EDUCATION POLICY AS CORRELATE OF TEACHERS’ JOB SATISFACTION AND RETENTION IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN AWKA EDUCATION ZONE
Keywords:
Education Policy, Teachers Job Satisfaction, Retention, Public, Secondary SchoolsAbstract
The study investigated education policy as correlate of teachers’ job satisfaction and retention in public secondary schools in Awka Education Zone. Two research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The correlational research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 1,551 teachers from the 65 public secondary schools in Awka Education Zone of Anambra State, Nigeria. The sample size for the study was 310 respondents. The instruments used for data collection in this study were three structured questionnaires developed by the researcher which was validated by three experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was determined through a pilot study conducted with 20 teachers from public secondary schools in Aguata Education Zone. The responses were analyzed using Cronbach’s Alpha to measure internal consistency. The reliability coefficients obtained for EPQ, TJSQ and TJRQ were 0.88, 0.86 and 0.84 respectively. The instruments were administered to the respondents on the spot and retrieved after allowing the respondents adequate time to complete the instruments. Pearson product moment correlation was used to analyze data for the study. The findings of the study revealed that education policy has high positive relationship with teachers’ job satisfaction and retention in public secondary schools in Awka Education Zone. Findings also revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between education policy and teachers’ job satisfaction and retention in public secondary schools in Awka Education Zone. Based on these findings, the researcher recommended among others that the Ministry of Education and Post Primary Schools Services Commission (PPSSC) should strengthen education policies that directly support teacher welfare, including equitable remuneration, workload balance and career progression. It was also recommended that principals of public secondary schools implement mentorship programmes for newly recruited teachers and promote leadership practices that are supportive and collaborative
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