Occupational health and safety executive opinion regarding application in vocational and technical education institutions

Now that there are more than 17 million students in Turkey, an enormous amount of time, equipment and monetary fund is required so as to protect our students from all kinds of accidents, take measures by anticipating accidents, and design educational institutions in line with occupational health and safety. In this regard, the qualifications and views of the school principals and other education administrators, regarded as employers, concerning the occupational health and safety are very important. This study aimed at determining the opinions of the education administrators (principals, head assistant principals, assistant principals) working in Vocational and Technical Education Institutions regarding the occupational health and safety applications. The study adopts a descriptive survey model in determining the views of educational administrators working in Kütahya province and towns at vocational and technical education institutions regarding occupational health and safety. An attitude scale of a total of 36 items, developed by a faculty member at the Department of Occupational Health and Safety at School of Health of Uşak University, an expert on Occupational Health and Safety at Kütahya Provincial Directorate for National Education, the advisor, and the researcher, was administered to 45 school principals, 12 head assistant principals and 111 assistant principals. The data was analysed through descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson product-moment correlation analysis. According to the views of the administrators, it has been found out that the occupational health and safety training is partly satisfactory, the committees at the institutions are not functional, the number of experts is not adequate, vocational and technical education institutions are more risky and more important than in other education institutions, the education institutions should have a separate budget for occupational health and safety, the administrators are partly informed about their legal rights, coordinator technical teachers should definitely be more capable of occupational health and safety, they are partly informed about "Occupational Health and Safety Law", the education institutions are earthquake-proof, the physical structure of schools are partly adequate but warning signs, emergency exits and personal protective equipment are adequate, being a teacher is more comfortable than being an administrator due occupational health and safety workload and thus they sometimes prefer teaching to being an administrator, and they are partly satisfied with their work places. While the views of vocational and technical education institutions regarding the occupational health and safety do not significantly differ in terms of gender, administrative position, branch, and educational background, there is a significant, positive and low-level relationship in terms of professional seniority and the current year of position.