EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHERS’ MOTIVATION ON JOB PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN KITAGWENDA COUNTY, KAMWENGE DISTRICT, UGANDA

Abstract

his study investigated the effectiveness of teachers’ motivation on job performance in public primary schools. There is public concern for deteriorating teachers’ professional conduct in Uganda characterized by teachers’ poor time management, absenteeism, inadequate preparations and syllabus coverage, and poor discipline management that compromise teacher job performance. Literature revealed need of motivating teachers in order to achieve improved teachers’ performance in schools. Research study was guided by questions such as, what professional development opportunities are available for teachers’ job performance? How does remuneration influence teachers’ performance? To what extent does supervision influence teachers’ performance? How do working conditions influence teachers’ performance? Convergent parallel mixed methods, particularly cross-section survey and phenomenological designs guided the study. Stratified random sampling, simple random sampling, and purposive sampling procedures were used to select participants. Research instruments included questionnaires, in-depth interview guide, and Focus Group Discussion guide. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were used to summarize quantitative data, and Inferential statistics T-test and ANOVA were used to test hypotheses. Qualitative data was analysed by generating codes and categories. Findings revealed that workshops, in-service training and seminars were provided for teachers and enhanced their teaching effectiveness. Teachers received a meagre consolidated salary which left most teachers dissatisfied. External and internal instructional supervision was conducted but the District Inspector of Schools had facilitation challenges. Few schools had staff quarters, other teachers catered for themselves. Schools had incomplete classroom structures, inadequate reference materials and textbooks which compromised effective teaching. The study recommends the government to increase funding for more workshops and seminars; increase teachers’ salary and bridge salary gap between teachers and head teachers. The government should complete the already existing classroom structures, increase funding for supervision facilitation; construct staff quarters and staffroom for each school; and add more textbooks.