Teacher incentives and implications on students’ performance in secondary schools in Ibanda County

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out the implications teacher incentives have on students’ performance in selected secondary schools in Ibanda County. The objectives of the study were: to assess the effect of level of motivation of teachers on students’ performance; to identify complementary sources of teachers’ income and its impact on students’ performance; and to analyse the quality of education offered in various secondary schools in relation to teachers’ incentives.

A cross- sectional survey research design was used in this study .This study also adopted a quantitative approach. A total of six schools were studied. Two schools were private but registered with the Ministry of education and four (4) were government aided secondary schools. Six head teachers of six selected schools were purposively selected and simple random sampling was used to select sixty (60) teachers who were used in the study and forty (40) students per school. Three methods of statistical analysis were employed in the study. Simple descriptive statistics of percentages, qualitative descriptions based on themes studied and chi- square test as a tool of data analysis were used.

It was established that the level of teachers’ motivation is low. This was because incentives given to teachers are not adequate in their schools’ teachers’ PTA allowances are not attractive. In particular, PTA allowances are not kept in pace with the cost of their leaving, teachers are not equitably rewarded for their work, payments are not given to teachers on time in these schools and schools do not offer competitive incentive conditions to teachers against other similar schools. Furthermore, schools do not offer teachers more or less similar incentive conditions as in other schools, overtime payments are not paid and teachers are not paid according to their skill-level in the school. The study established that level of motivation of teachers was low. In addition, the study established that teachers have complementary sources of income but these were inadequate and teachers do not devote more time to teaching other than other activities. It was established that quality of education in secondary schools was good.

The study concluded that teacher motivation is low because of inadequate incentives. The low motivation has led teachers into complementary activities to supplement their salaries. Because of this, it somehow affected the quality of education.

The study recommended that there is need to raise the level of teachers’ motivation in secondary schools in Ibanda County. There is need to ensure that teachers are not engaged in complementary sources of income apart from those given in the schools such as PTA. There is need to improve further the quality of education in secondary schools.