An investigation of teachers’ awareness of contractual breaches in public tertiary institutions in delta state of Nigeria

Abstract

This investigation is meant to establish whether teachers in public tertiary educational institutions in Delta State Nigeria are aware of contract, contractual breaches and other ancillary issues of breach consequential to a contract of employment, nay their contracts of employment- for example, the dimensions of contractual breaches, summary dismissal and termination of the employment of an employee or worker. In order to ascertain the above assertion, a thirteen (13)- item questionnaire was drawn and categorised into three (3) main themes- nature of contract, dimensions of contractual breaches and basis for the determination of a contract. The questionnaire was administered on one thousand (1000) respondents in a sample of the tertiary educational institutions in Delta State, out of which seven hundred (700) questionnaires were retrieved. It is established that at the first instance of the contract of employment, teachers become aware of the nature of a contractual bond, its breach and the implications of the breach of a term(s). It has also been discovered that most contracts of employment either do not contemplate or exhaust in its terms tortious, criminal and constitutional circumstances. Thus, it is of paramount importance for contractual terms of employment to be devoid of these loopholes.