Effects of Mathematics Teachers’ Turnover on Students’ Academic Perfomance in Tanzania: A Case of Selected Schools in Mbeya City

Abstract

This study investigated the reasons for mathematics teachers’ turnover and the effects of turnover on students’ academic performance in mathematics. The objectives of this study was to establish the reasons for mathematics teachers turnover, also to investigate the effects of turnover on students academic performance and suggesting tentative ways of reducing mathematics teachers’ turnover in secondary schools. The study was conducted in Mbeya City focusing 8 secondary schools which were Mbeya day, Samora, Ivumwe, Sangu, St.Fransis, Uwata, Southern highlands and St.Aggrey. These schools were chosen depending on their ownership and they are all found in the town centre but with huge variations in mathematics performance. The design of this study was a survey design due to the nature of population sample and both qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed. The questionnaires was developed, validated and administered to 16 teachers and 128 form four students from 8 selected secondary schools, while 20 ex-mathematics teachers, 8 heads of schools and one Education officer were interviewed. The findings of the study indicated that the rate of turnover among mathematics teachers was highest in private schools owned by individuals, followed by Government schools, then TAPA schools and lastly Religious schools. Also the rate of turnover showed to be higher among teachers with lower experience mostly less than five years and high working load among mathematics teachers with low salaries and lack of incentives contributed much to their turnover decisions. Based on the study findings it was recommended to increase salary and allowances to mathematics teachers because they have many periods to teach compared to other subjects, creating good working environment by providing enough teaching and learning materials, motivating teachers after national examination results and to penalize teachers who resign the work within five years after being employed in order to minimize their rate of turnover.