The impact of strategies executed to address understaffing of teachers in public secondary schools in Buuri district.

Abstract

The general objective of this thesis was to investigate the impact of the strategies used to address the problem o~ teacher shortage in public secondary schools in Buuri district and to suggest remedial measures to the problem. This district, located in an arid and semi¬arid land, has a total of 23 public secondary schools. Formal education is a critical instrument for emancipating the communities living therein. This is nevertheless compromised by the nationalwide shortage of teachers in schools. As such several strategies have been applied to address this problem. This research investigated the impact of those strategies in public secondary schools. The study wasguided by four objectives and research questions. The literature review covers three broad areas namely the theoretical, empirical reviews and the conceptual framework. The study used the survey research design with a target population of 6437people, comprising students teachers and chairpersons of the Boards of Governors of the 23 schools. By use of stratified random sampling the study identified a sample size of 410 respondents. Data was collected using questionnaires and an interview schedule and analyzed using descriptive statistics where SPSS program (Integrated Student Version for Windows) was used. Instrument reliability was determined at Cronbach's alpha of 0.83. The study established that the employment of teachers by the schools' Boards Of Governors was the strategy with the most positive impact as it led to lower workloads to the teachers available. The negative impacts of these and other strategies include the non¬dependability of BOG teachers, interruption of school time tables by part time teachers, lack of confidence in past students used as teachers, increased costs in the teaching and learning process. The study recommends that the government should integrate its planning process at the Ministry of Education, include Buuri District in the hardship area category, carry out a teachers balancing exercise and employ full time TSC teachers. Finally the study recommends that schools should avoid combining of classes and use of past bright students to teach the current students.