JOB SATISFACTION AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN CAMEROON: The Case of GMI AZIRE GROUP 11 BAMENDA

CHAPTER ONE

     INTRODUCTION

Job satisfaction is not a new phenomenon at all in organizational science and organizational behaviour. It is one of the topics that have drawn interests among scholars in the field. Many studies have been done on this particular topic for over six decades now and thousands of articles have been published (Zembylas & Papanastasiou, 2006).

However, most of the studies have been done in the developed counties such as United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand but a few studies have been undertaken in the developing countries (ibid). This implies that there is more literature on teachers‟ job satisfaction from the developed countries than there is from developing countries and cameroon in particular.

Attempts to improve performance in schools will never succeed if teachers‟ job satisfaction is ignored. If employees in an organization are motivated, they will render services to the employer and customers very efficiently and effectively (Mbua, 2003). This implies that motivated and satisfied secondary school teachers are most likely to affect the students‟ learning positively while the opposite of that may have negative impacts on students‟ performance. Educational leaders and

Administrators /managers have to pay special attention to the phenomena of motivation and job satisfaction. CAMEROON like other countries in the world is currently working towards improving the quality of its education so that it suits the future needs of the society and the demands of globalization (Nguni, 2005).

The government of CAMEROON has succeeded to make primary education universal through the implementation of the Primary Education Development Plan (hereafter PEDP) 2002 to 2006 and now it is implementing the Secondary Education Development Plan (hereafter SEDP) 2005 to 2009 that is meant to increase the accessibility of secondary education to its citizens (Oluochi, 2006).

The two programmes are geared towards implementing and attaining the Millennium Development Goals (hereafter MDGs) on education as per Dakar Framework for Action, Education for All (hereafter EFA) by 2015 (UNESCO, 2005).

The implementation of the two programmes will be meaningless if CAMEROON does not consider providing quality education as it is spelt out in the country’s Education Policy (MOEC, 1995).

The efforts to provide quality education will prove futile if all stakeholders and policy makers now and in the future do not pay attention to teachers‟ job satisfaction. Zembylas and Papanastasious (2006, 245), who studied teacher job satisfaction and dissatisfaction in Cyprus suggest, “…there is an urgent need for policy makers to recognise the fact that educational quality is largely related to teacher job satisfaction.” This implies that teachers‟ job satisfaction is a pivotal aspect for a country like CAMEROON which is trying to fight ignorance among its citizens both quantitatively and qualitatively.

This study is intended to add knowledge to the phenomenon of teachers‟ job satisfaction. It is contended that measuring teachers‟ job satisfaction is a responsibility of administrators (Liu &Wang, 2007). This implies that educational administrators are obliged to examine job satisfaction levels of their teachers from time to time. My experience as a secondary school teacher and headmaster in CAMEROON affirms research findings that understanding teacher job satisfaction and motivating them is an important task for effective school administrators. Quaglia, Marrion & McIntire (2001) suggest that future research should consider whether teachers who are dissatisfied with their jobs negatively affect students‟ academic performance and whether teachers who are satisfied with their jobs have a positive impact on students‟ academic performance (ibid).

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that are associated with job satisfaction. Using a self-designed survey, the study investigates the factors which teachers are satisfied with. Additionally, the study investigates whether teachers‟ job satisfaction differs significantly in relation to gender, age, marital status, teaching experience, school type, school location, promotional or leadership position, educational qualifications and teacher type (subject specialization). Moreover, the study investigates the factors that contribute significantly to the teachers‟ intention to remain in the job. Lastly, this study determines whether there is any relationship between job satisfaction and the job dimensions: job characteristics, social benefits, meaningfulness of the job, support from administration and the intention to remain in the job. The study examines the teachers‟ job satisfaction using the key dimensions/facets that were given by previous theorists and exploring whether they apply or not to secondary school teachers in CAMEROON

Problem Statement

Teachers‟ commitment and effectiveness solely depend on motivation, morale and job satisfaction (Shann, 2001). This implies that teacher motivation and job satisfaction are important phenomena for all organizations including schools in any country. A survey conducted recently on teachers‟ motivation and job satisfaction in 12 countries in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa including CAMEROON raises concerns about the influence of low teacher job satisfaction on teachers‟ absenteeism, lateness and lack of commitment to their work (Bennell & Akyeampong, 2007). Additionally, teachers‟ satisfaction is not only important to teachers themselves as civil servants, educational managers and leaders and employers but also to students in all types of schools. According to Shann (2001, 67), “teacher satisfaction has been shown to be a predictor of teacher retention, determinant of teacher commitment, and, in turn, a contributor to school effectiveness.” This implies that teacher job satisfaction is an important phenomenon for secondary school teachers, their employers and students at large.

The phenomenon of teacher job satisfaction has been widely studied for over six decades in the developed countries and thousands of articles have been published. However, there is a limited literature about teachers‟ job satisfaction in developing nations south of the Sahara and CAMEROON in particular.

Rationale of the Study

This study emerged as a result of my own interests and experiences in Human Resource Management after serving as a teacher (16 years), a Deputy Headmaster (3 years) and a Headmaster (4 years) in a Non-Government Secondary School in GMI AZIRE GROUP 11 BAMENDA, CAMEROON. During the 16 years of service, I experienced a massive movement of teachers from my school to other schools and from other schools. At the same time some teachers left the teaching profession and joined other professions.

Additionally, I witnessed teachers joining the teacher union in an attempt to fight for their rights against their respective employers. The CAMEROON Teachers‟ Union officials called for a country-wide teachers‟ strike in 2008 to force the Government to pay arrears, increase salaries and promote them. However, the strike was not effective because the government declared it illegal.

These experiences together motivated me to conduct the current study as an attempt to create awareness about the phenomenon of job satisfaction to educational policy makers, school administrators, employers and school owners with the hope that it would provide possible solutions to some of the issues I have mentioned previously for the good of beneficiaries of the education service in CAMEROON. I believe that “when individuals find satisfaction and meaning in work, the organization profits from effective use of their talent and energy. But when satisfaction and meaning are lacking, individuals withdraw, resist, or rebel. In the end, everyone loses” (Bolman & Deal, 2008, 164).

Purpose of the Study 

This study is principally aimed at examining the factors that are associated with teachers‟ job satisfaction. It determines the kind of factors or facets which teachers are satisfied with. It also determines whether teachers differ significantly in their job satisfaction in relation to personal or demographic factors such as gender, age, marital status, type of school, location of school, type of teacher, teaching experience, promotional position (leadership position) and educational qualification. Moreover, it is aimed at determining the factors which contribute significantly to teachers‟ intention to remain in the job. Lastly, the study is aimed at determining whether there is a significant relationship between teacher job satisfaction and job dimensions namely: Job Characteristics (JC); Social Benefits (SB); Meaningfulness of the Job (MJ); Support from Administrators (SA); and teachers‟ Intentions to Remain on the job (IR).

 Key Research Questions

The study was guided by four key research questions and these are as follows:

1. What kind of job satisfaction aspects are teachers satisfied with?
2. How do the teachers differ in their job satisfaction in relation to gender, age, marital status, qualification, teaching experience, type of school, school location and promotional position?
3. Which of the job satisfaction factors contribute significantly to teachers intentions to remain on the job?

4. Is there any significant relationship between teacher job satisfaction and job characteristics, social benefits, meaningfulness of the job, support from administrators, and teachers‟ intention to remain on the job

Organization of Study

The study is organized in five  chapters as follows: chapter one presents an overview and the organization of study, the problem statement, the rationale of the study, the research objectives, key research questions, and definitions of the key concepts, significance of the study, research design, and limitations of the study.

Chapter two presents the theoretical framework and a review of related literature. Additionally, it includes research on various facets/factors that are associated with job satisfaction and those factors that influence teachers‟ or employees‟ intentions to remain on the job.

Chapter three presents method that was employed in the collection of data from the sources and the rationale for selecting the method. It includes such aspects as: population sample, sample size, procedure for sample selection, instrumentation, and data analysis technique. Chapter four presents the study findings and analysis of data. Chapter five presents recommendations for future research and the concluding remarks.