• Teacher training

Teaching teachers

One of the most serious problems in the teaching profession is teacher turnover. Governments are finding it difficult to retain teachers in schools. In Malawi, this problem is profound and overwhelming, even by sub-Saharan standards. Relying heavily on secondary data derived from general trends and observations of several research findings as well as government publications, newspapers and several academic papers, this paper argues that main cause of this problem in Malawi can be attributed to general poor working conditions. The paper further argues that retention measures derived by the Malawi government may take time to bear fruit and it is unlikely that they can seriously affect teachers positively because they do not address their basic immediate needs.

According to the study most of the causes of teacher turnover in Malawi can be attributed to poor working conditions and their related factors like:

• poor housing and school infrastructure
• high death rate due to illness but no medical scheme
• salaries
• frequent changes in the syllabus and education system
• lack of administrative support systems
• poor recruitment and training programmes.

The authors conclude that  the problem of teacher turnover is not confined to Malawi but it is a global
problem. The case of Malawi, however, is so serious and shrouded by several interrelated factors. The critical factor to high teachers turnover is poor working conditions hence a successful intervention has to address this problem. Taking into consideration that the problem is deep and severe, only drastic measures are appropriate in some cases.

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