Teachers' job satisfaction under Free Quality Kindergarten Education Scheme in the Hong Kong context

Kindergarten education was neglected in the past. The Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme was implemented in 2007, which was the first governmental policy to support the kindergarten sector since it found the significance of pre-primary education. However, some disputes arose in the Voucher Scheme, such as limited financial support to parents and injustice to whole-day kindergartens. As a result, the Free Quality Kindergarten Education Scheme has been implemented since 2017 to provide a quality kindergarten education to children with diverse needs. On the other hand, the turnover rate of kindergarten teachers has been high for many years compared with other sectors, although the government had already implemented the new scheme. In contrast, achieving quality pre-primary education require high-performing or experienced teachers. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate teachers' job satisfaction under Free Quality Kindergarten Education Scheme by adopting quantitative and qualitative research with 100 kindergarten teachers in different kindergartens. The results indicated that the degree of job satisfaction of kindergarten teachers was not high, with the mean scores 3.28 and 3.00 (out of 5) in 2 instruments. Also, compensation, and training were the most significant correlated factors in predicting job satisfaction. As a result, the government should provide more support in increasing the remuneration and offering sufficient training to early childhood educators to retain teachers in kindergarten education.