Re-employing Elderly Teachers in Sri Lankan Schools: Exploring Employers’ Perspective

Abstract

Having realized the gravity of ageing population across the world, the 2030 agenda for sustainable development calls the attention to ensure inclusive society including elderly people in the society. Hence, this paper intends to examine the employers’ attitudes towards Re-employed Elderly Teachers (RETs) in the private sector schools in Sri Lanka. The data were collected through a country-wide survey using a self-administered questionnaire among the employers representing 98 private sector schools in Sri Lanka. The employers’ attitudes towards the RETs were measured by using 19 attitudinal variables, ranging on a 7-point likert scale from strongly disagree (1 value) to strongly agree (7 value) and descriptive data analysis was performed. Out of the 19 attitudinal variables, employers perceived 12 variables positively. The variable that recorded the highest positive was RETs were more responsible (86.8 percent). Furthermore, employers had positive attitudes towards RETs being loyal, reliable, punctual, stress tolerant, exhibiting lower absenteeism, competence, working hard, having fewer grievances, being self-motivated, interested in new skills, and cooperative. Employers rated 3 variables attitudinal negatively. They were technological adaptability of RETs, flexibility of RETs and the cost of RETs. Among those three variables, the highest negative variable was technological adaptability of RETs (60.2 percent). As indicated by employers’ attitudes, the RETs particularly need to improve their IT skills and flexibility characteristic according to the requirements of the new school environment.