INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE TEACHER TURNOVER IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN BARINGO DISTRICT, KENYA

Abstract

Employee turnover occurs when workers leave an organization and need to be replaced by new recruits. High employee turnover is a common occurrence in the teaching profession in Kenya. Poor remuneration has often been given as a cause of low morale among teachers, but literature shows that salary is not a sufficient condition for job satisfaction. This implies that there are certain factors that influence labour turnover among public secondary school TSC teachers in Kenya. It is for this reason that the study was designed to examine the institutional factors responsible for the teacher turnover phenomenon within secondary schools in Baringo District, Kenya. The study was guided by the Herzberg’s motivation theory. Descriptive survey research design was used. All the 21 public secondary schools in Baringo district were involved. The simple random sampling technique was employed to select 97 teachers out of the total population of the 329 TSC teachers in the District to participate in the study. Data was collected by the use of a questionnaire and the data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that remuneration, career advancement and working conditions were the domains mostly responsible for the teacher turnover in Baringo district secondary schools. On the whole, the study found that institutional factors influence teacher turnover in Baringo District. As such they should be taken into account in trying to reduce turnover of teachers.