Job satisfaction and attrition among primary school teachers

Abstract

Being a teacher is never an easy job because they must deal with a variety of challenges on a daily basis, not to mention that it is now mandatory for a teacher to equip himself or herself with the most up-to-date teaching techniques, knowledge, and skills because the expectations are rather high, particularly from the Ministry of Education, parents, and students. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the job satisfaction and attrition dimensions of teachers in the hope of assisting teachers in expressing their thoughts, as teachers appeared to have no platform to voice out what they had been experiencing throughout their years of teaching. As a result, in order to investigate both dimensions, the researcher used a semi-structured interview to gather information directly from the primary school teachers who were the study's respondents. In terms of analysis, the researcher had used thematic analysis to decipher the necessary information for this particular study. Thus, in terms of job satisfaction, respondents largely agreed that the factors that satisfied them can be divided into six categories. To begin, the teachers agreed that their workload as teachers is typical. Second, the school's payment was regarded as average and acceptable. Third, the teachers mentioned that their co-workers were extremely helpful, tolerable, and committed to the same mission as they were. Fourth, the teachers stated that their opportunities for advancement were based on fairness, responsibility, performance, and expertise, which led them to be content with their current position as teachers. Fifth, the teachers were appreciated and well supervised by their superior, who used a democratic approach to dealing with the subordinates. Sixth, it was the students' accomplishments that made them feel satisfied with their current job, particularly when the students were able to understand the lesson and demonstrated some good progress in learning. As for the attrition part, the teachers claimed that, it was the stress to handling the parents and being burdened by too many works at the same time respondents share the aspects teachers consider before make the decision. Hence, the plans that could be implement to motivate by government sector and schools. Concerning attrition, teachers claimed that it was due to the stress of dealing with parents and being burdened by too many tasks at the same time.