (1997) declared that the school should be a stimulating place for learners, but that can only be possible with enough quality teachers.
Technical Teacher is the one who must have undergone a stipulated course of programme(s) under an approved and accredited institution, there by obtaining one or more of the following qualifications; Technical Teacher Certificate (TTC), Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE, Technical); Post Graduate Diploma in Technical Education (PGDTE), Bachelor of Education (B.Ed. Tech), Bachelor of Science (B.SC. Tech Edu.), Master of Education
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(Med. Industrial Educ.), Master of Science (M.Sc Industrial Education), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D Industrial Educ.).
From the Digest of Statistics published by the National Board for Technical Education (1997), it shows that most states have students to technical teachers ratio at about 40:1 with some states up to 60:1 ratio. This indicates that most schools are operating above the recommended ratio of
20:1 in Nigeria post primary schools. The report pointed out that Katsina state had only 67 technical teachers for the 19 schools and colleges. Olaitan (1999) complained that many professionally trained vocational technical teachers do settle for jobs in the industries, thereby hampering the realization of the objectives of vocational education.
Reasons for these categories of teachers leaving the teaching job for other jobs are many. Yalams (1993) states that condition of service play a dominant role in determining whether technical teachers would remain in teaching or will opt out of teaching. This is supported by Abubakar (2006) who stated that if the socio economic status of the technical teacher does not compare favourably with those of his counterparts who are in administration or business, the tendency of him/her leaving the job for another could be obvious. It is clear when teachers are dissatisfied with their job, they tend to withdraw physically from teaching or remain there to constitute serious
danger to organizational effectiveness (Ndu, 1997). The condition of service for teachers in Nigeria and their effect had been observed over the years by several experts in education. For example, Eketuonye (1999) expressed that teaching, which used to be attractive right from pre-independence period, started to loose its status during the oil boom era in early 1970s. Some people have even gone far by considering teaching profession as a curse; though they need the schools to operate for their children.
Ukeje (1999), observed that in terms of social esteem, academic excellence and professional rating, the status of teachers in Nigeria is very low. It is a fact also that technical teachers are not exempted from all these assertions. Education for the world of work will not achieve its national goals until technical and vocational education is given the status they need to attract sufficient clientele to meet the human resource needs of the nation. Ukeje further pointed out that the recruitment and retention of capable people in teaching profession at the secondary school level is one of the serious problems facing education. He maintained that teaching was fast becoming the last hope of the hopeless; and that many people who choose to enter teaching do so as a last resort. Even when they start teaching, they do leave at the slightest opportunity.
According to Olagunji (1999), the teacher in Nigeria has over the years suffered from loss of social status and respect, occasioned among others by low income, poor economic rating, diversion of teacher’s remuneration and irregular payment of monthly salaries which has resulted in the movement of qualified technical teacher into the industry. Nwakolo (1999) decried the lack of inducement allowance to vocational technical teachers in Nigeria which would have reduced the gap between classroom pay and the industry pay, thereby reducing the exodus of the teachers.
Inadequate teaching facilities could be another factor that causes the exodus of qualified technical teacher (Abubakar, 2006). Failure to provide relevant books, enough classroom buildings, tools, equipments and machines for practical lessons, instructional aids, the lack of school administrators support. All these could hinder teaching and learning process, situation like this leads to the exodus of qualified technical teacher who is zealous to put his/her skills into practice.
Retention in the context of this study refers to the action of keeping technical teachers in teaching profession rather than losing them to the industry or other workforces. Baughman (1996) wrote that teachers’ retention is ultimately a question of job satisfaction. Experts in organizational behaviour are of the view that workers and their needs should be uppermost in
minds of the leadership of any organizations. Motivation is a good strategy to reduce the exodus which has to do with stimulation, encouragement and inducement of employers.
Motivation is also related to the concept of job satisfaction such that the later can hardly be explained without reference to the former. Eneastor (1990) refers to job satisfaction as the totality of an individuals psychological, social and physical well-being with regard to his work and job performance. Spector (1997) identified some job satisfaction ways (retaining factors) to include: High Pay, prompt promotions, fringe benefits, contingent rewards, operating conditions, administrative posts.
Another way of retaining teachers is the issue of professional development which has to do with the improvement of technical teachers in their area of specialty and pedagogical skill. Unfortunately, Awanbor (2001) reported that the training of teacher for the various educational sectors in Nigeria (especially the technical sectors) has never produced the much desired goal; first in terms of number and later in terms of quality.
Hall (1978) identified that job autonomy, job challenge, and financial compensation are important issues in job retention across many fields. Therefore technical teachers may use such issues to judge their job success. It is likely that technical teachers valuing job autonomy, job challenge or
compensation, if limited or constrained where the case is, leave the field to another. As a result of this important category of teachers leaving the teaching job, students’ high failure rate could be recorded as Ogunwole (1998) states that inadequate staff militates against maintenance of quality and standards. The quality and standard of knowledge could be threatened if technical schools are left in the hands of unqualified teachers. This will result to major implication for workforce development for the nation’s industrial, economic and technological development.
Strategy is planning in any field: a carefully devised plan of action to achieve a goal, the act of developing or carrying out such a plan (Microsoft Encata premium 2009). Strategies offer a frame work within which an organization defines possible means of achieving goals and objectives. Thus strategies help to explore ways, sources, collaborations, attitudes and opportunity which are intended to yields results in the medium and long term for specific problem (Attah 2003). Strategies are needed to retain qualified technical teachers in Katsina State who will be committed to use conventional and innovative ways to impart development oriented knowledge, values and skills to students.
The Katsina state government in her effort to motivate the teachers strategically introduced science and technical allowance in the year 1990.
Furthermore, the state established Science and Technical education Board to carter for the welfare of these categories of teachers; unfortunately these teachers do not remain in the teaching job.
Statement of the Problem
The problem of retaining teachers; particularly vocational technical teachers, in educational institutions started as far back as 1960. Ashby Commission (1960) revealed that the constant exodus of teachers from teaching to better paying jobs in other sectors of the economy is responsible for the shortfall of teachers in institutions. Having realized the shortage of these calibers of teachers, the federal government embarked upon the training and re-training programme through the Technical Teacher Training Programme (TTTP). However, after training, these teachers do not stay in their work places (Olaitan, 1996).
The rate at which qualified technical teachers leave the teaching job in Kastina state has reached an alarming proportion, as statistics shows a decline in the number of qualified technical teachers from 108 (in the year 2005) to
91 to date (Science and Technical Education Board Planning Research and Statistics STEB PRS, 2009). Recently, the state government built more secondary schools, one in each local government. This act increased the demand for technical teachers to teach Basic Technology. As a result of
technical teachers leaving the teaching job in Kastina state, high failure rate was recorded in the state Technical schools in the years 2005, 2006 and 2007. The National Business and Technical Education Examination Board (NABTEB) results show that high failure rate in technical trade courses were
69% (2005), 74% (2006) and 78% (2007).
The Federal Ministry of Education (FME, 2000) already observed that some of the factors responsible for the high failure rate of technical college’s students in the NABTEB examination, particularly in the main trade, include shortage of qualified teaching staff in the technical schools. Consequently inadequate teachers were responsible for the inability of students to pass their NABTEB examinations in Kastina State.
Ozigi (1992) stressed that technology development in Nigeria depend largely on the availability of qualitative technical teachers. When expansion in technical schools exceeds the supply of technical teachers (as it is now in Katsina State) the obvious outcome would be a disaster similar to what was experienced in the attempt to float the free Universal Primary Education (UPE) of the 1970s. This prompt the researcher to ask: what strategies could be used to retain qualified technical teachers in Katsina state school system, in order to improve the student’s academic performance for the very much needed technological development?
Purpose of the Study
The major purpose of the study was to determine strategies to be used that will influence the retention of qualified technical teachers in the teaching profession in Katsina State vocational and technical schools. Specifically the study determined,
1. The causes for the exodus of qualified technical teachers from the teaching profession in Katsina State post primary vocational and technical schools to other jobs.
2. The motivational factors that can reduce the exodus of qualified technical teachers from the teaching profession in Katsina State post primary vocational and technical schools to other jobs.
3. The job satisfaction factors that influence the retention of qualified technical teachers in Katsina State post primary vocational and technical schools.
4. The school administrative factors that influence the retention of qualified technical teachers in Katsina State post primary vocational and technical schools.
Significance of the Study
The findings of the study will be of immense benefit to the Katsina
State Ministry of Education, Science and Technical Education Board, and
directorate of employment promotion and vocational training, in various aspect such as: identifying or pointing out the causes for the exodus of qualified technical teachers in the post primary schools of the state, providing information to policy makers in the Ministry of Education, and Science and Technical Education Board of the state, on the strategies for retaining qualified technical teachers (Job satisfaction ways, Motivational and Administrative ways).
If the information provided by the study is properly used by the Administrators of the post primary institutions, the students performance rate will increase, thereby the students become beneficial to the findings of the study. The result also help individual qualified technical teachers to better comprehend the pressure in the field of teaching job and further one’s understanding of the experience of being a teacher.
Research Questions
The study was designed with the aim of finding answers to the following research questions:
1. What are the causes for the exodus of technical teachers from teaching in the Katsina state post primary vocational and technical schools to other jobs?
2. What are the motivational factors to be applied to reduce the exodus of qualified technical teachers from teaching in the Katsina state post primary schools to other jobs?
3. What are the job satisfaction factors that will influence the retention of qualified technical teachers in Katsina state post primary vocational and technical schools?
4. What are the school administrative factors that will influence the retention of qualified technical teachers in Katsina state post primary vocational and technical schools?
Hypotheses
The following null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Ho1: There will be no significant difference in the mean responses of technical teachers and post primary school administrators on the causes
of exodus of the qualified technical teachers from the teaching profession in Katsina state vocational and technical schools?
Ho2: There will be no significant difference in the mean responses of technical teachers and post primary school administrators on the motivational factors that influence the retention of qualified technical teachers in Katsina state post primary vocational and technical schools.
Ho3: There will be no significant difference in the mean responses of qualified technical teachers and post primary school administrators on the job satisfaction factors that influence the retention of qualified technical teachers in Katsina state post primary vocational and technical schools.
Delimitation of the Study
This study focused on technical teachers of post primary schools (with teaching qualification and irrespective of their sex differences) under Katsina state Ministry of Education, Katsina state Science and Technical Education Board and Vocational schools under Katsina state Directorate of employment promotion and vocational training.
This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research
STRATEGIES FOR RETAINING POST PRIMARY QUALIFIED TECHNICAL TEACHERS IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM IN KATSINA STATE
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