Managing teacher attrition in Sekgosese East Circuit, Mopani District in Limpopo

Abstract

This research was aimed at investigating the management of teacher attrition in Sekgosese East Circuit. Teacher attrition is an on-going problem experienced by various countries, including South Africa. Although teacher attrition was always part of the departmental policy of age retirement, schools suffer as a result of it. In this study, ‘attrition’ refers to the number of teachers leaving the profession due to resignation, retirement, death, medical incapacity and retrenchment for operational reasons. Teacher attrition is regarded as a voluntary, involuntary and a continuous phenomenon. The current study focused on answering questions based on the nature of teacher attrition, the causes of attrition, the effects of attrition on learners, staying teachers and management, how attrition was managed by principals as well as the statutory bodies that may be involved in retaining teachers. The study used the qualitative method to investigate the management of teacher attrition in schools. The qualitative method was selected because it deals with participants in their natural setting, which was exactly what was done in this study. Both convenient and snowball sampling were used to sample six principals in the area under study. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from the participants in their natural setting. The interviews were recorded and later transcribed, analysed and categorised into themes. The findings revealed that teacher attrition in Sekgosese East Circuit occurs in the form of death, retirement and resignation. Teachers resign due to a number of reasons. It was found that resignation occurred as a result of the low salaries they are paid, loans which accumulated into more debts and because teachers seek greener pastures. The findings revealed that attrition was detrimental to learners’ performance. In schools that were affected by teacher attrition, learners spent three to four months without a teacher due to the slow pace of the Department of Education in replacing teachers. Principals revealed that they liaise with the Department of Education for replacement of teachers. Principals also revealed that attrition is not good for them as school managers. They rely on sourcing teachers from elsewhere and overloading remaining teachers who even have to teach those subjects in which they did not specialise. The recommendation was that the Department of Education speed up the replacement of teachers by introducing on-line application for resignation or retirement so that the two processes may run concurrently.