NATURE OF PRE-RETIREMENT EDUCATION IN THE TEACHING FRATERNITY

The teaching profession has been an integral part of development through the provision of prerequisite knowledge and skills for pursuit of other professions. In modern times, governments support various teacher training programmmes for different purposes before retirement. It is against this backdrop that fathoming the nature of such pre-retirement education programmes among retiring teachers in Zambia was investigated in this study. A descriptive survey design was employed to collect a set of qualitative and quantitative data. The data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires and unstructured interviews. Quantitative findings were analysed using SPSS which generated tables through cross-tabulation while those from qualitative data were narrated. The major findings indicated that pre-retirement education in the teaching sector encompassed: i. Outplacement services; ii. Further-studies; iii. In-service training; and iv. Workers? education. It was inferred that, this four dimension model of pre-retirement education in the education sector is a segment of a similar but more comprehensive model referred to as National Education (Small, 1976). The study recommended that: i. Government and its partners (e.g. unions) to formulate pre-retirement counseling and education programmes in government institutions such as schools to re-orient and prepare workers for the inevitable exit from the system through retirement; ii.Government to increase the mandatory retirement age to 60 years while 55 years should be the minimum optional retirement age in the public service especially for the teaching service; and iii. The Ministry of Education should systematically reintegrate willing retired teachers into the system by annually employing them.