PRINCIPALS REWARD PRACTICES AS PREDICTORS OF TEACHERS JOB COMMITMENT IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN AWKA EDUCATION ZONE OF ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Teachers foster critical thinking and problem-solving skills in students through their job commitment. This study examined principals reward practices as predictors of teachers’ job commitment in public secondary schools in Awka Education Zone of Anambra State. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study.  The null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Correlational research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of 1546 teachers in 65 public secondary schools in Anambra State. Simple random sampling procedure was used to draw the sample of 773 respondents for the study. The instruments for data collection were two sets of structured questionnaires by the researcher tagged; “Principals Reward Practices Questionnaire (PRPQ)” and “Teachers Job Commitment Scale (TJCS)’’. The face validity of the instruments was established by three experts, two in Educational Management and one  in Measurement and Evaluation, all from the Department of Educational Foundations, Faculty of Education, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam Campus. The construct validity was established using Principal Component Analysis Approach. Cronbach Alpha procedure was used to determine the internal consistency of the instruments, PRPQ yielded coefficient value of 0.85 and 0.76 for TJCS. Simple regression was used to answer the research  questions and to test the null hypotheses.  The findings revealed that extrinsic reward practice was significant factors for predicting teachers’ job commitment in public secondary schools in Awka Education Zone of Anambra State. Also the study indicated that principals’ intrinsic reward practice is not a significant factor for predicting teachers’ job commitment. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that principals’ should motivate teachers to be more committed to their job whenever they show outstanding performance by giving them cash prices, awards, recommending them for promotion and involving them in decision-making, Anambra State Post Primary School Service Commission should organize periodic programmes for principals on reward practices and that teachers who are not commitment to their job after several corrections should be rewarded negatively through delaying their salaries or promotion.