Attitude of Governmental Secondary School Teachers in West Bank Northern Governorates-Palestine Towards Early Retirement and Impact of Some Variables on It

This study sought to identify the attitude of governmental secondary school teachers, in West Bank Northern Governorates- Palestine, towards early retirement.The study also sought to find out the impact of the variables of sex, academic qualification, marital status, age, years of service, and family level of income on this attitude. The population of study consisted of all governmental secondary school teachers in West Bank Northern Governorates - Palestine. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (2007/2008), there were 6985 male and female teachers. A questionnaire was administered to a randomly chosen sample of 700 teachers. 10% of population of the study. The 50 items of the questionnaire were distributed among five domains: social, psychological, job, financial and health. After checking its validity and reliability, it was distributed among the subjects of the study. Out of 700, 670 of the subjects responded. After data analysis, it was found that the attitude of the governmental school teachers towards early retirement was positive. The percentage of response of the total score was 61.2%. The order of domains, concerning the attitude of the secondary school teachers towards early retirement, was as follows: social domain: 67.2%, psychological domain: 63.8%, job domain: 60.2%, financial domain: 58.8%, health domain 55.8%. It was also found that there were no statistically significant differences at (α = 0.05) in the attitude of governmental secondary school teachers towards early retirement in the financial and health domains which might be attributed to the variable of sex.However, there were statistically significant differences in the social, psychological and job domains as in well as the total score of the attitude between males and females in favor of the later. It was also found that there were no statistically significant differences (α = 0.05) in the attitude of secondary school teachers towards early retirement which might be attributed to the academic qualification variable.More were no statistically significant differences in the attitude of secondary school teachers towards early retirement in the psychological, job, financial and health domains and in the total score of the attitude which might be attributed to the marital status variable However, there were differences of statistical significance in the marital status between single and married teachers, in favor of the married teachers. However, no statistically significant differences were found at (α = 0.05) in the attitude of secondary school teachers towards early retirement in the social, psychological financial and health domains which might be attributed to age variable but there were statistically significant differences in the job domain and total/set score of the attitude. There were also no statistically significant differences in the attitude of secondary school teachers towards early retirement which might be attributed to years of service and family level of income variable. In the light of the study finding, the researcher recommends that more interest be given to the teachers health, financial, job, psychological conditions and find ways to raise the teachers, job satisfaction .thus increasing their educational output, productivity and efficiency.