Abstract:
Secondary school education in Kenya equips students with the knowledge, skills and competences that are vital for achieving their desired KCSE performance. The level of teachers of Agriculture job satisfaction can affect implementation of Agriculture curriculum as well as students’ Agriculture scores. In Nyeri County, public secondary-school students continue to perform poorly in KCSE with results from 2009 to 2014 indicating an aggregate of C- in Agriculture. This performance has affected transition to higher levels of education and career aspirations. Studies globally show that teachers’ job satisfaction can affect students’ performance. In Nyeri County, it was not clear whether Agriculture teachers’ job satisfaction was affecting students’ performance; hence, this study sought to provide that missing information. The study employed an ex-post facto survey research design. The study was a census involving 185 public secondary school teachers in Nyeri County. A structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data, which were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 22. Both face and content validity of the questionnaire were determined using a panel of five agricultural education experts at Egerton University while its reliability was determined using a sample of 30 Agriculture teachers from Kirinyaga County, which has teachers with similar characteristics as those of Nyeri County. A Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of 0.88 was obtained, which is above the minimum threshold acceptable in educational research. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to analyze data at a confidence level of α=0.05. Descriptive statistics such as means, frequencies, standard deviations and charts were used to summarize and present the findings of the study, which indicated a positive relationship between the selected Agriculture teachers’ job satisfaction factors (working conditions, work load, terms and conditions of service and career development programmes) and students’ performance in Agriculture in KCSE except in interpersonal relations where no relationship was found. Based on the findings, the study concludes that favourable working conditions, manageable workload, competitive terms and conditions of service and continuous career development programmes for Agriculture teachers should be enhanced to improve KCSE performance. The study recommends that the Ministry of Education and other education stakeholders improve Agriculture teachers working conditions, their condition of service and career development programmes in order to enhance students’
