Predicting Job Dissatisfaction among Community Junior Secondary School Teachers in Botswana

Abstract

African governments tend to refuse to accept the obvious truth that dissatisfaction among teachers has contributed significantly to their inability to attain their educational goals at all levels. A disgruntled worker cannot put in assiduous effort at achieving set goals, especially goals whose levels of achievement are not readily obvious. The spirit underlying the natural pride of contributing to the growth and development of human beings is greatly robbed by the dissatisfaction among teachers. This study tries to determine what factors predict this dissatisfaction among teachers in community junior secondary schools in the South Central Region of Botswana. To determine these for teachers in the 55 community junior secondary schools in the South Central Region of Botswana, a validated 68-item questionnaire with 6-Likert-type options designed to measure level of job satisfaction and factors that influence it were administered to 255 teachers from 12 randomly selected schools in the area. A stepwise regression analysis of the resulting data showed that of the nine variables that combine to account for 57% of the variability in the level of teacher’s job dissatisfaction, refusal by parents to be involved in the education of their children accounted for 34% of such variance. The findings were discussed and recommendations made.