Teacher Motivation and Attrition in Secondary Schools of Huye District Southern Province in Rwanda

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to determine whether financially based motivation as well as other non financial motivations in secondary schools of Huye District have a relationship with teacher attrition. Four objectives were formulated to guide the study. The literature review focused on motivation and teacher attrition. The study used the descriptive correlational survey design. The population of the study was all teachers and head teachers in secondary schools of Huye District. The sample for the study was 66 teachers who hold posts of responsibility and 17 head teachers. Data were collected by the use of questionnaires. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Items used to measure the level of financial motivation were salary, incentive bonuses, allowances from training and seminars, Bank loans and other advances are available for teachers and salary increases, ... As for the items that were used to measure the non financial motivation, the researcher made use of extra tasks related to teaching: (Ex.: heading departments, heading some students clubs, ...), attending regular training related to the subject or the teaching methodology, working as a team, helping each other, being given a job description that gives teachers some autonomy and allow them to find their own solutions, having a clear and meaningful career path as a teacher at my school, promotion, evaluation, quality of staff and class rooms, teaching and learning materials, teachers’ houses, changing from rural to urban schools, teacher student ratio, the amount of hours a week, ... Items to measure teacher attrition were the amount of teachers who quitted the school in Huye District secondary schools and some of their characteristics, absence of some items making financial and non financial motivation that can make teachers to leave the school.