Dissatisfied but nowhere to go: teacher attrition in the context of mass unemployment in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article questions the dominant narrative about high attrition rates among teachers in Sub-Saharan Africa. It does so by presenting recent estimates of national teacher attrition rates for primary school teachers in 30 of the 44 mainland countries in SSA. This analysis shows that attrition rates are generally quite low and declining in the large majority of countries. The principal reason for low attrition levels, particularly among primary school teachers, is the limited alternative employment opportunities for teachers wishing to exit the profession coupled with high levels of teacher unemployment among teachers who are seeking teaching positions, particularly in public schools (government and grant-aided). The excess supply of teacher graduates from universities and teacher training colleges in relation to the highly constrained fiscal capacity and the overall political commitment of national governments to employ these ‘beginning teachers’ is fuelling a mounting teacher unemployment crisis across the region.