Impact of monetary incentives on teacher retention and attraction to rural primary schools: case of rural allowance in salima district

Abstract

In a bid to achieve EFA goal, Malawi government through MoEST introduced K5, 000.00 as an allowance for teachers teaching in rural schools in the year 2010. The allowance was later adjusted upwards to K10, 000.00 in 2014. Rural allowance was introduced to retain teachers in rural schools and attract teachers from urban schools to migrate to remote areas. This study investigated the extent to which rural allowance helps to retain teachers in rural schools in Salima district. It also explored the extent to which the allowance attracts teachers from urban schools to rural schools. The research further examined competitive capacity of rural allowance in retaining and attracting teachers to rural schools over other non-monetary incentives provided in the rural setting. Employing quantitative approach, data was collected using likert type questionnaires. One questionnaire which assessed teacher retention was administered to 250 teachers in rural schools. Another questionnaire which was designed to measure attraction of teachers from urban to rural primary schools was administered to 83 teachers in urban primary schools. The findings of the study indicate that rural allowance retains an approximate 46% of teachers in rural primary schools in Salima District. The allowance attracts about 53% of teachers in urban primary schools to rural primary schools in the district. However there is no evidence of teacher migration from urban to rural schools despite teachers in urban schools registering that rural allowance attracts them. The study reveals that teachers fail to migrate from urban to rural schools because of other critical factors such as poor housing in rural schools. The study also revealed that there are other factors in rural schools that hinder teachers from migrating to rural schools