Factors Associated With Intention to Retire Among the Graduate Teachers in Larut, Matang and Selama, Perak

Lately, statistic indicates that tendency to opt for early retirement among the graduate school teachers has increased. Although the situation is still under control this trend could be a cause of concern given the
decrease in interest among the youth may effect the teaching organization in future.
This study which investigates factors associated with intention to retire among the graduate teachers in 17 secondary school in the district of Larut Matang and Selama of Perak, ventured to established whether
intention to retire is significantly related to job satisfaction, work stress, perceived inequities, advancement opportunities and organizational commitment. Age, gender and salary were used as the demographic factors
in investigating whether they moderate the five independent variables. The sample consisted of 242 graduate teachers from 77 secondary schools in the district. A self-constructed 33-items questionnaires were used for data collection to measure the variables. A pilot test was carried out to ensure the validity and reliability of the instrument (Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.8178).
Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) software version 7.5 were used to analyze the data.
Previous studies on intention to retire had included all the independent variables, however no study employing such a model has been done on graduate teachers especially in a smaller district. The findings of this study support some but not all of the relationships hypothesized. Job
satisfaction and organizational commitment were found to have a significant negative associations with teachers’ intention to retire. Advancement opportunities and work stress were found to be positively correlated but perceived inequities was not significantly correlated to
intention to retire. lntention to retire among the teachers tent to increase with increased work stress, lower job satisfaction, less opportunities for advancement and lower organizational commitments. Age and gender and
salary did not appear to moderate the relationship between intention to retire with the five independent variables, but there was a significant different intention to retire among the various salary group. There is a tendency for teachers who receive less salary to opt for early retirement. Job Satisfaction appear to the best predictor for intention to retire. All the five variables significantly explained only 10.07% of the dependent variable, meaning there are still other factors that has to taken info account. Since there was a significant association between intention to refire with the
independent variables, recommendation has been made so that certain measures can be made by the Ministry of Education in order to retain the graduate teachers in the service.