ABSTRACT
Job satisfaction is viewed as an imperative and an attractive attribute to the employee result for organizations because of the fact that fulfilled employees perform at higher levels than the individuals who are not fulfilled. Since job satisfaction has an important relationship with the workforce performance and the entire organizational efficiency, a lot of attention has been paid to the job satisfaction amongst various occupations of various groups. This study looked at job satisfaction among pre-primary teachers employed by the County Government. The study focused on investigating job satisfaction among pre-primary school teachers: case of Makueni County, Kenya. The theory underpinning the study was the two factor theory. A descriptive research design was utilized for the study. The target population of the research was pre-primary school teachers in Makueni County. The study used probability sampling techniques involving simple random sampling and systematic sampling to arrive at the size. Therefore, a sample size of 63 pre-primary school teachers in Makueni County was selected for the study. The research utilized a semi-structured questionnaire that had both open and close ended questions. The data were then organized for analysis using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The analysed data was presented using frequencies, percentages, standard deviations, means and other measures of central tendency. The study concluded that all the variables had a positive and significant influence on job satisfaction. The study recommended that highly qualified teachers needed to be given the conditions that match their qualifications in order to raise their satisfaction status and improve the job outcomes.
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
Introduction
This chapter offers the details with regards to the background information, statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, the objectives of the study, the research questions, as well as the significance of the study. The chapter also gives the theoretical as well as the conceptual framework of the study, the limitations and the delimitations of the study and the operational definition of terms.
Background to the Study
Job satisfaction can be defined as the combination of both the physiological, psychological and environmental elements which makes someone to state that he/she is happy with his/her occupation (Long & Swortzel, 2010). Furthermore, according to Brady (2012), job satisfaction can be referred to as an enthusiasm and the viable reactions which are got from someone’s occupation. Such illustrations do not just refer to the compensations alone, but also include elements such as the way in which the employees are dealt with as well as how they are valued by the managers (Brady, 2012). It also incorporates the initiatives under which the employees’ needs are put into considerations by their employers (Rousseau, 2010). If such considerations are not given the much needed attention by the education stakeholders, then the level of job satisfaction among the preschool teachers will be lowered, hence negatively affecting the education outcomes.
In fact, in the past 15 years, there has been a global recognition of the importance of investing in the children’s lives in their early years, evidenced by the rapid increase of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) services around the globe (UNESCO, 2015). However, the progress in the coverage of the pre-primary education has not been given the much needed attention in equal terms across all the regions as well as within the countries and therefore the delivery of the quality of the early childhood education remains a big challenge in many countries around the world (UNESCO, 2015). Indeed, the recent Global Education Framework Education (2030) has incorporated a target which has the focus on increasing the equitable and the quality provisions, including the one year of free and compulsory education. Therefore, in order to ensure that this target is achieved, the ability to conduct an adequate recruitment, as well as retaining and supporting the highly qualified staff within the pre-schools is highly encouraged.
Job satisfaction is no longer a new phenomenon within the organizational behaviour and also in the organizational science as well (Agho, Mueller & Price, 1993). In fact, it is among the themes that have drawn a lot of interests among many scholars in very many fields. Therefore, many studies have since been conducted in this topic for more than six decades now and even thousands of research articles have been published with regards to job satisfaction (Miner, 2015). However, many of these studies have taken place in developed nations like the United States of America, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Canada, but very few studies have so far been conducted in developing countries (Zembylas & Papanastasiou, 2006). This then means that there is more literature on the pre-school teachers’ job satisfaction in developed than it is within the developing countries, Kenya in particular.
Elsewhere in the African continent, job satisfaction in education sector has been given a serious attention in order to promote the quality of education. For instance, in Nzukka Education Zone, Nigeria, teachers are perceived to be unsatisfied with their respective jobs. This is evidenced by higher levels of indiscipline, job turnover and the reported cases of examination mismanagement by the teachers (Abdulaziz, 2014). Therefore, it is important to adequately address the cases of job satisfaction among preschools if the quality of education is to be attained. The existing literature indicates that efficient leadership significantly impacts on the teachers’ performance (Sezgin, 2009). In fact, the performance of an individual determines the entire organizational performance, an in particular and in successfully achieving particular goals (Sezgin, 2009).
In the Kenyan context, Waithaka (2003) argues that the most common job satisfier among the preprimary schools are ‘‘good management,” whereas ”poor salary scale,” is the most common job dissatisfier. The study found that the cooperation nature of the children was the most satisfying factors and further indicated that most preschool teachers were found to be satisfied in their work. On the contrary, Makoti (2005) investigate terms and conditions of service for pre-school teachers and found out that most preschools teachers are often demotivated by the existing terms of services. However the scholar suggested that there was need for the government agencies to provide clear guidelines with regard to the terms and conditions for the preschool teachers to be used by all the employers. Therefore, this raises the need for further studies in this area in order to gain clear insights on the impacts of the terms and condition of service on the preschool teachers’ job satisfaction.
In order to improve the status of preschool education, the Ministry of Education, through Community Support Grants (CSG) has been supplementing group endeavours in financing pre-primary school activities such as the increment of the pre-school teachers’ salaries, overall sanitation and the programmes for supporting the provision of educating/learning materials at pre-primary school centres (Ndani, 2012). In 2011, under the Permanent Secretary Circular, SCG was given the mandate with the responsibility of ensuring that there is an increase in salary for the preschools in Kenya hence improving job satisfaction among the preschools. However, this is still a subject of research as issues of job dissatisfaction are still high even today. This is evidenced by the assessment by UNESCO (2015) which found out that most institutions, whether private or public still lack the finances to support their operations such as paying for the preschool teachers.
Statement of the Problem
Different studies have been conducted in relation to job satisfaction in Kenya. However, there are still research gaps that need further investigation. For instance, Waithaka (2003) found out that the most satisfier of job satisfaction among preschool teachers were good management whereas least satisfier was poor salary scale. The study lacks the contribution on the impacts of the level of training and working conditions on job satisfaction. Also, Kinuthia, Kombo and Mweru (2013) found that the teachers involved in preschool teaching were the ones who had low levels of training and few years of teaching experiences. However, the study did elaborate on its impacts on job satisfaction. Furthermore, Ndani and Kimani (2011) found that the motivation among the preschool teachers was less that 50%, hence below average. Even though the study recommended the ministry of education and other relevant stakeholders to improve the
teaching/learning environment, it does not reveal its impacts on the job satisfaction in the first place. Mosomi (2015) also found that only employers’ welfare support and salary was statistically significant on the job satisfaction among preschool teachers. However, the study recommended better working environments including better classrooms, appropriate information technology, teaching-learning materials, address remuneration, better services and motivation. This is done without clear findings to indicate whether these were indeed necessary. Makoti (2005) also argues that most preschools work under significantly different terms and conditions of Service which in turn affected their job satisfaction. However, this was done before the devolution of preschool education to the county governments. And therefore, it is not clear whether this still the case with the devolution system of governance. If job satisfaction is not given the much needed attention, the education outcomes at the pre-school setting may be poor, as the teaching may demoralized to work hard. This may end up affecting the quality of education in general, since less equipped children may transit to upper primary, leading to poor performance in their national examinations.
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine level of job satisfaction among pre-primary school teachers the job satisfaction in Makueni County. This was done by investigating how the training level, terms and conditions of work, and working environment collectively affect job satisfaction.
