C .O NWADIANI

Despite various recruitment efforts and initiatives by the Edo state government, many public senior secondary schools in the state still experience teacher absenteeism in the classrooms during instruction hours, understaffing and inconsistent classroom instruction indicating persistent challenges with teacher retention. Understanding the factors contributing to teacher retention is essential for improving instructional quality and educational outcomes. Hence, the study investigated the correlates of teacher retention in public senior secondary schools in Edo State, Nigeria. Twelve research questions were raised. Research questions one
and two were answered directly, while questions three to twelve were formulated into hypotheses
and tested at a significance level of 0.05. The study was a descriptive survey that adopted a correlational design. The study population was all the 2,754 teachers from all the 297 public senior secondary schools across
Edo State, Nigeria. The study sample consisted of 338 teachers in 37 public senior secondary schools from the 3 senatorial districts in Edo State. The determination of the sample size was guided by the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table for determining sample size. The sample represented 12.3% of the entire population. The use of proportionate stratified random sampling was considered appropriate for the study. Schools were randomly selected from each senatorial district and teachers were also purposively selected from the sampled schools based on age, sex school location and teachers on roll

This study determined the perceived effect of covid-19 on SME in Ovia North-East LGA of Edo State. Four research questions were raised to guide the study and one hypothesis was formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study employed a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprised of 2250 registered SMEs in Ovia North-East Local
Government Area of Edo State. The sample size was 79 confidential secretaries in University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State. The sample size of the study comprised of 50 registered SME owners and managers in Ovia North-East Local Government Area of Edo State. Purposive sampling technique was used to sample the selected 50 registered SMEs. The instrument used for data collection for this study was a structured questionnaire titled “Perceived Effect of COVID- 19 on small and Medium Scale Questionnaire (PECOVIDSMEQ)”. It was however subjected to
face validity by the researcher’s supervisor and one other expert in the Department of Vocational and Technical Education. The internal consistency method was employed by using the Cronbach alpha formula and a coefficient of 0.98 was obtained. The study revealed that covid-19 affect Small and Medium Scale businesses, thus impacting their income, demand of products, payment of salaries of workers as well as repayment of loan and rents. The study concluded that covid-19 principally affect Small and Medium Scale businesses. It was recommended among others that government at all levels should provide adequately targeted stimulus to all affected SMEs. This can be done through the disbursement of cash stipend to the most vulnerable SMEs.