Recruitment and Retention of Secondary School Teachers: with Reference to International Schools in Colombo

Abstract

Teacher recruitment procedures are vital in being one of the significant factors in providing effective and quality teachers. However, limited research has delved into how teachers are recruited in international schools. Hence, this study attempts to investigate the factors considered in teacher recruitment procedures and how teachers can be retained in international schools, especially in the secondary section which is from year 10 to 13. A quantitative research approach was used. The study involved 72 teachers who were selected from six leading international schools in Colombo using the purposive sampling technique. This included Head of departments and senior teachers from the Science, Commerce, Arts, and Technology streams. From each school, 12 teachers were selected, representing three teachers from each stream. A survey research design was executed, and a questionnaire was administered to collect the data. Descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages, and mean were used to analyze data. The findings of the study showed that since the expectations are so high, many of the applicants are not eligible to teach in these schools. Therefore, there is a shortage of qualified teachers in all streams. The findings also revealed that the teacher turnover rate is very high in the Arts and the Technology streams. Hence, a system change is required. The management should rethink the teacher recruitment and retention protocols by managing human resources more effectively. Keywords: International schools; teacher recruitment; retention; turnover