Educare 2015.indb EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies, 8(1) August 2015 55© 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com NEHA SHARMA A Study of the Impact of Qualification and Salary on the Attitude of Primary School Teachers towards the Teaching Profession ABSTRACT: The education at the primary level is the platform, where we prepare the knowledge base in the mind of the students; so, it is essential that the instructions given to them should be such which help them to internalize the concept to the optimum level possible, and the teacher is the one who can do this task efficiently. This study examined the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession. The sample was drawn with the help of Simple Random Sampling and Incidental Sampling. Firstly, the 14 primary schools were selected with the help of Simple Random Sampling and 201 teachers from these schools were selected with the help of Incidental Sampling from Aligarh City, Uttar Pradesh, India. The sample consisted of 201 primary school teachers selected from 14 primary schools of Aligarh City. Out of total sampled teachers 117 were trained and 84 were untrained. The distribution of total sampled teachers according to their salaries, 92 were found above INR (Rupee India) 5,000; and 109 were found below INR 5,000. The investigator used attitude scale developed by M.R. Verma (1972) to assess the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession. The obtained data were analyzed by calculating mean, standard deviation, and two-way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance). The result indicated that salary have a significant impact on the attitude of teachers towards teaching profession, whereas the qualification does not bring any impact on the same and the interaction effect of qualification and salary on the attitude of primary school teachers found to be non-significant. KEY WORDS: Attitude, primary level, aims of education, teaching profession, teaching practice, salary, qualification, and significant and non-significant impact. About the Author: Neha Sharma is a Research Scholar at the Department of Education AMU (Aligarh Muslim University) in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. For academic purposes, the author are able to be contacted via phone at: 91-9456242258 or via e-mail at: nehaasharma123@gmail.com How to cite this article? Sharma, Neha. (2015). “A Study of the Impact of Qualification and Salary on the Attitude of Primary School Teachers towards the Teaching Profession” in EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies, Vol.8(1) August, pp.55- 62. Bandung, Indonesia: Minda Masagi Press and UMP Purwokerto, ISSN 1979-7877. Available online also at: http://educare-ijes. com/06-a-study-of-the-impact-of-qualification-and-salary/ Chronicle of the article: Accepted (June 21, 2015); Revised (July 23, 2015); and Published (August 25, 2015). INTRODUCTION Kothari Commission (1964-1966) emphasize the role of teachers in India. Teachers build the future citizens of the country. An educational institution performs a significant function of providing learning experiences to lead their students from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge. The key personnel in this transformation are teachers (Day, 2000; and Ellis & Mcnicholl, 2015). The education at the primary level is the NEHA SHARMA, A Study of the Impact of Qualification and Salary 56 © 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com platform where we prepare the knowledge base in the mind of the students, so it is essential that the instructions given to them should be such which help them to internalize the concept to the optimum level possible; and the teacher is the one who can do this task efficiently. Teacher education has a central role in the improvement of educational systems around the world. When system outcomes are measured in economic terms and teachers and teaching are conceived of as variables, it is also clear that the concept of improvement is underpinned by a particular system of values (Ellis & Mcnicholl, 2015). Education has been regarded as a matter of national importance, and an indispensable agency on difficult task of building a nation (Belagali, 2011). The whole process of education is shaped and molded by the human personality called the teacher who plays a pivotal role in any system of education (Maliki, 2013). There are three basic tenets in the discipline of education: aims of education, curriculum, and methodology; and teachers plays the key role to maintain the balance among the three. Aims of education does not meet to their means until unless the teacher internalize aims of education in their teachings so to impart the knowledge to their pupils which is the necessary aspect of the teaching. The teacher’s attitude is an important variable in classroom application of new ideas and novel approaches to instruction (Reinke & Moseley, 2002). S. Hussain et al. (2011) defined “attitude” as a response which can be positive or negative to any situation, events or objects. Individual’s attitudes towards their profession have an effect on their performance. It is also acceptable for the teaching profession, because the attitudes and perceptions of a profession affects the perception of professional competence and achievement; teachers attitude towards their profession have a great importance in fulfilling the requirements of the profession (Terzi & Tezci, 2007; and Dumusoglu, Yanik & Akkoyunlu, 2009). Factors that affecting the teacher’s attitude were as follows: (1) Administration. (2) Working conditions, (3) Monetary benefits, (4) Occupation level, (5) The work group, (6) Age, (7) Race and sex, (8) Education level, and (9) Personal adjustments (Rajeswari, 2008). The teacher is expected to not only master the subject and various methods of teaching, but also to show that he is capable of selecting the various study materials according to the teaching goals and varied group of pupils. He also possesses the potentials to create learning environment for the students (Vermunt and Verschaffel, 2000). D.M. Smith (1993) and S. Hussain et al. (2011) summarized the relationship between teacher’s attitude and teaching as shown in figure 1. When the cycle is examined, it can be obviously understood that teachers attitudes towards profession have an effect not only on teaching practice but also on their students. Primary education, or basic education as Mahatma Gandhi suggested, caters to the most fundamental need of all men and is something that men cannot do without. It is right to such education that universal declaration of human rights mention as a human rights (cited in Singh, 2010). Primary school teachers have a significant role in their students in shaping their attitudes and achievement in their classroom; so, it is essential on the part of the teachers that they should have a favourable attitude towards the profession only then they can inculcate good academic skills in their students. Signifi cance of the Study. The present study is mainly concerned with the attitude of school teachers towards the teaching profession at primary level. Many studies have been done keeping in view the attitude of teachers at secondary level in relation to different psychological variables; and some studies have been done on prospective teachers if primary teachers were taken then they are from different ethnic origins, so the investigator found a research gap, because very small number of studies is performed at the primary level which is the base of all upper levels of education. If the teacher is not satisfied with their profession, then, it is very difficult for them to perform their duties efficiently. In this study, investigator studies the impact of qualification EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies, 8(1) August 2015 57© 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com and salary on the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession. REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE S.E.R. Kauffman & B.E. Sawyer (2004) conducted a study on the primary grade teachers self-efficacy, beliefs, attitude towards teaching and discipline and teaching practice in relation to the RC (Response Classroom)’s approach revealed that teachers, who reported using more RC practices, reported greater self-efficiency, beliefs and teaching practice priorities that were consistent with those of the RC approach. Teachers at RC schools were also more likely to report positive attitude towards teaching as a profession and to hold disciplinary and teaching practice priorities that were aligned with the goals of RC approach. A. Duatepe & O. Akkus (2004) investigated the attitude of in-service and pre-service primary school teachers towards teaching profession and found that the pre-service and in-service teachers in this study yielded positive attitude towards teaching profession; and there was a significant difference between pre-service and in-service teachers attitudes towards the teaching profession. A.U. Osunde & T.I. Izevbigie (2006) made a study an assessment of teacher’s attitude towards teaching profession. The study attempted to obtain empirical evidence teachers attitude towards the teaching profession in Midwestern Nigeria. To execute this study, 400 post primary school teachers randomly drawn from 40 post primary schools in the area under study. The teachers’ attitude questionnaire was the main instrument used for data collection. The result of the study indicated among others that the teachers are not well financially remunerated and that they are worked upon because of delay in payment of salaries and allowances, thereby having a lot of sense of belonging. This situation has resulted in the low esteem and status of the teachers and the teaching profession in the society. Findings have also revealed that poor conditions of service, wider negative influence and teachers negative personal; and professional behavior are critical factors responsible for teachers low status (Osunde & Izevbigie, 2006). S. Ghosh & S. Bairagaya (2010) investigated the attitude of secondary school teachers towards teaching profession in relation to some demographic variables. The result showed that there was no significant difference in attitude of secondary school teacher towards teaching profession in relation to their educational qualification, but they found significant difference in relation to sex, caste, and teaching experience (Ghosh & Bairagaya, 2010). S. Hussain et al. (2011) found that secondary school teachers do not possess a positive attitude towards the teaching profession. A.V. Bagmagond & C. Hirolli (2011) studied professional attitude of women teachers on the basis of their qualification and marital status. The findings revealed that there was no significant difference between Teacher’s Attitude towards Profession Teaching Practice Student’s Attitude & Academic Achievement Figure 1: The Relationship between Teacher’s Attitude and Teaching (Source: D.M. Smith, 1993; and S. Hussain et al., 2011) NEHA SHARMA, A Study of the Impact of Qualification and Salary 58 © 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com graduate and post graduate women teachers of secondary school with respect to their attitude towards teaching profession (Bagmagond & Hirolli, 2011). A.E. Maliki (2013) investigated the attitude of teachers towards the teaching profession. The study utilized descriptive survey research design. A total number of 150 teachers were randomly selected from secondary schools in the study area. The result indicated that teachers’ have a negative attitude towards the teaching profession (Maliki, 2013). OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY AND HYPOTHESES The present study has the following objectives: (1) to study the impact of qualification on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession; (2) to study the impact of salary on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession; and (3) to study the interaction effect of qualification and salary on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession. Null hypothesis are framed which are as follows: (1) There is no significant impact of qualification on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession; (2) There is no significant impact of salary on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession; and (3) There is no significant impact of the interaction of qualification and attitude on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession. METHOD Sample. In the present study, the sample was drawn with the help of Simple Random Sampling and Incidental Sampling. Firstly, the 14 primary schools were selected with the help of Simple Random Sampling and 201 teachers from these schools were selected with the help of Incidental Sampling from Aligarh District in Uttar Pradesh, India. The sample consisted of 201 primary school teachers selected from 14 primary schools of Aligarh District. Out of total sampled teachers, 117 were trained and 84 were untrained. The distribution of total sampled teachers, according to their salaries, 92 were found above INR (Rupee India) 5,000; and 109 were found below INR 5,000. See table 1. Description of the Tool Used. The investigator used attitude scale developed by M.R. Verma (1972) at the Department of Education AMU (Aligarh Muslim University) in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, to measure attitude towards teaching profession. This attitude scale consists of 23 statements of Likert type representing attitude towards various aspects of teaching job, such as economic rewards, freedom in planning and execution of work, teacher-pupil relationship, and working conditions. The reliability coefficient of the attitude scale is 0.91 as reported by its author and as calculated by Test – Retest method. The range of scores on this tool extends from 23 to 115 with the mean of 69. Responses are made on a 5 point scale and the response category are assigned weights from 1 to 5. The scoring scheme used was to given a score of 5 to each responses marked by under “strongly agree”; a score of 4 to each response marked under “agree”; a score of 3 to each response marked under “undecided”; a score of 2 to each response marked under “disagree”; and a score of 1 to each response marked under “strongly disagree”. This was done for positive statements; in case of negative statements, the scoring method was reversed. The total score indicates favorableness or unfavorableness of the attitude of the teacher towards the teaching profession. Table1: Distribution of the Sample by Qualification and Salary Total Number of Selected Schools Total Number of Primary School Teachers Qualification Salary Trained Untrained Above INR 5,000 Below INR 5,000 14 201 117 84 92 109 EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies, 8(1) August 2015 59© 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com Table 2: Mean Scores and SD for the Attitude of Primary School Teachers towards Teaching Profession by Qualification and Salary Descriptive Statistics Dependent Variable: Attitude Qualification Salary Mean Std. Deviation N Trained Above INR 5,000 85.17 9.574 71 Below INR 5,000 81.39 12.328 46 Total 83.68 10.849 117 Untrained Above INR 5,000 86.24 8.814 21 Below INR 5,000 80.92 10.544 63 Total 82.25 10.350 84 Total Above INR 5,000 85.41 9.369 92 Below INR 5,000 81.12 11.278 109 Total 83.08 10.641 201 Table 3: Summary of Two way ANOVA of Primary School Teachers towards Teaching Profession Source Sum of squares Degree of freedom Mean squares F Sig. Qualification 3.606 1 3.606 .033 .857 Salary 832.921 1 832.921 7.561 .007** Qualification*Salary 23.872 1 23.872 .271 .642 ** Significant at 0.01 level Statistical Techniques Used. The obtained data were analyzed by calculating mean, standard deviation, and two-way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) with the help of SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 16.0. The analysis and interpretation has been done objective wise. RESULTS AND INTERPRETATIONS Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics for the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession by qualification and salary. With the mean score of 83.68 and a standard deviation of 10.85, trained teachers appeared to be superior to untrained teachers who recorded mean score of 82.25 and a standard deviation of 10.35. With respect to salary, teachers who draw salaries above INR (Rupee India) 5,000 had a mean score of 85.41 with a standard deviation of 9.37 appeared to have higher attitude scores than the teachers who draw salaries below INR 5,000 had a mean score of 81.12 with a standard deviation of 11.27. The result of the table 3 revealed that qualification has no significant impact on the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession. Hence, the mentioned null hypothesis, i.e. “there is no significant impact of qualification on the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession” is accepted. The result also reported that salary has a significant impact on the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession. Hence, the mentioned null hypothesis, i.e. “there is no significant impact of salary on the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession” is rejected. The mean scores showed that teachers having salary above INR (Rupee India) 5,000 (85.41) were found to have more favourable attitude than the teachers having salary below INR 5,000 (81.12). There is no significant impact of the interaction of qualification and attitude on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession. Further, the results reported that, as indicated in the figure 2, the interaction of variables, i.e. qualification and salary is not NEHA SHARMA, A Study of the Impact of Qualification and Salary 60 © 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com significant as the F-ratio is .271, which is not significant at 0.01 levels. Hence, it is concluded that the interaction of qualification and salary does not have effect on attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession. Hence, the null hypothesis, i.e. “There is no significant impact of interaction of qualification and attitude on the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession” is accepted; which means salary have a significant impact on attitude of teachers towards teaching profession, but when it was combined with qualification than their interaction does not bring a significant impact on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession. Major Findings and Discussion. The first finding of the study showed that the “there is no significant impact of qualification on the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession” is accepted. A.V. Bagmagond & C. Hirolli (2011) study support the above finding as they found no significant difference between graduate and post graduate women teachers of secondary schools with respect to their attitude towards teaching profession (Bagmagond & Hirolli, 2011). In the same line, S. Ghosh & S. Bairagaya (2010) revealed that there was no significant difference in attitude of secondary school teachers towards teaching profession. The second finding of the study reported that salary has a significant impact on the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession. The finding is in harmony with the study of A.U. Osunde & T.I. Izevbigie (2006) indicated that teachers were not well financially remunerated and that they are worked upon because of delay in payment of salaries and allowances, thereby having a lot of sense of belonging. This situation has resulted in the low esteem and status of the teachers and the teaching profession in the society (Osunde & Izevbigie, 2006). The third finding revealed that there is no significant impact of the interaction of qualification and attitude on the attitude of primary school teachers towards the teaching profession. This is relevance with the studies that be conducted by C. Day (2000); A.E. Maliki (2013); and V.K. Sabharwal (2004). CONCLUSION 1 The teacher has an important role in the field of education and have remarkable impact on the minds of the students. The teacher’s roles being multiple and prone to change with change in stakeholders’ expectations of education, teacher education would be failing in its duty if it did not prepare teachers who can perform professionally in keeping with “professional” norms and standards. Teaching is a complex and demanding profession. To sustain their energy and enthusiasm for teaching, teachers need to maintain personal commitment to the job. At the end of the study, it was found that the attitude of teachers significantly affected by their salary, also supported that finding and 1Acknowledgments: The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editors. In addition, the authors gratefully acknowledge the information provided by the primary school teachers. However, the author declares no conflict of interest. Figure 2: Showing Interaction Effect of Qualification and Salary on the Attitude of Primary School Teachers towards the Teaching Profession EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies, 8(1) August 2015 61© 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com recommended that the government should increase the salaries of teachers and take matters concerning teachers as high priority, so that they do their profession willingly. But, qualification of the teachers does not make any difference between the attitude of primary school teachers towards teaching profession, because now a day’s training might be given to the teachers was not appropriate, it does not affect the cognitive and affective domain so that it brings some difference between those who are trained and untrained. So, administration should pay attention to their training and economic profile also which provide them an opportunity to build a better attitude towards the teaching profession. Some of the research problems related to this area are given follow, which may be taken in the future: (1) this study is confined to only Aligarh city and its finding cannot be applied to all the levels of education as it mainly concerned with the primary education, so the study will be performed after taking samples from the other city or bifurcating the sample on the basis of location, caste, community etc. on the different level of education; (2) a comparative study will be conducted between government and private secondary school students; and (3) the impact of organizational climate on the attitude of teachers towards teaching profession will also be studied.2 References Bagmagond, A.V. & C. Hirolli. 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NEHA SHARMA, A Study of the Impact of Qualification and Salary 62 © 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com Teachers of India (Source: http://www.curriculum-magazine.com, 15/4/2015) Teaching is a complex and demanding profession. To sustain their energy and enthusiasm for teaching, teachers need to maintain personal commitment to the job. At the end of the study, it was found that the attitude of teachers significantly affected by their salary, also supported that finding and recommended that the government should increase the salaries of teachers and take matters concerning teachers as high priority, so that they do their profession willingly.