www.ijird.com December, 2020 Vol 9Issue12 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INNOVATIVE RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT DOI No. :10.24940/ijird/2020/v9/i12/DEC20029 Page 30 Age and Job Satisfaction among Public Secondary School Teachers in Nakuru County, Kenya 1. Introduction Job satisfaction and motivation are very crucial to the long-term growth of any educational system around the world. As Ololube (2006) points out, job satisfaction is important in the same way as professional knowledge, teaching skills, and access to educational resources. This, as Patrick (2007) points out, is due to the strong link between job satisfaction and academic achievement of students. A satisfied teacher has a friendly attitude and greater enthusiasm which contributes immensely towards the educational advancement of the students, whereas a dissatisfied teacher has an irritable and hostile attitude thereby causing great harm to the institution as well as to the society (Sankar&Vasudha, 2015). A study carried out by Akomolafe, Ogunmakin and Fasooto (2014) in Nigeria emphasized that the consequences of job dissatisfaction among teachers are absenteeism from schools, high turnover, aggressive behaviour towards colleagues and learners, early exit from the teaching profession and psychological withdrawal from work. Otto and Arnold (2005) have linked teacher turn over or the motivation to leave the teaching profession to dissatisfaction with various aspects of their job. A higher turnover leads to teacher shortfall, and consequently high student-teacher ratio whose deleterious effect on students’ learning gains cannot be overstated. Job satisfaction of teachers is a function of an individual’s needs fulfilment since teachers are not similar in terms of temperament, interests, and experience. Therefore, their needs and consequently levels of job satisfaction may differ (Steers, Porter &Bigley, 1996). In view of teachers’ heterogeneity, Evans (1998) has averred that the best approach in an attempt to study teacher satisfaction is to adopt the individuality dimension, where the focus is on individual characteristics such as age. Research on the age-job satisfaction relationship has yielded mixed results. For instance, Crossman and Harris (2006) identified significant differences in job satisfaction among teachers in different age groups, ISSN 2278 – 0211 (Online) Margaret Wangari Maina Ph.D. Student, Department of Educational Management, Laikipia University, Kenya John Kanjogu Kiumi Associate Professor, Department of Curriculum and Educational Management, Laikipia University, Kenya Dr. Peter Githae Senior Lecturer, Department of Curriculum and Educational Management Laikipia University, Kenya Abstract: Teacher job satisfaction has in the recent past raised concerns among researchers and practitioners in Kenya. This concern has been occasioned by industrial disharmony in the teaching profession by way of teachers’ strikes including dissatisfaction related behaviours among teachers such as absenteeism and desertion of duty. This is what informed the study whose core objective was to investigate the level of job satisfaction among secondary school teachers in Nakuru County-Kenya and the extent to which age differences existed in job satisfaction among the teachers. Data were collected through a self-delivered questionnaire from 341 teachers who were randomly selected from 3,092 teachers in the county. The instrument was validated through a pilot study while its internal and external reliability was estimated through Cronbach’s alpha (r= .945) and split-half (r= .905) techniques. Collected data was analyzed usingANOVA statistic. The study revealed that job satisfaction increased with teachers’ age and that the age-job satisfaction gap was statistically significant (p=.000). The findings also demonstrated that the significant job satisfaction differences were between teachers below 30 years of age and their 30 years and above counterparts. Drawing on these findings, it is imperative for the national teacher management entity, specifically the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to borrow a leaf from the recommendations of this study with a view to enhancing job satisfaction among the newly recruited teachers. Similarly, secondary schools Boards of Management (BoMs) need to implement these recommendations in their schools so as to improve job satisfaction among newly posted teachers in their schools. This will undoubtedly enhance their performance to the benefit of the students. Keywords: Teachers, job satisfaction, age, Nakuru County, Kenya