Recruitment and retention of public senior high school teachers in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis

Abstract

The study was conducted to find out the factors that affected the recruitment and retention of public senior high school (SHS) teachers in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis. The designs used were the descriptive and noninterventional research designs. Four public senior high schools were involved in the study. The simple random sampling was used to select 112 teachers from the population of teachers in the four schools for the study. The data collection instrument used was the questionnaire. Statistical Product and Service Solution (SPSS), (version 16) software was used to analyze the data, and the results were presented in frequency tables and percentages. The study mainly revealed the following factors as affecting recruitment and retention of teachers: lack of an effective teacher recruitment and selection process in the Ghana Education Service (GES); poor teacher perception of the teaching profession; low teacher motivation; and teacher dissatisfaction with salary levels and other conditions of service in the GES. Most SHS teachers, therefore, left the service for other organizations. The study, therefore, recommends that government, Ministry of Education, GES, and other stakeholders of education must take concrete steps to improve on the mechanisms for recruiting and selecting teachers. Also, the salary levels and other conditions of service of public SHS teachers must be improved in order to motivate the teachers, enhance their level of satisfaction and retain them in the service.