Introduction

The teacher is a pivotal force that contributes to the smooth running of teaching and

learning activities. Teachers have quite an important role in taking responsibility to teach well

and instil in the student the right knowledge (Perring et al., 2009). The teacher plays a basic role

in the class because it is the teacher that imparts knowledge to the students, facilitates and guides

students to understand whatever is being taught and the teacher also serves as a role model to

pupils in the classroom. Teachers are the most important professionals in a country that wants to

invest in the future (Svenska, 2010). Trained and skilled teachers are basic requirements needed

in the classrooms. The absence of teachers may lead to inconsistencies and unsteadiness in the

teaching and learning process thus negatively influencing student academic output.

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2009) claims that half of the world’s countries need

to expand their teaching forces to enroll all primary school–age children by 2015 (Carlsson,

2014). Teachers have one of the highest attrition rates of any profession (Heller, 2004). The issue

of teacher shortage has been rampant in most countries. Countries not only in Sub–Saharan

Africa have a great need for additional teachers but also Western countries such as Ireland,

Spain, Sweden and USA are pointed out as facing teaching gaps (Carlsson, 2014). Teaching has

one of the highest turnover rates among professions in America. For instance, the teacher

dropout problem is continuously and gradually getting out of control. Teacher attrition has grown

by 50% over the past fifteen years, and the national teacher turnover rate has risen to 16.8%

(Kain, 2011). As per the OCED, in 2016, attrition rates in public institutions varied from 3.3% in

Israel to 11.7 % in Norway from pre-primary to upper-secondary education (OCED, 2021).

A report by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), in Daily Vanguard on

7th December 2018 indicates that 250, 000 teachers must be available to tackle the acute shortage

of teachers at basic and secondary levels. (Mathew, 2019). The problem of an acute shortage of

teachers is being worsened by teacher attrition. Suji and Sathiyavathi (2019) define attrition as

the gradual reduction in the number of employees through retirement, resignation or death. It can

also be termed employee turnover or employee defection. According to (Elfers et al. 2006), it is

a steady decrease in membership of an organization by way of retirement, resignation or death.

Macdonald (1999) defines teacher attrition as either a problem for workforce planning and

resources or an indicator of the relatively poor quality of school life and teacher morale. Miller

and Chait (2008) defined teacher attrition as teachers leaving the classroom to take up other

professional responsibilities, inside or outside of education, or to spend more time with their

families. Research shows that teacher attrition possibly is expected or unexpected, and it could

be permanent or temporary (Egu, Wuju & Chionye, 2011).

The Ghana Education Service (GES) estimates that about 10,000 teachers leave the

classroom yearly for various reasons. The number of teachers that go on study leave annually has

also been on the rise. About 3000 teachers leave the classroom to pursue further studies. (GNAT

& TEWU, 2009). A national study (Quansah 2003 as cited in Cobbold, 2007) reports a shortage

of 40,000 trained teachers in basic schools, with 24,000 vacancies filled by untrained personnel

(Sam et al. 2014). Teacher attrition is one of the major educational challenges in Ghana.

Despite the situation presented above, in Ghana, only a few studies have been conducted

concerning teachers at senior high schools. Sam et al. (2014) conducted a study among public

senior high Schools in the Kwabre East district of the Ashanti Region-Ghana. Baah et al. (2009)

also limited their study to the influence of government policies on attrition only. In addition,

there has been no legitimate policy to curb teacher attrition in Ghana (Baah et al., 2009). The
study by Ingersoll (2013) reported that annually, 15.7% of teachers stop teaching to join other

professions, while the government sponsored 40% of them to study further but most teachers do

not return to their profession. These findings reveal that there has been no comprehensive study

about the general factors influencing the teacher attrition challenge in the Central Region Ghana;

a region with some of the biggest and most populated senior high schools in the country. Thus,

this gab research motivates us to conduct a study on factors that influence teacher attrition in the

Cape Coast Municipality. The following questions guided this study:

1. What is the relative frequency of teachers’ intention to leave the student profession?

2. What are the school factors which influence senior high school teachers’ attrition?

3. What are the government factors which influence senior high school teachers’ attrition?

LITERATURE REVIEW

This section features a review of various concept relevant to this study and previous studies on

reading habits and academic performance to give a clear base for this studyConceptual Review

Teacher Attrition
According to Elfers et al. (2006), it is a steady decrease in membership of an organization

by way of retirement, resignation or death. Macdonald (1999) defines teacher attrition as “either

a problem for work force planning and resources or an indicator of the relatively poor quality of

school life and teacher morale”. Miller and Chait (2008) defined teacher attrition as “teachers

leaving the classroom to take up other professional responsibilities, inside or outside of

education, or to spend more time with their families”.

Teacher attrition can either be expected or unexpected, and it could be permanent or

temporary (Egu, Wuju & Chionye, 2011). In the former, teachers retire or leave the profession to

get a job in a different sector with a better salary (UNESCO, 2006). Ingersoll (2001) describes
these departures as turnover. In the latter, teachers remain in the profession but move to similar

jobs within the education sector (Miller & Chait, 2008) and/or leave temporarily to start a family,

or complete higher education and finally return later to continue teaching. Luekens et al. (2004)

divide teachers into three main groups: stayers—the ones who stay for years in the same school,

movers—teachers who transfer to other schools but remain part of the system, and leavers—who

leave the profession of teaching entirely because of retirement or going into a different

occupation. Irrespective of the reason for attrition, the negative effects of teacher attrition affect

every country to the core since education is paramount to the development of any country.

Factors which influence Teacher Attrition

Most research surrounding attrition has been attributed to the salary condition of the

workers involved. While some works list low salaries as just one of the many factors that cause

attrition, others work go to the extent of listing low salaries as the major factor for attrition.

(Imazeki, 2005; Kelly, 2004; Ingersoll, 2000; Murnane, Singer, Willett, Kemple & Olsen,1991;

Rickman & Parker, 1990 as cited in Hassan conducted a study to analyze the determinants of

teacher attrition among public school teachers of Florida. The results indicated that among all

other factors of school characteristics, class size, students’ performance on standardized tests,

and the number of disciplinary incidents, the salary of the teachers was the prime determinant of

teacher attrition. It was found that about one-eighth of the leavers depart to private schools

and/or have taken jobs in other states with higher pay scales.

Achor et al. (2009) found that teachers’ salaries and welfare are not often disbursed as

when due by the government and some teachers have taken to petty trading to augment their

income for daily leaving. Abakpa and Agbo-Egwu (2008) also found that about 62.94% of

teachers engage in menial jobs as a way of adjusting to the economic situation since they could
not meet their required daily expenditures if they relied on government pay alone.

Aside from salaries and wages, Bennell and Akyeampong (2007), also reported that poor

working conditions in rural schools account for the high turnover rates among secondary school

teachers. Santiago (2001) cites the growing population of teachers and possible or subsequent

retirement thereof as one of the major factors influencing teacher attrition. Imazeki (2004) in the

same vein pointed out that 1/3 of cases of attrition of teachers is a result of retirement thus

implying that the age of the teacher is a contributing factor, especially for old teachers who retire

or seek voluntary retirement. Based on the results from a survey conducted by GNAT and

TEWU in 2009, it was concluded that the high rate of teacher attrition has been attributed to

several factors. Key among them is the poor working conditions for teachers. Conditions

considered as conducive or otherwise and their importance for teachers vary from one context to

the other. Basic conditions that any working population would want to be present in their work

environment would include affordable housing, good wages and other benefits and basic

facilities. According to Akyeampong (2007), cited in Kasau et al. (2016), poor teacher

management practices are one of the major causes of teacher attrition. As stated by him, when

teachers are not given the right guidance or positive appraisal, when personal problems are not

understood within the school set up or when they are frustrated or stressed by unfavourable

supervision practices, they eventually lose morale and develop low job satisfaction which fuels

their desire to quit or look for alternative employment. The low level of salaries and the poor

working conditions have contributed to the low status of teachers in society. This has

considerably reduced morale in the teaching profession and diminished its appeal (GNAT &

TEWU, 2009)

Shen (1997) and Quartz (2008) as cited in Akindele (2010) reported that low teacher
involvement in decision-making, poor social support of teachers, lack of respect, victimization

and harassment and lack of respect from the education officers have been some of the reasons

why attrition occurs with teachers giving up teaching in pursue of non-teaching jobs. A VSO

survey in 2007, reported that teachers spoke of lack of consultation, lack of regular information

on any developments and not being fairly treated as reasons why many teachers in Gambia quit

teaching. Kelly (2004) in his research identified a lack of administrative support as an

established factor that increases teacher attrition (Boyd et al., 2009). In Boyd et al. (2009) as

cited by Hassan (2013) teachers were asked to identify what aspect of their job most influenced

their decision to leave or to consider leaving the teaching profession. A little over 15% of

teachers reported dissatisfaction with student behaviour while over 40% identified dissatisfaction

with the administration as the most important factor.

Galand et al. (2007) found that positive relationships among colleagues and with school

management were associated with lower teacher exits. They speculate that teachers experience

negative emotional and psychological effects from victimization which may lead to their

decision to leave. Also, the extent to which teacher-principal relationships and interpersonal

competence affect their job satisfaction (Roach, 1991). Regarding the leadership styles and the

roles of principals or headmasters, research reveals that the principal’s affinity-seeking strategies

and cooperation with teachers improve the interpersonal relationships between principals and

their teachers, and that teacher job satisfaction is strongly associated with teachers’ perceptions

of their principals' leadership styles and decision-making strategies.

In addition to the influences of collegial and student relationships on attrition, research

also underscores the significance of teachers’ social identity and status in the community (Tye &

O'Brien, 2002) as cited in Hassan (2013). Jones (2001) states “if only teachers gained greater
influence and authority in their careers and schools, they would find greater satisfaction in their

work and students would benefit”. This further reiterates the need for social recognition and a

feeling of importance among teachers if we hope to retain teachers longer in the profession.

Some of the factors from research conducted on attrition are based on gender. It is mostly

thought that women are much more likely to end up and stay in the classroom as compared to

males. But research has indicated that although women may take on teaching jobs, they mostly

leave the profession for a series of reasons. (Ingersoll, 2001; Smithers & Robinson, 2003;

Guarino et al., 2004; Kirby, 1999). Stine Brickner (2002) as cited in Hassan (2013) analyzed the

occupational change and departure from the teaching profession and informed that the majority

of female teachers leave the profession altogether, or leave temporarily because of various

personal reasons. The personal factors of female teachers include maternity leave, family care/

raising children (Smithers & Robinson, 2003; Tye & O'Brien 2002; Ingersoll 2001), a clash

between family responsibilities and professional expectations (MacDonald, 1999),

socioeconomic reasons (Ingersoll, May, & Consortium for Policy Research (2011), and

imbalance between marital satisfaction and job satisfaction (Salley, 2010).

Some identified factors which cause attrition among teachers are limited to the mind and

mode of thinking through aspects of the teaching profession. These comprise the psychological

perception of the profession. When constantly faced with overcrowded classes, overwhelming

schedules, lesson planning, and evaluating classroom activities, teachers are unable to connect

with other colleagues and barely have time to think about their personal and professional growth.

OECD (2009) reported that effective professional development support from the organization

help teachers deal with their dissatisfaction and other personal factors i.e., beliefs, attitude and

self-efficacy. Subsequently, it is very hard to retain teachers in such frustrating and stressful
conditions, particularly with no or lack of organizational and professional support. Teachers

learn through experience which most of the time is contrary to their expectations. Thus, teaching

becomes a chaotic activity for them. In such situations, if teachers do not have adequate support

and autonomy to practice their knowledge either they leave the profession altogether or try to

transfer to other schools (Darling Hammond, 2003). Thus, beginning teachers who get support

during their initial year of teaching, would be more likely to stay in their profession for longer.

Methodology

This study employed a quantitative approach, which allows results to be examined and

reported statistically. Cross section survey design was used for this study. The cross-sectional

survey was chosen by the researchers because it allowed them to identify the variables that affect

senior high school teachers' attrition and how this affects senior high school students' academic

performance at a particular time frame. Additionally, a cross-sectional design was adopted

because data were gathered during a specific period (Creswell, 2012). The study involved 365

teachers from five senior high schools in the Cape Coast Municipality. The teachers from these

schools were selected because the schools represent a fair distribution of at least three districts in

the region. The schools were also selected because of how accessible they were to the

researchers concerning distance. Table 1 below shows the population distribution of the teachers:

Table 1: Population Distribution of Teachers

S/ School Number of Teachers

1 Mfantsipim School 83

2 Wesley Girls SHS 78

 3 University practice SHS 69

4 Edinaman SHS 62

5 St. Augustine’s College 73

Total 365

Source: Field data (2022)