MENTORING AND JOB SATISFACTION, AS PREDICTORS OF TEACHERS’ RETENTION IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL IN BENIN CITY, NIGERIA

Abstract

The supply and demand of teachers in the educational industry is an important challenge faced by many countries of the world, including Nigeria. This shortage of teachers was occasioned by the departure of older and more experienced teachers from the profession, while a low number is recruited and this has affected negatively student learning and had also incurred large economic costs. It has been observed that schools the world over, struggle to recruit and retain quality teachers because the teachers are not satisfied with their job due to poor welfare. The study examined mentoring and job satisfaction as predictors of teachers’ retention in public secondary schools in the Benin City. To achieve this purpose, four research questions were raised. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of teachers in the 150 public secondary schools in Benin City, while the sample size was 700 teachers drawn from 50 schools. The research instrument was a questionnaire titled “Teachers Mentoring and Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (TMTSQ)”. It was validated by three experts in Measurement and Evaluation, and two others from Educational Management at, the University of Benin, Nigeria. The reliabilities of the instrument were ascertained using Cronbach Alpha and gave alpha values of 0.89 and 0.90 for mentorship and job satisfaction of teachers. The data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, multiple regression, and ordinal regression. The findings that emerged from the study showed that the retention rate of teachers was high, and the level of mentorship and job satisfaction of teachers was also high. It also revealed that mentorship and job satisfaction predict teachers’ retention significantly, and the experience of teachers increases the likelihood of teachers’ retention in secondary schools. It was therefore recommended among others that, for teachers to be retained in secondary schools, mentoring strategies and job satisfaction measures should be adopted.