Effects of Labour Disputes on Quality of Education in Public Secondary Schools in Mvita Constituency, Mombasa County

Abstract

Education has always been an important asset and is regarded as a key human development index; as a result various states and governments globally spend a large share of their budget on education sector as part of their strategy to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of education for all. Access to schools has improved rapidly throughout the developing world since 1990, but learning outcomes have lagged behind. Despite the fact that it is desirable to avoid a trade-off between quantity and quality, poorly managed education systems and constant labour disputes have undermined improvement in learning outcomes. The study sought to establish the effects of labour disputes on quality of education in public secondary schools. The objectives of the study are to; examine the causes of labour disputes between Teachers Service Commission and Teachers Union, to investigate the nature of conflicts between TSC and KNUT/KUPPET, to analyse the effect of labour disputes on academic Performance in public secondary schools within Mvita Constituency. The study employed the Bargaining Theory and Conflict Theory. Descriptive research design was used; study population is made up of 10,320 and a sample of 942 Students, Parents, Teachers, TSC and KNUT/KUPPET officials obtained by use of stratified sampling to cater for each classification of respondents. Data were collected through questionnaires, and interview schedules. Descriptive statistics were analysed by use of frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations with the help of SPSS programme. On the other hand, inferential statistics are in form of both Pearson’s correlation coefficient and multiple regression with the help of Correlation models. The study found that: there are conflicting interests between Teachers Service Commission and Teachers Unions. Major causes of these conflicts are salaries, poor working environment, low motivation for teachers, mishandling of teachers grievances and promotions; disputes affect school performances because at such times teachers stay away from schools and students stay at home. This leads to poor coverage of the syllabus, when schools open the workload is so high that teachers cannot cover everything forcing students to sit for examination without learning some subjects; disputes in schools take various forms such as strikes, confrontations on teacher’s rights, picketing and go-slows. When a solution is not found through collective agreement, teacher’s desert schools which end up closed until the disputes are resolved. Lastly conflicts, disruption of school hours and strikes moderately affect the quality of education. The relationship observed is positively strong although statistically insignificant.

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