Committed but demotivated teachers in Mozambique

Mozambique is working to improve salaries and levels of motivation for teachers and other civil servants. Teachers are generally committed to their profession, but the quality of education is threatened by the conditions they live and work in and the impact of these on their performance, wellbeing and professional pride.

Areport from Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) finds that Mozambiquan teachersconsider low salaries to be the issue that has the biggest impact on theirmorale, followed by working conditions, inadequate training and administrativeprocedures.

Mozambique moved quickly from an elitist,colonial system to a system of mass education dependent on large numbers ofhurriedly recruited, untrained and often minimally educated teachers. Despiteprogress in recovering from 17 years of civil war after independence, thecountry is desperately poor. The education system is under-resourced asMozambique struggles to fulfill a pledge to provide all children with sevenyears of primary education by 2015.

Most schools have two, three or even fourshifts, meaning that the school day is short for most pupils, but very long forthose teachers who teach on several shifts. Pupil-to-teacher ratios (PTRs) arehigh and rising. Drop-out rates are high. Primary completion rates haveimproved dramatically, but are still only 58 percent. Only1.4 percent of young people complete secondary school.

Over half of all recurrent governmentexpenditure goes on salaries. Donors press Mozambique to keep down its wagesbill. In 2006, Mozambique spent 17.4 percent of its budget on education andplans to raise this to 20 percent (6.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product) by2015. Impressed by Mozambique’s stability, donors provide budget support whichcovers over half of all government expenditure. However, they have notcommitted to continuing this level of aid. The education ministry is thereforewary of employing and training the additional teachers needed to reduce PTRsand achieve Education for All goals.

Teachers told researchers that:

• They are exhausted by years of struggling tosurvive and a sense that they are not able to do their job as they would liketo.
• Material hardship, healthproblems, social stigma associated with low salaries and the need to havesecond or even third jobs undermine their wellbeing, self-esteem and ability towork effectively.
• They receive little or notraining in how to cope with massive class sizes and insufficient teachingmaterials.
• They feel under-valued by education managers.

The Mozambique research is part of a wider‘Valuing Teachers’ project. From its experiences in many developing countries,VSO has identified a frequent tendency to ignore the opinions of teachers inmany countries. While acknowledging the government’s desire to act on theconcerns expressed by teachers, VSO urges the Mozambiquan authorities to:

• simplify and make transparent procedures concerning recruitment,deployment, promotion and payment of teachers
• target specific and appropriate training for all teachers, including headteachers, and education administrators
• communicate education policies more effectively and allow opportunitiesfor teachers’ opinions to be considered
• investigate ways of giving education workers acceptable salaries,accommodation, healthcare and transport
• work with Mozambique’s emerging civil society and local communities toplan investments in infrastructure, equipment and materials
• work with donors to enable costed mid-term and long-termstrategic planning.