Comparative Analysis of Principal’s Managerial Practices for Teacher’s Retention in Public and Private Secondary Schools in Anambra State, Nigeria

: The seeming teacher turnover in secondary schools in Nigeria necessitated this study on managerial practices of principals for teachers’ retention in public and private secondary schools in Anambra State, Nigeria. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. Two research questions guided the study, while two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population of the study comprised 650 principals in the 256 public and 394 private secondary schools in Anambra State. There was no sampling as the entire population was used for the study. A researcher’s developed questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts who are lecturers, two in Educational Measurement and Evaluation, Department of Educational Foundations and the other in Educational Management and Planning, Department of Educational Management and Policy all in the Faculty of Education Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State Nigeria. The Cronbach’s alpha method was used to determine the internal consistency of the items which yielded an overall reliability coefficient of 0.75. The researcher with the help of ten research assistants distributed and successfully collected 490 copies of the questionnaire administered. The research questions were answered using the arithmetic mean while the hypotheses were tested using t-test. It was found among others that principals in public and private secondary schools in Anambra state to a high extent apply managerial practices of collaborative school culture for teachers’ retention. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that principals of public and private secondary schools should provide an avenue for team teaching, peer coaching and formation of study group among teachers towards enhancing teachers’ retention.


Introduction
Education is a tool for strengthening ones' intellectual power, building character, maintaining emotional balance as well as moral countries of the world acknowledges the fact that education is a vital instrument for national development and social change and as such has joined other countries of the world in the match towards worthwhile educational investments and reforms.Consequently, one of the goals of education according to the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN), ( 2013) is the development of appropriate skills, mental, physical, and social abilities and competencies to empower the individual to live in and contribute positively to the society.
The purpose of any of the three levels of formal education (Basic, Secondary or Tertiary) in Nigeria is to effect changes in children's behaviour by exposing them to relevant experiences through systematic presentation of skills, attitudes, concepts and principles.Secondary school education is the concern of this study and is the form of education children receive after nine years of basic education and before the tertiary stage.Secondary education is concerned with the acquisition of fundamental principles and knowledge for the study of different disciplines at tertiary level of education (Ofojebe & Nnebedum, 2016).The importance of secondary education lies in its position both as the bridge between the basic and tertiary education and also as the agent for preparing individuals for useful living in the society (FRN, 2013).There are two categories of secondary schools in Nigeria; public and private secondary schools.
Public secondary schools are schools that are owned by the government and its agencies.Such schools are controlled and managed directly by public education authority, governing agencies or by a governing body (council, committees among others), most of whose members are appointed by public authority or are elected by public franchise (UNESCO, 2001).Private secondary schools, on the other hand, are schools owned, financed and managed by private individuals, missions, corporate organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGO's).Private secondary schools, according to Etuk (2005), were set up for the reason of providing better teaching and learning conditions than that obtained in the public secondary schools.
Irrespective of the ownership, secondary schools in Nigeria have common objectives to achieve as stated by FRN (2013, p.17-18) as follows: a.
Provide holders of the Basic Education Certificate and Junior Arabic and Islamic Studies Certificate with opportunity for education of a higher level, irrespective of gender, social status, religious or ethnic background;

b.
Offer diversified curriculum to cater for the differences in talents, disposition, opportunities and future roles; c.
Provide trained manpower in the applied sciences, technology and commerce at subprofessional grades; Provide entrepreneurial, technical and vocational job specific skills for self-reliance and for agricultural, industrial, commercial and economic development;

e.
Develop and promote Nigerian Languages, art and culture in the context of world's cultural heritage; f.
Inspire students with a desire for selfimprovement and achievement of excellence; g.
Foster patriotism, national unity and security education with emphasis on the common ties in spite of our diversity; and h.
Raise morally upright and well-adjusted individuals who can think independently and rationally, respect the views and feelings of others and appreciate the dignity of labour.
The achievement of the above objectives has been the priority of secondary school education in Nigeria whether public or private.The secondary education level is managed by the principal who is responsible for utilizing the available school resources to enhance the attainment of stated goals of the school.The success or failure of a particular secondary school will be attributed to the principal, however, principals alone cannot work in isolation towards the achievement of the goals; they therefore should work together with their teachers.No educational level in Nigeria (Secondary education inclusive) could rise above the quality of its teachers (FRN. 2013).Therefore, to be able to achieve the goals and objectives of secondary education in Nigeria, the hiring and retention of qualified and experienced teachers are of utmost importance because they are the cornerstone upon which the excellence of education rests.Teachers play important roles in the achievement of stated educational objectives and in the task of nation building for sustainable development because they turn educational policies into practice in a normal classroom setting.
From the foregoing, it could be deduced that the goals of secondary education in Nigeria cannot be achieved without the retention of adequately trained and motivated teaching staff.There is therefore the need to keep teachers satisfied with their jobs and careers so that they remain in the teaching profession.Teaching is a highly stressful career, and teachers are leaving the profession at an alarming rate (Hanushek, 2007;Ingersoll, & Smith, 2003).This is not a welcome development because as observed by Faremi (2017), the retention of highly qualified teachers is of great importance if the objectives of secondary education in Nigeria are to be achieved.
Teacher retention according to Masood (2011) is the act of keeping teachers on the job without being moved from one school to another and or leaving the teaching profession entirely for other professions.Retention is about how a particular school manages its workforce or more specifically its relationship with its workforce.Retention is conceptualized in terms of teachers staying and teachers leaving.The main purpose of retention is to prevent competent teachers from leaving the school organization as this could have adverse effects on productivity and service delivery.Retention is also an action of holding something in position or containing it, hence the researcher defined teachers' retention as a state or a condition of attracting and enabling teachers to work and remain with the school organization before retirement Every school, whether public or private, strives to retain a pool of qualified, committed and talented teaching staff that can deliver quality education to its students and in turn produce students of high quality.When qualified teachers, for any reason, have intentions of leaving the school system or teaching field, it would portend a negative impact on students and the institution's overall performance as well.Thus, it is essential to retain highly qualified teachers in the school system on continuous basis for quality education delivery viz-a-viz the achievement of the objectives of secondary school education.It is important for schools through the employment process, to attract quality teachers, however, it is more important for educational managers to devise managerial practices which will help to retain the talented teachers in the service of the school organizations in order for teachers to benefit from the investment already made in them (Michael, 2008).Brown and Wynn (2009) emphasized that unless schools, specifically administrators (principals), begin to take a more proactive approach in supporting their new and veteran teachers, teachers are going to continue to leave the field and all schools and children will suffer.Therefore, retaining teachers in schools, most especially the new ones is an important and powerful force for the betterment of schools, students, and education as a whole (Gurule-Gonzales, 1995& King, 2004).Ladd (2009) maintained that the perspective of new teachers begin to form immediately they enter a new educational environment.This includes how they perceive those in authority and those who nurture and direct them through their initial experiences, as well as how they perceive the school culture.Specifically, principals are not just supervisors within the school, but are also the leaders looked up to by teachers to listen to them, assist them, and value them (Jiang & Chan, 2007;Ladd, 2009).The principal is the central leader who sets the tone and culture of the school, serves as a role model to the teacher, and shapes the professional image of the future for the teachers (Ladd, 2009).Principals' involvement with teachers, therefore, can be a significant factor in retaining teachers and in inspiring the passion that keeps beginning teachers from dropping out (Ingersoll & Smith, 790 2004).Although the leadership (principals) of the school may not have much influence over the reasons for entering teaching, principals are critical players on whether teachers decide to stay in the profession or not (ASCD, (2000); Lieberman & Miller, 1994).In line with this, Akudo and Oni, (2016) maintained that salaries are not the most important factor in teacher retention, but that teacher retention is a major function of the principal.This supports, Loeb and Page ( 2002) who revealed that teachers who begin to work transfers to other schools and to other professions often appear to be influenced only modestly by salaries and more by other factors such as working conditions, school leadership, teacher support, resources, facilities and safety.Archie (2005) maintained that when competent and qualified teachers leave schools for another profession, transfer to another school, it becomes an issue of quality in education opportunity.
Public and private school teacher attrition (teachers leaving the teaching profession) has become such a critical issue that has come to the attention of policymakers, educational planners and administrators (DeAngelis & Presley, 2011).The ugly trend seems to be high in private secondary schools than in public secondary schools.The disparity could be in the type of managerial practices adopted by principals in both categories of schools.When a teacher leaves a school, the school not only loses the teacher, it also loses the investments made in him, including workshops, in-service training, and teacher socialization activities (Dworkin, 1987).An effort towards retaining experienced and qualified teachers therefore is imperative if the objectives of secondary education are to be achieved.Retaining highly qualified teachers should be a top priority for school principals.Principals need to implement programme and have incentives to retain highly qualified teachers (Darling-Hammond, 2003).Fullan (2003) reported that effective leaders have the ability to change organizational culture which in turn, can create an atmosphere of job satisfaction that produces high retention rates.This tallied with Sparks (2002) who maintained that teachers are far more likely to remain in their positions when they feel supported by their administrators as well Hanushek and Luque (2000) stated that secondary school principals need to engage some managerial practices towards ensuring the retention of teachers, due to the fact that teachers might be persuaded to take lower salaries in exchange for better working conditions.
Ali and Abedafattah (2013) defined managerial practices as a set of guiding principles and management style adopted by managers in an organization to improve competitiveness and organizational performance through utilization of the available resources.These managerial practices for teachers' retention include, professional development, mentoring, collaborative culture, administrative support (Darling-Hammond, 2010& Faremi, 2017).For the purpose of this study, the managerial practices that were considered are; collaborative school culture and administrative supportive practices as stated by Darling-Hammond (2010) and Faremi, (2017).
School culture is defined as the invisible takenfor-granted flow of beliefs and assumptions that gives meaning to what people say and do (Deal & Peterson, 1999).Teachers also tend to remain in their positions when they experience a collaborative school culture environment (Hirsch, 2005).Furthermore, teachers who do not feel effective or do not receive adequate support from their principals in their beginning years leave schools and abandon teaching in favour of other professions (Moir et al., 2009).Borman and Dowling (2008) stated that administrative support is help given to teachers by administrators in the areas of instruction, school climate, curriculum and student behavior.Administrative support is a significant factor in the retention of teachers in schools (Brown and Wynn, 2007).
Private and public secondary schools principals in Anambra State seem not to be employing adequate management practices towards teachers' retention and this seems to make almost every teacher to be looking for a better opportunity to leave the teaching profession for other schools or professions.Building a professional teacher corps is a process that only begins with recruiting highly qualified teachers.Once recruited, these teachers need collaborations and other administrative supports from their principals to develop a strong sense of their own efficacy based on high-quality teaching skills and experience.Regrettably, the extent to which principals in public and private secondary schools in Anambra State apply these managerial practices adequately towards the retention of teachers is not known as the attrition rate of teachers in Anambra State Nigeria is on the increase.Teachers in Anambra State Nigeria seem not to be involved in decision making process in the school; they also seem not to be receiving adequate support from their principals.These and many other factors led to teachers (most especially those in private secondary schools) in Anambra State Nigeria to either seek transfer to other schools or leave the teaching profession entirely.Teachers attrition rate seem to be higher in private secondary schools when compared to public secondary schools.These unsatisfactory states of affairs prompted the researcher to carry out this study.

Statement of the Problem
Teachers' consistently leaving the teaching profession or seeking transfer from one school to another are quite alarming and has become a global phenomenon.There are many reported cases of teachers either seeking transfer from one school to another or leaving the teaching profession entirely before their retirement age.It is not an over statement to say that teachers (most especially private secondary school teachers) consistently are looking for better opportunities to leave the teaching profession for other sectors or to other schools that they adjudged better than the other.Brain drain of qualified teachers has been recorded in many public and private secondary schools in Anambra State Nigeria and hence raised a human resource capacity concern which has a negative effect on the overall student academic achievement due to lack of continuity.
Many factors could be responsible for teachers' turnover in public and private secondary schools in Anambra State which include among others, poor working conditions and inadequate application of managerial practices.Teachers might be persuaded to take lower salaries in exchange for better working conditions and the principals applying adequate managerial practices such as collaborative school culture and administrative supports.Unfortunately, the process of retaining teachers seems to be a daunting task for principals in Anambra State Nigeria.Public and private secondary school principals in Anambra State Nigeria appear not to be applying adequate managerial practices towards ensuring the retention of teachers.Many principals in Anambra State Nigeria appear not to adequately encouraging their teachers to attend conferences and workshops and other teacher' socialising activities which will help them to keep abreast of new developments in the field of teaching and thereby facilitating their decision to remain in the teaching profession till retirement without seeking for transfers to other schools or other professions.Worse still, secondary school principals in Anambra State Nigeria seem not to be providing adequate administrative supports for their teachers.It is in the light of these and other related problems that this study comparatively analysed the principals' managerial practices for teachers' retention in public and private secondary schools in Anambra State Nigeria.

Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study was to comparatively investigate managerial practices of principals for teachers' retention in public and private secondary schools in Anambra State.Specifically, this study compared the following: 1.
Collaborative school culture practices of principals for teachers' retention in public and private secondary schools in Anambra State.

2.
Administrative supportive practices of principals for teachers' retention in public and private secondary schools in Anambra State.

Research Questions
The following research questions guided the study: 1.
What are the collaborative school culture practices of principals for teachers' retention in public and private secondary schools in Anambra State?

2.
What are the administrative support practices of principals for teachers' retention in public and private secondary schools in Anambra State?

Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance: 1.There is no significant difference in the mean responses of public and private secondary school principals on their collaborative school culture practices for teachers' retention in Anambra State.
2. There is no significant difference in the mean responses of public and private secondary school principals on their administrative supportive practices for teachers' retention in Anambra State.

Method
The study adopted the descriptive survey research design.The study was carried out in Anambra State, Nigeria.Anambra State Nigeria.The population of the study comprised 650 principals in the 650 secondary schools (256 public and 394 private) in the six education zones in Anambra State Nigeria.There was no sampling in this study due to the relatively manageable size of the population of the study.
Thus, all the 650 principals in the public and private secondary schools in Anambra State were used for the study.
The instrument used for data collection is a structured questionnaire developed by the researcher from views of experts and literature reviewed.The questionnaire was subjected to face validation using three experts who are lecturers; two in the Department of Educational Management and Policy and one from Measurement and Evaluation in the Department of Educational Foundations, all in the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.Cronbach alpha method was used to determine the internal consistency (reliability) of the instruments which yielded coefficient of 0.75.The instrument was administered to the respondents by the researcher with the help of 10 research assistants who are post graduate students in the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.The research questions were answered using the arithmetic mean and standard deviation, while the hypotheses were tested using t-test at 0.05 level of significance.

Research Question 1
What are the collaborative school culture practices of principals for teachers' retention in public and private secondary schools in Anambra State?Results on Table 1 showed that the mean ratings of principals of public secondary schools for all the 13 items listed are above 2.50 which imply that they apply these items as collaborative school culture practices for teachers' retention.
Thus the public secondary school principals collaborative school culture practices for teachers' retention in secondary schools in Anambra State include among others establishing teacher leadership positions, opportunities for teachers to spend considerable time planning together on matters concerning curricular and co-curricular, opportunities for teachers to participate in problem-solving, involvement of teachers in meaningful policy and decision making process and keeping teachers informed of issues in the school.
On the other hand, the mean ratings of principals of private secondary schools for all the 13 items listed are above 2.50 which imply that they apply these items as collaborative school culture practices for teachers' retention.Thus the private secondary school principals collaborative school culture practices for teacher retention in secondary schools in Anambra State include among others establishing teacher leadership positions, opportunities for teachers to spend considerable time planning together on matters concerning curricular and co-curricular, opportunities for teachers to participate in problem-solving, involvement of teachers in meaningful policy and decision making process and keeping teachers informed of issues in the school.
A close look at the result showed that the mean of means for public secondary school principals is 3.14 while that of private secondary school principal is 2.94 though both are above 2.50 but comparatively, it is better applied by principals of public secondary schools than their counterparts in the private secondary schools in Anambra State.It is however concluded that collaborative school culture practices for teachers' retention in secondary schools are applied by principals of both public and private secondary schools in Anambra State.

Research Question 2
What are the administrative supportive practices of principals for teachers' retention in public and private secondary schools in Anambra State?Results on Table 2 showed that the mean ratings of principals of public secondary schools for all the 13 items listed are above 2.50 which implies that they apply these items as administrative support practices for teachers' retention.Thus the public secondary school principal administrative support practices for teachers' retention in secondary schools in Anambra State include among others availability of the principals whenever teachers need them for assistance, accessibility of the principal by the teachers, informal recognition of teachers' good works by the principal, establishment of clear school routines, teachers having a level of autonomy to select instructional materials and text and principals classroom visitation to observe the teaching and learning process.
On the other hand, the mean ratings of principals of private secondary schools for items above 2.50 which implies that they apply these items as administrative support practices for teachers' retention.Thus the private secondary school principals administrative support practices for teacher retention in secondary schools in Anambra State include availability of the principals whenever teachers need them for assistance, accessibility of the principal by the teachers, informal recognition of teachers' good works by the principal, establishment of clear school routines, principals classroom visitation to observe the teaching and learning process, enforcement of students' rule in a consistent manner, provision of assistance for teachers in the review of their lesson plans where they are finding it difficult, provision of reinforcement system for students' positive behavior by the principal, provision of adequate punishment system for students' negative behaviour by the principal and clearly spelt-out school wide rules and regulations for both teachers and students.With mean scores below 2.50, the private secondary school principals indicated that they do not apply the other two items listed as administrative support practices for teachers' retention in secondary schools in Anambra State.
A close look at the result showed that the mean of means for public secondary school principals is 3.22 while that of private secondary school principal is 3.04 though both are above 2.50 but comparatively, it is better applied by principals of public secondary schools than their counterparts in the private secondary schools in Anambra State in the sense that public secondary school principals applied all the 13 listed items while private secondary school principals applied 11 out of the 13 items listed.It is however concluded that administrative support practices for teachers' retention in secondary schools are applied by principals of both public and private secondary schools in Anambra State.

Test of Hypotheses
Ho1: There is no significant difference in the mean responses of public and private secondary school principals on their collaborative school culture practices towards teachers' retention in Anambra State Result from table 4 showed that the p-value of 0.00 is less than the significant value of 0.05, therefore the null hypothesis was rejected.Thus, a significant difference does exist in the mean responses of public and private secondary school principals on their administrative supportive practices towards teachers' retention in Anambra State.

Discussion of Findings Collaborative School Culture Practices of Principals for Teachers' Retention in Public and Private Secondary Schools in Anambra State
The findings of the study disclosed that principals of public secondary schools and principals of private secondary schools apply collaborative school culture practices for teachers' retention in Anambra State.These collaborative school culture practices include among others; establishing teacher leadership positions, principals planning together with teachers on curriculum and co-curricular matters, involvement of teachers in meaningful policy and decision-making process, provision of an avenue for teachers to communicate frequently to parents, opportunity for teachers to work cooperatively as a group, regular staff meetings with teachers, existence of trust and mutual respect among teachers and principals.
Though the findings revealed that both categories of schools applied collaborative school culture practices for teachers retention, it went further to show that principals of public secondary schools slightly applied those practices better than their counterparts in private secondary schools.Furthermore, it was revealed that a statistically significant difference exist in the mean responses of principals in public and private secondary schools on their collaborative school culture practices for teachers' retention in Anambra State.
The findings of the study tallies with Sankey (2017) whose study revealed that collaborative school culture were applied in Massachusetts through teachers' involvement in decisionmaking process and the provision of opportunities for teachers to share ideas through planning and dialogue.The study also is in agreement with Friesen (2016) whose findings revealed that teachers and administrators appreciates and respects each other.Furthermore, the findings is in consonance with Okello (2018) who found out that collaborative school culture were applied in schools and maintained that, that is a major factor influencing teachers' decision to leave or remain in the teaching profession.

Administrative Support Practices of Principals for Teachers' Retention in Public and Private Secondary Schools in Anambra State
The findings of the study revealed that administrative support practices such as; availability and accessibility of principals whenever teachers need them for assistance, establishment of clear school routines, enforcement of rules in a consistent manner, provision of clear rules and regulations for teachers and students, provision of reinforcement for students' behavior and provisions for assistance for teachers in the review of their lesson plan where they are finding it difficult among others were applied by both principals of public secondary schools and principals of private secondary schools for teachers' retention in Anambra State.Though the findings revealed that both categories of schools applied administrative support practices for teachers retention, it went further to show that principals of public secondary schools slightly applied those practices better than their counterparts in private secondary schools.Furthermore, it was revealed that a statistically significant difference exist in the mean responses of principals in public and private secondary schools on their administrative support practices for teachers' retention in Anambra State.
The findings of this study is in line with Coker (2017) who found out that principals provides administrative support for teachers and it is an important factor in teachers' decision about whether to remain in the teaching profession or not.The findings of the study is also in tandem with Faremi (2017) whose study revealed that principals in private secondary schools in Ondo State apply administrative support and is one of the factors critical in teachers' decision to remain in the teaching profession.

Conclusion
An inference that is drawn from the findings of this study is that both public and private secondary schools in Anambra State apply collaborative school culture and administrative support practices for teachers' retention.it is concluded that a statistically significant difference does exist in the managerial practices of collaborative school culture and administrative support of public and private secondary school principals in Anambra State for teachers' retention.

Recommendations
Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made: 1.
Principals of public and private secondary schools should provide an avenue for team teaching, peer coaching and formation of study group among teachers.

2.
Private secondary school principals should provide an opportunity for in-service training of teachers and grant teachers a level of autonomy to select instructional materials and text.
and cultural empowerment of individuals to bring about positive development in the society.The skills and potentials of individuals for selfreliance and actualization could be developed through education.Nigeria, just like otherSuggested Citation Anachuna, O.N. & Emegwa, U.T. (2024).Comparative Analysis of Principal's Managerial Practices for Teacher's Retention in Public and Private Secondary Schools in Anambra State, Nigeria.European Journal of Theoretical and Applied Sciences, 2(2), 787-798.DOI: 10.59324/ejtas.2024.2(2).70