The influence of teacher stress on academic performance of secondary school students: a case of Eldoret municipality

Abstract

Most societies have high expectations on what education can do for them. On the other hand, teachers perceive that the resources to accomplish these tasks are limited. The demand by the society on teachers may induce teacher stress. Teacher stress affects the individual teacher, the school and the entire society. The study therefore, sought to investigate the influence of teacher stress in secondary school student‘s academic performance in Eldoret Municipality. The transactional model of stress was used in the study. The ex-post facto design was used. The study involved 100 teachers drawn from six secondary schools. Stratified sampling was employed to categorize schools into high, average and poor performing schools. Multi-stage sampling was then used to select 6 schools from 20 secondary schools in the Municipality. Schools that had not presented candidates for KCSE in the last three years were excluded. At the school level, the researcher used purposive sampling where teachers who had taught in the school for more than three years were identified to fill the questionnaires. The data collected was analyzed by use of percentages, rank score, chi-square and ANOVA. The level of significance was set at 0.05. The results showed that teachers found teaching in school with poor performance had higher levels of occupational stress than teachers found teaching in schools with average and high performance. Teachers found teaching in high performing schools had lower levels of teacher stress than teachers teaching in schools with average and poor performance. Male teachers had higher levels of teacher stress than female teachers. Teachers with a teaching experience of 9 years and below had higher levels of teacher stress than teachers with 10 and above years of experience. Teachers with a teaching experience of above 20 years had the lowest levels of teacher stress. The study revealed that teacher stress influences secondary school student‘s academic performance. The results showed that there was a negative relationship between teacher stress levels and student‘s performance. The findings of the study revealed that teacher stress was present in the teaching fraternity. Therefore, some recommendations were made. There is need to minimize teacher stress. Guidance and counseling centers should be established for teachers. Teachers need to be educated on emerging issues and trends. Newly employed teachers should make realistic and achievable goals