Mid-Life Challenges and Work Performance of Secondary School Teachers in Embu Municipality.

Abstract

Mid-life is that period of life approximately thirty-five years to fifty- five years. The teacher may experience challenges in internal and external aging, health problems, menopause, climacteric and marriage conflicts due to impotence, which affect the work performance. These problems have contributed to misunderstandings between the teacher and the school administration. The study sought to determine which factors can be attributed to mid-life challenges and give recommendations on how to prevent, control and cope with these challenges in order to improve work performance. Descriptive survey was used for data collection. The sample frame constituted all 176 secondary school teachers and 12 principals in Embu municipality. A sample of 130 teachers and 10 principals was drawn from the twelve public secondary schools in the study area. Then, randomsampling was used to select the sample. In addition, data was collectedusing questionnaire and interview schedule which was analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings of the study indicated that most of the teachers were undergoing mid-life challenges. Furthermore, many teachers did not have any specific coping mechanism, but most of them freely shared their problems with their fellow teachers and not the principals. The study recommends that for the teachers to be effective in workperformance there is need for creating awareness on the particular challenges that the teachers expect during midlife years and also on the strategies to adapt when this period comes in one’s life. The principals should be made aware that midlife challenges are not inadequacy hence they should understand teachers’ predicamentduring mid –life years.Finally, there is need for provisionof counselling services to enable the teachers handle the period of midlife effectively in order to improve work performance