The Practices Employed by Educational Administrators to Retain Teachers in Public Secondary Schools in Rungwe District, Tanzania

Abstract

The study aimed to examine strategies used to retain public secondary school teachers. The specific objective was to examine school practices to retain public secondary school teachers in Rungwe district Tanzania the study employed a mixed research approach and embedded case study design. The study was conducted in Rungwe district, Tanzania and involved 8 public secondary schools, purposive sampling and simple random sampling were used. The sample comprised 208 respondents, who were selected using purposive sampling and random sampling. Data were collected through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, observation and documentary review. Quantitative data were analysed using frequency and figures. Qualitative data were subjected to content analyses. The finding revealed that there is no proper mechanism used to retain multi-skilled teachers in the Rungwe district. Provisions of competitive salaries for public secondary school teachers as well as delay of promotion, payment of arrears and solving problems related to salary were also not prioritized by the employer which led to teachers’ frustration and attrition. The provision of induction programmes, sufficient incentives, promotion, and paying arrears as well as competitive salaries contribute to teacher retention. The study suggested that education administrators need to concentrate on improving teachers' earnings, and the teaching environment, managing teachers and informing them about relevant labour terms and conditions of service. The study recommends that education administrators should improve the working environment and fringe benefits for public secondary school teachers. Moreover, research should be conducted on other education sectors such as public primary schools, and public colleges to find out the magnitude of the problem of teacher retention and measures to resolve it. A comparative analysis of districts with teacher retention plans should be made to find out the appropriate model for retaining teachers.