Working conditions of custodial staff and provision of custodial services in primary schools

The purpose of this study is to determine the working conditions of the custodial staff employed at primary schools and the provision of custodial services in primary schools.The study group in the survey model study consists of 51 principals of the primary schools objectively chosen from Çankaya and Yenimahalle districts in Ankara on 2010-2011 academic year and 130 custodial staff employed at these schools.In this study, the questionnaire forms have been developed and used to apply with the school principals and custodial staff as a data collection tool. The data has been collected by the researcher, who has visited every school in the study group, and the data obtained have been transferred to SPSS 16 package program.For the purpose of solving the problem of this study; the frequency and percentage have been listed on a table, with respect to meeting the requirement for custodial staff at schools, position status for the custodial staff, working conditions of the custodial staff and the provision level of the custodial services at school, in accordance with the data from custodial staff and school principals. Additionally, the working conditions of the custodial staff have been compared based on the position status for the custodial staff, and the frequency distributions of the expressions have been tabulated related to the problems experience by both the school principals and the custodial staff, and the thoughts of the custodial staff regarding their satisfaction from the working environment.According to findings obtained as a result of the study, it is seen that the number of custodial staff in these primary schools is inadequate. It is understood that this negatively affects the working conditions of the custodial staff and causes a long and exhaustive working process.A major part of the requirement for custodial staff at schools is met by means of temporary personnel employment, and different working conditions are encountered between the permanent and temporary staff. The views of both principals and staff on the provision level of the services are in parallel to each other, and it is seen that some of the services are performed at medium level, while some other at high level. A number of suggestions has been offered for the studies to be conducted with respect to the services and staff at schools in accordance with the findings of the study.Keywords: Custodial staff at primary schools, services at primary schools.