Chapter 6: Utilization and Deployment of Newly Trained Primary Teachers

Data was collected on a sample of graduating students from the PTC programme of NTTC. Those attending the graduation ceremony in 1998 were asked a series of questions about their future employment as teachers. The sample consisted of 98 graduates from the PTC and Diploma courses and represented about 60% of all the graduates. The sample was 80% female. All students were trained to teach English, Sesotho, mathematics and science. 66% took options in development studies, and 57% in home economics.

The pattern of job application suggested that on average the students had made four applications, excluding the 20% who declined to answer this question. Since 93% of the sample did have jobs it can be assumed that this 20% had acquired their positions without applying i.e. they had received an offer before they completed training and/or they had already been teaching and were returning to the same school. 80% of these graduates were teaching in a primary school, and 6% in a pre-school. Only one had a non-teaching job. 6% indicated they had no job. When the graduates were asked what they would be doing in two years time 32% indicated they would be teaching in a primary school, 3% a secondary school, and 1% a pre-school. 62% said they would be studying for a higher qualification, presumably whilst they were teaching.

It is often argued that newly qualified teachers are discouraged by the prospect of having to work in remote areas. In this sample over 30% had actually found employment in Maseru as the Table 20 shows. These newly qualified teachers were over represented in Maseru and under represented in districts like Quthing and Thaba-Tseka (Table 20).

Table 20: Table Destinations of Graduates

Contacts with friends and with school principals were the two major means through which the NQTs secured job after graduation. Contact with school secretariats, and education officers, as well as radio advertisement were other means of securing a job. About 4% of the graduates apparently went back to work in the schools they taught in before (Table 21).

Table 21: Means of Finding a Job

The views of graduates on teaching were assessed using a 4-point Likert-type scale as indicated in Table 22. This shows the response pattern including the mean and standard deviation for the sample. The results suggest a number of things.

It seems that a large majority of the sample agree that teaching is the best job they can do. The group were split over whether they would pursue a higher qualification and look for a job. Overwhelmingly they preferred to teach in a primary school. Opinions were mixed on whether teaching is an easy job and whether it was difficult to do well. Most thought their friends would think them lucky to be a teacher and the majority wanted to work in the areas from which they came (Table 22).

Table 22: Opinions of New Graduates from the NTTC