The impact of personnel policies on teacher retention in Umuahia secondary education zone

Numerous programmes have emerged over the years to address the demand of improving teachers' condition of service in the educational system. These include conferences, symposia, outreach programmes, workshops, experimentation and teacher oriented programmes etc. However, the current wave of teacher grievance seen in incessant strikes over poor condition of service is lamentable. This state of affairs is reflected in the rate of mass exodus of teachers from teaching career in search of better paid employing sectors, and these who remain exhibit low morale and concentration. This study investigated the Impact of Personnel Policies on Teacher Retention in Umuahia Secondary Education Zone in Abia State and to find out to what extent staff personnel policies relate to teacher retention. Secondary school principals and teachers constituted the population of the study. Their views on the staff personnel policies that tend to influence them to remain on the job were sought. Six research questions and two hypotheses were posed to investigate the study. Fifteen duty principals and three hundred and fifty (350) teachers consisting of the sample were selected by stratified random sampling technique from the four zones of the state. A self-report questionnaire titled "Depressed Inventory Questionnaire (DIQ)" was used for data collection. Data were analyzed item by item using frequency distribution and mean scores. The results indicated that delayed and irregular payment of salaries, lack of promotion prospects, lack of fringe benefits, lack of teachers development opportunities, nonpayment of pension and gratuity and lack of maternity leave allowances were the factors which the teachers perceived as most depressing. Recommendations were made while areas for further research were pointed out.