Mettu University College of Education and Behavioral Science

Department of Educational Leadership and Management

Assignment of the Course title

Prepared by: Fikru Terfa ID № RM0039/13

Mettu University
May 2021

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Table of Contents

1) Criticism on the challenges of Ethiopian education sector.........................................................1

2) Self-experience Note on school policies for recruitment............................................................1

3) Factors that force teachers to leave schools/education sector.....................................................2

Low social status given to teachers by the society.......................................................................2

Poor administrative support.........................................................................................................2

Working Environment..................................................................................................................3

Inadequate benefit package..........................................................................................................3

Students’ Disciplinary Problems..................................................................................................3

Lack of opportunity for Continuous Professional Development.................................................4

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 1) Criticism on the challenges of Ethiopian education sector
Challenges of education sector in Ethiopian education system is associated with many factors
including the poor standard of those entering the teaching profession, high teacher turnover
and problems such as demotivation, poor quality of the teachers' working, lack of education
facilities, lack of infrastructure ... as noted in the handbook under the topic that “Practices of
School Resources Management” it says “…Human Resource Management practice is
regarded as a strategic approach to acquiring, developing, managing, motivating and gaining
the commitment of the organization’s key resource, that is, the people who work in and for it.
Today, undoubtedly, human resource is the most important and unique asset that an
organization has. Thus, the importance of managing this invaluable asset is being
recognized as the most challenging task of a successful manager. Human Resource is the
‘central nervous system of any organizational set-ups’ and for organizations to develop and
attain the desired results or profits, very much depends on the human element. Employees
could be creative, resourceful, and enterprising and result oriented if they are content and
satisfied with the environment in which they work. Human Resource Management practice is
directed not only to top management needs, but to the human resource, that is, the employers
and employees in an organization. Human Resource Management practice is proactive and
not reactive and greater emphasis is placed on planning, monitoring, supervising, training
and development and performance appraisal. In an organization, solving problems does not
lie with members of top management alone, but with employees (thus the human resource) or
their representatives.”
According to the ideas mentioned above, the very responsibility of any organizations
including schools HRM is to properly execute its duties related to the man power, in the case
of the school those are teachers; planning, directing, empowering, developing, managing,
motivating and gaining the commitment of the organization’s key resource, that is, the people
who work in and for it.
However, in some cases principals, supervisors and other school personnel do not discharge
these responsibility as expected of the and some do in contradictory way. In addition, many
schools do not have enough management man power to execute such routines as result duties
are over whelmed upon few personnel.

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In other way, it was expected that …. School principals are responsible for the administration of
material resources in the school. The purchase of the education materials is carried out at the
Woreda level. But the actual utilization and administration of the school’s property is the
responsibility of the principals, teachers and administrative staff in that school. But practically
shortages of education materials including textbooks and reference books. It was approved that
there are serious shortages of equipment and teaching materials which are very critical. Many
teachers depicted that for teaching and learning to become more effective, education materials,
including books, are needed. They added that having sufficient materials in schools motivated
the teachers to teach better. When asked how schools could address the shortage of material
resources, one principal in a rural school said: The community should have active participation
to help the school in fulfilling material resources. The principal should work closely with the
community in order to mobilize the community resources. The principal, the teachers and the
PTAs should also mobilize resources from non- governmental organizations (NGOs) and private
organizations. The principals should lead and coordinate this activity effectively and efficiently
by creating strong linkages with all stakeholders.
Autonomy should be given to schools to purchase their materials, but in practice this is not
applied in the school and as a result school fail to discharge their expected responsibilities due to
lack of autonomy to purchase what necessitates them in school.
Besides, the needed linkage between community and school is not as strong as expected. As a
result, the school cannot have full education facilities and the absence those facilities in turn
demotivate the teachers and the cause for teachers’ turnover which the challenge for schools.
In case secularity, it is said to be schools should be secular from political interference. However,
now a day schools are a ground for running political affair in many different ways. This is
unacceptable for that it does not give schools freedom to discharge their instructional duties as
per planned and expected.
Teachers skill competence for the level they are assigned to was not fair. Some teachers assigned
over or under their minimum educational preparation level.
2) Self-Experience Note on School Policies for Recruitment.
From my experience, up to around 2000 E.C. teacher’s recruitment was done by appointment
upon the candidates their college and lot is casted where to be placed. This is enforceable for all
state governments of Ethiopian teachers training colleges and still the same procedure is working

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by the consideration of candidates pass mark for the teaching profession competence exam. But
for the candidates leaving private colleges recruitment procedures mentioned in ‘the note’ is
applied. But as far as my experience some points which are mentioned in the recruitment policy
as requirement guideline do not applied as per the guideline. For instance, the time duration
vacancy announcement stays on air at least two weeks from the date of issue for internal
vacancies and at least one month for external vacancies. However, this is not applied in practical
ground. The announcement is not stayed that much time, but at most it stayed on air for 7 days
only even now adays it become lessen to 5 five days.

3) Factors that force teachers to leave schools/education sector.

The study has identified inadequate benefit package, low social status given to teachers by the
society, poor working conditions, poor administrative support, students' character and
disciplinary problem and lack of opportunity for continuous professional development
are factors behind teachers' turnover.

Low social status given to teachers by the society

Societal Status for Teaching Profession Low social status accorded to teachers by the society is
one of the outstanding reasons that teachers compelled to leave the profession (Manna and
Tesfaye 2000). Teachers working in primary and secondary schools refer low social status given
to teachers by the society as a factor for job instability. Teaching as a profession has low socio-
economic status in general compared to other non-teaching employees with similar qualification,
there is lack of recognition & respect for teachers by friends in other occupation, by students and
parents, by primary officials were factors that cause job instability.

Poor administrative support

Of all contributors to teacher turnover, lack of administrative support may be the strongest.
teachers who strongly disagree that their administration is supportive are more than twice as
likely to leave their school or the teaching profession as teachers who strongly agree their
administration is supportive. The value of a high-quality principal can’t be understated. Teachers
want to feel like the administrative staff is providing them with tools to be successful.

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Communicating with your teachers and understanding their needs will make them feel heard and
less likely to leave your district.

Poor administrative support is a factor for teachers’ job instability. Insufficient school
management support, unfair promotion opportunity Delays in career structure promotion
implementation and benefit package adjustments and Teachers’ performance evaluation not
being on the basis of teaching learning activities were major factors that hamper teaches
retention in the schools.

Working Environment

Recent studies done in different part of Ethiopia shows poor working condition such as large
class size, poor physical condition and poor school facility is among of the frequently mentioned
cause for teachers’ job instability from a particular school or from their profession (Alazar, 2007;
Motuma, 2006; Temesgen, 2005). This current finding also proved that Poor working condition
was also one of the factors that push out teachers from schools.

Inadequate benefit package

The first and most obvious factor in retaining quality educators is pay. Providing compensation
packages competitive with those of neighboring districts as well as other occupations requiring
similar levels of education allows for all schools to have a good shot at keeping their best
teachers.

Inadequate benefit package of teachers is the most frequently mentioned reason for teachers’ job
instability. Different research findings show that low benefit package is the most significant
factor that contributes to teachers’ job instability (Crousman, Hampton & Herman, 2006).

Students’ Disciplinary Problems

Students’ character and disciplinary problem also had a diverse effect on teachers’ job instability.
As study indicates, the teachers working in primary and secondary complain that students’
character and disciplinary problem is a factor that results teacher’s frustration which influence
teacher’s decision to leave their job. In addition, students’ disciplinary problem like talking in
classroom without permission, cheating during exam, violence against other students in class

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room or against the teacher is a factor that increases teachers’ frustration which eventually lead
to job instability of teachers. This was confirmed with studies conducted by different researchers
(Getachew, 1999; Temesgen, 2005: Darge, 2002) which indicated that students’ character and
disciplinary problem is one of the causes for teachers’ decision to leave or change their school.

Lack of opportunity for Continuous Professional Development

Professional development opportunity was also one of the factors that push out teachers from
schools. Teachers working in primary and secondary schools expressed that minimum
opportunity for further education and unfair selection of teachers for professional development
opportunity was factors that affect teacher moral and result teacher.