An ordered probit model on quitting decision of sec- ondary public school teachers in Bhutan

Abstract

Retaining trained teachers is an issue for almost every country despite its socioeconomic differences. A small developing country, Bhutan is facing its share of the same problem. Teachers leaving the profession on a voluntary basis have been increasing year by year. It became more serious in 2017 where the Ministry of Education had to train and employ 360 fresh graduates as contact teachers to overcome the problem of teacher shortage. Cross- sectional data were collected through a questionnaire distributed randomly among 596 teachers in secondary public schools in Bhutan because they comprise about 70.73% of total public school teachers. This study focuses on the factors that can lead to quitting decision by the teachers within two years. Based on descriptive analysis of raw data, an index data and Ordered Probit Model, the result revealed that factors such as gender, qualification, work satisfaction, monetary rewards and support from the administration affected the teachers’ quitting decision within two years more than the experience, working environment and interpersonal relation. Also, the actual rate of the teachers who were planning to leave within two years was yielded and some of the suggestions from the participants to the Ministry of Education in order to retain the experienced ones in the system, which can be helpful even for the policy makers of public and private schools, are given.