ABSTRACT
The central problem of this study was that despite the invaluable services rendered by pre-school teachers in nurturing the Kenyan children, this workforce lacked harmonized employment resulting in varied working conditions. These variations affected their motivation. The relationship between working conditions and the level of motivation of pre-school teachers had not been adequately established and properly understood hence uncertainty about their effectiveness as guardians. Consequently, this study purposed to investigate the working conditions of preschool teachers in Kegonga Division, Kuria East District and how they affected their motivation. The study had four objectives. The first one was to identify the working conditions of pre-school teachers in the division. The second one was to find out whether these working conditions varied with the employing body. The third entailed determining whether professional growth opportunities were related to the motivation of pre-school teachers. The last one was to determine whether remuneration (salary) and job security were related to the motivation of pre-school teachers. The study was guided by Frederick Herzberg‟s Motivation-Hygiene Theory. The target population was thirty eight pre-schools and seventy six teachers. The study used probability sampling technique for each category of preschools to come up with the pre-school teacher sample. A sample size of twenty pre-school teachers representing twenty five percent of the total was drawn from both public and private/commercial pre-schools. The research instruments for data collection were questionnaires personally administered to pre-school teachers. Before the main study, a pilot was conducted to test the validity and reliability of the instruments. The questionnaires for pre-school teachers were the main instrument. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The prime technique that was used to analyze the data was chi-square (x2 ).The study‟s findings were that working conditions in pre-schools were independent of sponsorship. Indeed, three quarters of the pre-school teachers from both categories had no appointment letters and had never been promoted. Secondly, pre-school teacher motivation was independent of sponsorship. Thirdly, data contained enough evidence to support the proposition that pre-school teacher motivation was independent of professional growth opportunities, remuneration (salary) and job security. The study concluded that the pre-school teachers without appointment letters could have felt dissatisfied because their jobs were insecure. Secondly, the low salaries could also have dissatisfied them. Lastly, the suggestion that the government should take up the employment of teachers was overwhelming. From the foregoing therefore, the researcher recommended that all the pre-school teachers in both public and private institutions should be issued with appointment letters by their respective sponsors. Secondly, the salaries of pre-school teachers should be improved and standardized to avoid dissatisfaction. Lastly, the government should take up the employment of the pre-school teachers and put in place an enticing, standardized scheme of service for them. Since the researcher realized that the factors addressed by this study did not affect the motivation of pre-school teachers. For further research, it was suggested that another study be conducted to determine the actual factors that affect the motivation of pre-school teachers.
