Role of principals’ promotional opportunities on retention: Case of secondary school teachers in Homa Bay County, Kenya

Abstract

The study investigated the role of principals’ promotional opportunities on retention: case of secondary school teachers in Homa Bay County, Kenya. Two sets of questionnaires were used; one for the school principals and another for the teachers. To enhance validity of the instrument, a pilot study was conducted in twenty selected schools in all the six sub-counties of Homa Bay County. This involved the ten principals and two teachers from each school. In this study, internal consistency reliability of the instruments was obtained by computing Cronbach’s alpha (α) using SPSS and a Cronbach’s Alpha of α= .830 was reported. Two methods were adopted for data analysis where both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed. The findings indicated that availability of teacher promotional opportunities was a significant predicator of teacher retention [F (1, 420) = 71.889, p < .05, R2 = .144] and positive correlation between the two variables at [r = .382, n = 422, p<.05].The study recommends that the Principals’ through the Ministry of Education should be able to empower teachers at their work stations as this will give intrinsic satisfaction. The administrators should assure teachers upward mobility at their work place as this increases teachers confidence at work place and self-reliance. Principals should recommend teachers for professional growth either within or outside their schools to enhance teacher’s retention. A functional teacher professional development strategy needs to be put by the government through the Ministry of Education to control teacher’s transfer rates. The Teachers Service Commission needs to ensure that teachers are transferred annually and only by the end of each year and this be made a guiding policy to all County Directors of Education.