Teacher As A Key Role Player To Induce Quality Education: Challenges and Prospects of Primary Schools in Addis Ababa
Teacher As A Key Role Player To Induce Quality Education: Challenges and Prospects of Primary Schools in Addis Ababa
Teacher As A Key Role Player To Induce Quality Education: Challenges and Prospects of Primary Schools in Addis Ababa
Aweke Shishigu1
April, 2016
1
PhD candidate department of science and mathematics education, Addis Ababa University,
Email: awekeu@gmail.com
Aweke Shishigu
Introduction
The efforts made to improve quality through Education Sector Development Plan (ESDP I- IV)
are promising. The plan focused mainly on improving quality, equity, relevance and efficiency of
primary education, improving curriculum by introducing Civics and Ethical education,
expanding the opportunities for enrolment in primary education, improving students’
achievement, creating a good work environment through improving school administration and
creating child-friendly learning environment. Currently, the document (ESDP-V) speculates that
the education sector mainly focus on advancing science and technology, access and equity in
early childhood, expansion of higher education. The integration of Information communication
Technology (ICT) in education raised in ESDP-IV was left behind, though ICT is the current
growing body of source of information. The overall plan is associated with similar rolled down
objectives and issues from the past. To this end it can be inferred that instead of looking different
aspects of the education sector, similar circular issues are targeted and demanded by the
government, though there are notable improvements and features.
Observed progress of the past ESDP include: expansion of higher education, expansion of
primary and secondary education; because of this an increased enrollment at all levels was
registered. The certificate level of teacher qualification and teacher training at private levels were
brought to an end and so the minimum teacher qualification becomes three year training at
college level, revision of curriculum materials. However, the sector is still compromised of
quality issues, since students achievement in successive national learning assessment is below
average and they failed to achieve basic skills needed for the next level and for the world of
work.
The study conducted by the Institute of Education Research of Addis Ababa University in
selected schools of four regional states revealed that the quality of primary education is
declining. The research, presented by the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences, on December 27,
2012 at Semen Hotel stated that the majority of primary students scored below the minimum
50% expected for all subjects. Some of the factors that the study identified are: poor
implementation of active learning method, lack of effective monitoring and evaluation practices,
low students interest to learn and lack of motivation among teachers (Ethiopian academy of
science, 2012). These situations directly urge to identify the core factors for this poor
achievement and devastating condition. Particularly, the present study focused on teacher factor.
The study investigated the challenges faced by primary school teachers of Addis Ababa for
possible implication and consideration in the upcoming plan.
A teacher is one of the valuable assets for quality education. Development of any country
depends on its educational system that is the quality of its graduates, so teachers are the nation
builders. The role of a teacher cannot be ignored in the process of development and success in
one country. Teaching is a profession that has low emphasis but teachers have a great role in
their students’ intellectual, personal and social development, there by influencing the whole
nation’s development. Teachers can have an influence more profound than others and give the
glorious position and dignified status to the nation (Imrab, et al., 2013). On the other hand Troudi
(2011) argues that teaching is about passion, love of education and learning, inspiration, concern,
consideration of the other, dedication to trusting students, belief in the power of knowledge and a
non-stop attempt to make a difference to the lives of others. A motivated teacher is recognized
by high level of commitment, hard work, devotion, dedication and becomes a source of
inspiration through his or her exemplary character (Imrab, et al., 2013).
According to the report of Centre for British Teachers in 2008, it was found that the education
system in Ethiopia, at all levels is confronted by a lack of quality. Policy makers themselves and
other stakeholders also portray the lack of quality in the education system. This is confirmed by
the state itself on the debate with political parties (EBC, 2015). Thus, an intensive reform is
needed to improve the efficiency and quality of education system of Ethiopia. The lack of quality
in the education system in Ethiopia is associated with many factors including the poor standard
of those entering the teaching profession, high teacher turnover and problems such as de-
motivation, poor quality of the teachers’ working environment, low status of teachers, inadequate
salaries (Centre for British Teachers, 2008: Voluntary Services Overseas, 2010: Workneh &
Tassew, 2013: Gedefaw, 2012).
Access, attainment of basic knowledge, sufficient and efficient training of teachers, inspired
teachers, good learning environment; students’ engagement is all indicators of quality education.
Though quality have varied definitions, without loss of generality it can be taken as a change in
the education sector. This refers to the empowerment of the learner as whole, which is the
attainment of basic knowledge and skills needed for personal well-being and national
development. Students come to school with little or no knowledge and then they acquire
knowledge and skills that can be used to adapt to the changing environment. Hence there is
transformation or change. If students fail to adapt to the changing environment and to solve
problems of the society at large then quality is not achieved.
The government tries to tackle the problem by introducing new textbooks, assessment techniques
and teacher development program, school improvement program, expansion, etc. It was also
believed that the progress on teacher development is satisfactory in terms of increasing
proportion of qualified teachers; upgrading primary teachers from certificate to diploma. The
following figure shows composite scores obtained in national assessment of student achievement
in grade 4 and grade 8 from the year 2000 to 20011:
Fig1: Composite scores obtained in national assessment of student achievement in grade 4 and
grade 8 from the year 200 to 2011[adapted from Girma, 2013]
The figure shows a striking decrease in achievement of students depicting that improving
learning achievements still remains challenging, though many measures are taken using ESDP.
Many educators feel that the decrease is more critical than the above report. To this end, there is
a big question that should be addressed: why does the problem persist? Does it mean that the
measures are ineffective to alleviate the existing problems? The following paragraph deals with
these questions.
It is believed that quality is not only about upgrading qualification of teachers and increasing
enrolment. It is about producing nationally and internationally competent and disciplined man
power that can solve problems which is the goal of education. The measures taken by the
government through ESDP can be taken as a driving force to initiate the required change.
However, those measures alone do not produce a change. Hence there should also be an effort to
reduce the offensive forces that prevent the change to be initiated. Therefore, another important
cross-cutting issue to initiate and sustain change is to establish sense of initiation among teacher
or motivating teachers especially those in the disadvantaged areas. In this context, disadvantaged
areas include not only hot areas and emergency post, but also Places like Addis Ababa where life
is so expensive.
The study conducted by EGRA showed that students are not equipped with the necessary
numeracy and reading skill at primary schools, and that there is a considerable challenge to meet
the quality and standard of education at the primary level. Primary schools are foundations for
secondary and tertiary level. If there is a gap in primary schools this gap will proceed to the next
level which leads for the loss of productive man power of the country. Thus there is a need to
investigate contributing factors for the decline of quality of primary education in the country.
Though there are many factors that contribute for quality education, teachers take the leading
role. Imrab, et al (2013) argued that teachers have a profound influence than any other body in
the education system. Similarly, Kayuni &Tambulasi (2007), and Troudi (2011) confirmed the
negative effect of low motivation of teachers on students learning. However, to alleviate the
problem, there is a need to investigate and understand the existing challenge to help policy
makers take plausible interventions. This study therefore was directed towards identifying the
challenges of primary school teachers and to come up with notable prospects for quality
education by gathering in-depth data from teacher participants.
1. What are the challenges faced by teachers at primary schools in Addis Ababa town?
2. How should the problem be improved from participants’ point of view?
3. Is there a commitment in the teaching profession?
4. Do primary schools in Addis Ababa provide a transparent structure to support the
learning process from teachers’ perspective?
Research Methodology
Since this research requires a fresh and rich description of the challenges faced by teachers’, a
phenomenological study design was used to achieve my goal. Louis, Lawrence & Keith (2007),
confirmed that this methodology allows the researcher to understand human and social behavior
from the insider’s perspective and thus gain firsthand information about the perception of the
participant. A structured and semi structured interview and non-participatory observation was
used as a primary source of data for this research. The goal of my observation is to understand
the culture, setting, or social phenomenon of teachers in line with the purpose of the study.
Convenience sampling was used to select teacher participants. This is to mean that available
teachers those who were close at hand and were willing to participate were interviewed. I
continued to select teacher participants according to the findings that emerge in the progress of
the study and I considered and examined extreme views or contrasting views. I persist doing this
until saturation has been achieved or redundancies occur. This notion is called theoretical
sampling (Brink, 1993). Accordingly, 15 teachers were interviewed. Two school principals were
also interviewed to examine contrasting ideas from teacher participants. To have initial concept
for deep investigation during interview, a questionnaire containing open ended and closed ended
question were administered for 32 teachers including those participated in the interview.
Data Analysis
Interview data that are audio-recorded was transcribed and checked by participants themselves
and by outsiders (colleagues). After the interview data have been transcribed then the data was
categorized in various ways. Closed ended questions in the questionnaire were reported by tables
and percentages, while open ended questions were thematically narrated by combining with the
data obtained from the interview and observation.
Ethical Considerations
In any research, the researcher needs to consider the ethical and political issues in asking a
particular research question (Yvonne &Dorothy, 2002). Therefore, in this research project I
considered informed consent and confidentiality as an ethical issue to protect my participants’
identity. The aims of the study were briefly explained to all participants and they agreed to
participate on the study. Participants were also informed that there is no harm whether they agree
to participate in the research or not. They were also informed that they are free to withdraw from
the research at any time. During the interview, tape recording was made only when the
participant agrees to be recorded. All participants agree to be anonymous, and so particular
school/sub city was not mentioned in the overall report of this study.
According to Guba & Lincoln (1985), the basic question addressed in qualitative research is
"How can an inquirer convince his/her audiences that the research findings of an inquiry are
worth paying attention to?" Trustworthiness is defined as the conceptual soundness of the
research results and is influenced by the notions of credibility, transferability, dependability and
conformability (Guba & Lincoln, 1985). Naturally, the very presence of the researcher affects
the validity of the data provided by participants. Because, when a new member is introduced into
the community being studied, reactive effects can occur (Brink, 1993). Participants may also
behave abnormally and distort some information. So to tackle this issue, I tried to stay with my
participants’ for extended period of time and create a sense of trust. Moreover, I conducted
repeated interviews at different times and in different settings and take detailed field note to
examine the variations in responses over the course of time and then I compared results.
To allow my audiences assess the extent to which proper research practices have been followed
and pose their own generalization to their particular context, I thoroughly described the
procedures from the beginning to the end, which ensures dependability. Credibility on the other
hand is about the congruency of the findings with reality and so ensuring credibility is one of the
most important factors in establishing trustworthiness. To ensure this I used different data
collection methods such as observation and individual interviews as well as open and closed
ended questionnaire.
The thematic data analyses generated four themes regarding the challenges faced by primary
school teachers of Addis Ababa. These themes included: issues related to salary and benefits,
administration, students’ misbehavior and societal view of the teaching profession.
Of all the challenges facing primary school teachers in Addis Ababa, inadequate pay is the
highest in their mind and some of my respondents feel nervous when talking about their salary.
One respondent claimed that “ I hate the profession since it does not change my life, regardless
of its importance we are living under poverty so how can we teach?…” The salary paid to
teachers is not large enough to support their family. This issue is found to be the most
challenging factor. Currently, teachers report that there are allowances paid for housing and
public transport (for free), and they claimed the absence of facilities for loans or grants or
medical insurance. One of the interviewee states that “the house allowance we receive does not
cover the house rent we require, and we are unable to meet the current market situation” The
following table shows views of teachers about their profession and salary:
As shown in the above table all respondents are not satisfied with their salary and so they claim
for the improvement. Similarly, there is a high quit intension, revealing that the current status of
the profession is on crisis, only aged teachers prefer to stay in the profession if they are free to
choose. One of my respondents put his reason for leaving the profession if he is free to do so,
“…everybody knows the reason even you know it very well, but mine is for the sake of
survival”. And the other says “the only challenge is the low amount of salary and this forced
me to leave the profession”. The respondents also recognized that the existence of few
opportunities to get additional income by tutoring. But it was found that majority of teachers’
doesn’t have any source of additional income other than their regular income (salary). But it was
impossible to find teachers in the school compound after they finish their duty in the classroom,
they leave the school immediately.
School Administration
Teacher participants raised the issue of a lack of good governance in their school. This is related
in particular access to training and workshops and that there was little transparency about how
these choices were made. Of the respondents 65.6% report that the school has limitations in
communicating policies and procedures of selection to different training and workshops. This is
also another challenging factor for teachers, because how teachers are managed and supported is
of fundamental importance for effectiveness. One of my participants stated as follows to mention
the status of administration in the school system:
…The school administration is not focused on and accountable for what matters to the
primary stakeholders, their focus is simply to meet the political needs of the ruling party
and also they are appointed to do so by the top down process.
This shows that they have no voice about the appointment of their leaders. This type of practice
may affect teachers’ mentality and readiness. The following table shows teachers view on the
administrative support and reward system:
Students’ Misbehavior
Respondents mention students’ misbehavior as a challenge for the learning process. One of the
respondent states that “…what is disgusting about my profession other than salary is: high
work load and students’ misbehavior”. Student misbehaviors such as disruptive talking in the
classroom, avoidance of academic work, disrespect of teachers and rudeness were observed and
reported by teacher participants. Students’ misbehaviors in schools affect the smoothness and
effectiveness of the learning process. This is a point of departure for teacher respondents to agree
with the decline of students’ achievement. The other respondent stated as follows to underline
the decline in achievement of students over time. “…currently, almost all students’ are low
achievers and have low interest to learn”.
Respondents mention the low emphasis given by the society, as another aspect of a challenge for
the profession. One of the respondent states that, “in the eyes of the society the profession is
undervalued.” Another respondent mentions the following to highlight the low emphasis given
by the society:
Around 20 years ago teachers were respected by the society and the government. The
communities were proud to give their daughters to teachers as a wife. They sung by
saying ሙሽሪት ኩሪ ኩሪ ወሰደሽ አስተማሪ claiming that she is lucky to marry a teacher. But
now this thing is reverted negatively as ባጣ ባጣ አስተማሪ አላጣ. Revealing that teacher is the
lowest option in the females mind.
This shows that a teacher is the lowest option to be married by Ethiopian ladies; hence it may
affect the social interaction of a teacher.
Though issues related to salary and benefits were taken as a challenging situation for teachers,
respondents believe that their role is important and they highlight the opportunity they get for
their personal development in the teaching profession. However, teachers’ does not have any
motivation to join the profession; they joined because of lack of opportunity for other
professions. This shows that when they join the profession, these teachers have low motivation
because of the low emphasis given to the profession and the low salary. Among the respondents
of this study, 93.7% percent of the respondents claimed that they joined the profession without
their choice. The remaining 6.3% reported that it is their first choice.
The positive thing that teachers have was that they believe that being a teacher is being a father
for all professions. One respondent for instance claimed that “a teacher produces human power
not an object and producing skilled man power is the best ever satisfying thing” The
respondents mentioned that teaching is the main source to every other profession and they can be
happy and satisfied by seeing the success of their students’. One of the respondents feels as
follows:
I feel happy in building future generation and what is more satisfying is when I see my
students’ achievements in their work places. Teaching is also the only profession that
leads you to upgrade and update your knowledge in line with the changing environment.
It is also found that they have high commitment to teach and contribute to their country and the
society, provided that the question for survival is assured. Regardless of these views, most of
them reported that they want to shift to other profession. The foremost reason to do so was found
to be salary issue.
All respondents report that they joined the profession because of their relatively low result they
have as compared to their peers and hence they have no other option. One of the respondent
claimed that “…the only job I get at that time was teaching and so I joined since I have no
choice”. This shows that less competitive candidates are joining the teaching profession.
Regarding motivation, Maslow (1943, cited in Saul, 2007) stated that peoples need to be
motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfill the next
one, and so on. The most widespread version of Maslow's hierarchy of needs includes five
motivational needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels. These are physiological needs, safety
needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs and self actualization. However, the above
Maslow's five stage model currently has been expanded to include cognitive need, aesthetic
needs and transcendence needs (Saul, 2007). Cognitive needs include knowledge, meaning, etc.
Aesthetic needs include appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc. Transcendence
needs include helping others to achieve self-actualization.
Physiological needs consists of the need for basic biological needs which includes the need for
food, water, air and other primary needs such as shelter, warmth, clothing, etc. When the
physiological needs are not satisfied, no other need will serve as a basis for motivation. Once
they are satisfied, then newer needs emerge. Considering this as a baseline when we see primary
school teachers particularly in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), it is evident that teachers are striving to
fulfill their physiological needs. The current house rent in Addis Ababa ranges from 900 to 3000
according to the distance from the center, the size and quality of the house. Teachers are
suffering of these problems, they are unable to fulfill their basic need which intern affect their
commitment to the profession and leads to perform poorly.
From Abraham Maslow’s perspective, their motivation lies at the bottom of the hierarchy. In this
stage peoples are motivated to fulfill the physiological needs such as food, water, air and other
primary needs such as shelter, clothing, etc. However, as a teacher, they need to prepare
themselves for teaching and assist students in different ways, but their mind is busy and
depressed of the way they are living, thus they probably unable to give emphasis for the learning
process. This leads students to become dependent and less competitive which in turn mean
gradual decline of the quality education system in general. Thus, basic needs must be met before
teachers can be motivated to fulfill their higher-order needs of self-actualization and professional
goal attainment. Similarly, Peretomode (1991) asserted that dissatisfaction negatively influence
workers efficiency, productivity and performance in the school; whereby satisfaction influence
workers achievement and possibility of personal growth. That is, when the motivational factors
are present and applied in a positive direction in a job situation, teachers will experience the
feeling of satisfaction but if absent they will experience dissatisfaction.
Generally, the result of the study speculates that though teachers are intrinsically motivated, the
poor extrinsic motivation is affecting the overall performance and this situation affects quality of
education and future generation. I believe that teacher should have good motivation to work if at
least they met the safety needs. Because it is at this stage that they feel they are living, secured
and the need for serving the society arises.
From teachers point of view, strategic measures to be taken to enhance both job satisfaction
and motivation was found to be the improvement of salary and the provision of good
governance. Additionally, respondents mention the provision of allowances, health facility and
housing. Teacher respondents agree that the existing poor motivation affects their efficiency and
thereby, badly affecting students’ performance or learning outcome. For instance, one of the
respondents says
Almost all students’ are low achievers and have low interest to learn .To resolve all this
problems and impose quality into the education system there should be a political will
and commitment to address the problem.
Though improving salary of teachers is not the only means to address the problem, it was found
that the current situation is not letting teachers to use their maximum effort. There was a high
turnover and quit intention which affect the effectiveness of schools (Tariq, 2013). It was also
found that low achieving students are joining the profession with no interest to continue in the
profession and so manifest low level commitment. Hence, this situation urges for plausible
intervention in terms of improving the lives of teachers and recruitment and selection criteria,
endorsing good governance, fostering professional ethics, strengthening teacher training
institutions to instill teachers’ competence in terms of pedagogical, content and technological
knowledge.
Salaries of teacher are found to be the most challenging situation. There is a mismatch between
the salary and living cost, and that teachers were unable to cover all their basic needs up to the
end of every month. Salary and benefits are extrinsic factors associated with the environment.
The fulfillment of these factors is a requirement for the intrinsic aspects of the work factors to
prevail (Gedefaw, 2012). Teachers were dissatisfied with the extrinsic aspects of their work.
They also showed dissatisfaction with the absence of good governance. The school
administration was found to be weak in effectively addressing the teachers’ demands for
supportive and fair leadership. Teachers expressed dissatisfaction with the administrative support
practices prevailing in the schools, which relates to the fairness, transparency and student
disciplinary problems.
Teacher respondents found the intrinsic tasks associated with teaching a satisfying aspect of their
work. Teachers were happy with the responsibilities associated with teaching (production of
human capital).The teachers’ greatest satisfaction was related to the emotional rewards of
teaching; such as the opportunity to use their skills at school, their view that their teaching
developed the human beings and their contribution to the development of their country.
The findings of this study have the potential to add value to educators as well as those who are
interested in furthering the research in more detailed way. The detailed findings from this study
might provide current information to policy makers and practitioners on which areas to target to
improve teachers’ satisfaction. Based on the aforementioned discussion and conclusion, the
following implications were forwarded for practice:
Since teachers were highly dissatisfied with their salaries, the government of Ethiopia
and education leaders needs to understand the issue and work for its improvement. This
will improve motivation of teachers’ and effectiveness, and in the end it might contribute
for the overall quality in the education system.
The education bureau must work towards the implementation of issues raised in ESD-V,
which is “to transform teaching into the profession of choice based on the needs of
teachers”. Apart from the results of this study, conducting need assessment will be
beneficiary in this regard.
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