Listening to teachers in Mozambique: the motivation and morale of education workers in Mozambique
This report investigates the morale and motivation of education workers in Mozambique and identifies the factors that affect them. There is growing awareness in Mozambique of the need for a motivated public sector workforce to provide good quality public services. The present education system grew out of the emergency measures adopted after independence to develop a national system of education, drawing on large quantities of commitment but very limited resources and few trained teachers. Although great progress has been made since those days, many challenges remain.
The research outlined in this report, which examines data from focus groups, interviews and questionnaires, finds that education workers are committed to their profession and wish to continue in it. However, they are worn down and demoralised by a wide range of factors that prevent them from doing their job as they would like. Other factors contribute positively to teachers’ feelings about their working lives. The different factors that affect teachers’ motivation and morale are classified and analysed within a framework that divides them into 10 themes within three large groups: organisational and institutional factors; social and community factors; and personal factors. The research also considers three cross-cutting themes: location (urban/rural), gender and regional and ethnic factors.
Various findings are highlighted, including:
- teachers considered salary level to be the issue that has the most impact on their motivation and morale, followed by material working conditions, then training, then the administrative procedures that determine education workers’ official status and salary level
- teachers and other education workers are committed to the developing education system and to educating the citizens and workers that Mozambique so badly needs. However, the quality of that
education is severely threatened by the conditions in which teachers have to live and work and by the debilitating effect these are having on their performance, well-being and sense of professional pride
- the goals to achieve good quality education for all, and to meet the needs of the fast-evolving economy and labour market, will only be achieved if the needs of education workers are addressed as a matter of priority.
