Motivational factors influencing public secondary school teachers to join the teaching profession in busia district, Kenya

High quality teaching staffs are the cornerstone of a successful education system. Many studies have associated motivational factors to enhanced job performance, positive work values, high levels of employee motivation, and lower rates turnover and burnout. The purpose of this study was to identify motivational factors influencing public secondary school teachers’ to join the teaching profession in Busia District, Kenya. A descriptive survey design was adopted. A sample of 125 respondents was selected from a target population of 335 teachers. The study was based on a theoretical framework with key concepts derived from the works of Herzberg (1959) who reached on modification of human behaviour. Stratified random sampling was used to select 15 schools from the three divisions, simple random sampling was used to pick 110 teachers and purposive sampling was used to select 15 Head teachers from the 15 selected schools. A modified Likert Scale type of questionnaire was administered after validation. Data analysis was facilitated by use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study revealed that teachers were most satisfied with work itself and less satisfied with the interpersonal relationships, time for family, pay and least satisfied with the promotion opportunities. However, head teachers seemed to be more satisfied with taking new challenges, standards of excellence, and achievement while they are least satisfied with work it-self, training and promotion opportunities. On the other hand, teachers were most influenced to join the teaching profession by good salary, Flexible teaching programme and pressure from parents. Main recommendations include allocation of more funds to the Ministry of Education to employ more teachers, improve the methods of promotion in the teaching service so that many teachers can advance, and formulate policies for decreased work load for teachers involved in student discipline and guiding and counselling.