Effect of Shortage of Teachers on Job Performance in Public Secondary Schools in Geita District-Tanzania

The main purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the shortage of teachers on job performance in public secondary schools in the Geita District. The study was guided by this objective: to investigate the effects of shortage of teachers on job performance in public secondary schools in Geita District. The study employed a mixed research approach, using a descriptive case study. The population of the study comprised of secondary schools in Geita District. The population of the study was 796 education stakeholders. The researcher targeted 4 public secondary schools in Geita District out of 36. The sample size comprised of 83 respondents; it included 1 District Education Officer, 4 heads of schools and 78 teachers. The sample was obtained by using simple random and purposive sampling techniques. The study used Maslow’s and the Herzberg’s Two Factor theories. Data was collected using a single questionnaire and an interview guide; Researcher used Inter-rater reliability, which helped to ensure the accuracy of the research


INTRODUCTION
With the introduction of free education policy, the need for adequate teachers in public secondary schools has been emphasised and put into account by the stakeholders. This is because of the key role which teachers play during curriculum implementation. According to Ayuk (2012) shortage of teachers refer to exceptional high demand in relation to the supply or low supply in relation to demand. Shortage of teachers can be observed in the form of imbalance in the teacherstudent ratio in schools. Moreover, teacher job performance can be defined as a set of actions the teacher performs in a school in order to achieve educational goals (Hwang et al., 2017). It is advised that the teacher-student ratio (TSR) should be 1:40 and it is obtained from students' enrolment divided by the number of teachers in a school (UNESCO, 2014). Hence, teacher job performance will be enhanced due to the balance of student ratio and other teaching and when there is a good teacher, student ratio and teaching material are provided.
Globally, teachers are the most important element in the education process. This fact is supported by Mbunda (2006) who stated that a teacher is a professional educator whose job is to facilitate learning and provides knowledge and skills required by the learners. Clearly, teachers have a key role to play so as to ensure effective growth and development of the students. Teachers are key in achieving the desired goals and objectives of educational institutions (Kapur, 2018). Therefore, there is a need to pay attention to having adequate qualified teachers to ensure quality education is provided (Edutopia, 2016). However, according to Cobbold (2015), the problem of getting sufficient numbers of qualified teachers to schools is one of the most significant public policy issues facing many countries. Similarly, UNESCO (2014) reported that the main challenges facing the teacher education system are the production and retention of enough teachers. Training enough teachers in time and with the required mix of qualifications to meet the needs of each subject is not a child`s play. The situation is worse in science, mathematics, and English language subjects (UNESCO, 2014). This affects the performance of teachers because of the heavy workload they are allocated.
In England, the Department for Education report (2016) shows that the shortage of teachers has increased between 2011 and 2016, and more people are leaving the profession for reasons other than retirement; it also shows that recruitment to initial teacher training colleges regularly fails to meet its intake targets. On the contrary, the report also points out that secondary school students' population is increasing, teacher vacancies have risen, and more secondary school teachers are reportedly leaving the profession prematurely. According to See and Gorard (2019), there are various initiatives by the government to ensure investment in teacher training to improve the number of teacher, but the situation is still worse.
In Kenya, the Daily Nation Newspaper of Sunday 30/03 /2019 reported that, Teachers Service Commission (TSC) chief executive Nancy Macharia said: "teachers' shortage in secondary schools has risen to 95,258 from 57,380 in November 2018 due to the increase in enrolment of students in secondary schools which grew by 4.1% from 2.7 million in 2016 to 2.8 million in 2017". Although the government of Kenya increased TSC budget from 28 billion to 33 billion, TSC has been hiring about 10,000 each year, but it has been unable to meet the demand as teachers retire, leave for greener pastures, are dismissed due to indiscipline cases, die or leave the profession for other reasons. This reduces the human resources in the teaching profession and increases the high demand for teachers required for to teach various subjects.
In Tanzania, it has been established that classroom management becomes more effective if the teacherstudent ratio is 1:40 (URT, 2010). Large classes are difficult to control and manage effectively (Nkweke & Dollah, 2011). In the same vein, although the maximum teaching load for a single teacher per week is 24 periods of 40 minutes each, some teachers do teach more than 40 periods per week in addition to performing administrative and nonadministrative roles (Gwambombo, 2013). Nkweke and Dollah (2011) prove that teachers carry a heavy burden because they continue from home to work at home after the end of official school hours so as to prepare for the next day's activities. While at home, the teacher prepares lesson notes, marks, student's assignments and records examination scripts, among other teaching-related activities. This makes teachers unable to effectively meet the teaching workload demands. The heavy burden stresses the teacher emotionally, physically, psychologically, financially, and even spiritually. If teachers are overloaded it will result in work pressure, boredom, and underachievement hence, the poor academic achievement of students in secondary schools (Adiele, 2017). As a result, it affects the teaching and learning process, which needs to be smooth, efficient, and effective at all times.
The United Republic of Tanzania has made efforts to provide quality education for all for its citizens to meet the target of universal access to quality basic education, including pre-primary, primary, and secondary education levels of education for all as it is explained in SEDP 2017-2018, and World Bank, 2011Bank, , 2014. However, to achieve this, it requires a good supply of qualified teachers, which has become more difficult to attain in recent times because of challenges in recruiting and retaining teachers (See & Gorard, 2019). Research shows that there is a shortage of teachers in Tanzania because the number of students is higher and increases every year while the number of teachers remains constant or decreases mainly due to various reasons, including lack of retention initiatives. This situation affects the job performance in public secondary schools drastically and destabilises the smooth learning in public secondary schools. This paper focused on investigating the effects of the shortage of teachers on job performance in public secondary schools in the Geita District.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Koc and Celik (2014) conducted a study on the impacts of the number of students per teacher on student achievement. From their study, the result shows that the student-teacher ratio can affect teachers' effectiveness and student achievement. . The study recommended that more teachers should be hired in order to decrease the number of students per teacher so that students' achievement can be enhanced and teachers' workload decreased. This is likely to make the teachers keener about teaching and actually love their job.
Also, Rose and Sika (2019) conducted a study to determine the influence of teacher workload on students' academic performance in secondary schools in Sub-Saharan Countries. The research employed descriptive and correlation survey design. The results showed that between 2012-2015, the percentage pass-mark in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) was low. This was associated with inadequate teachers, which resulted in an extra teacher workload. From this finding, it is important to reduce teachers workload. It is equally significant to monitoring the attendance of teachers in the classroom and other duties that teachers are required to perform. Failure to do so, the performance of teachers will be poor.
Another study by Werang (2018) on the effect of workload on individual characteristics and school climate on teachers' emotional exhaustion in elementary schools of Papua with a sample of 94 teachers revealed that workload significantly affects teachers' emotional exhaustion. In order to eliminate teachers' emotional exhaustion, the school supervisors, as well as the head of education office at regional government levels, should reduce teacher's workload and improve school climate, on the other hand, he or she should foster hard work.
The Nigerian National Policy on Education stipulates that class a ratio of 1:40 should be observed in all schools (the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2013). Regrettably, classes are very large, especially in urban schools in Nigeria, where teachers often find it difficult to recognise their students by names and teachers have limited spaces for carrying out instructional tasks as classes are congested. This situation limits teacher-learners interaction and learner-learner interaction, which hinders academic, psychological, guidance or counselling services for students on individual bases where necessary (Ayeni, & Akinola, 2008).
Similarly, in Tanzania, Twaweza (2010) conducted a study in eight districts involving 16 primary and 16 secondary schools. The findings shows that many schools had an average teacher-student ratio of 1:88, and only one school had reached the Secondary Education Development (SEDP) target of (1:40), which is one teacher for every 40 students. The report shows that, in surveyed districts of Arusha, Makete, Musoma, and Temeke, the studentteacher ratio was worse in secondary schools than in primary schools and where there are very few teachers.
Again, Lyimo et al. (2017) assessed teachers' adequacy in Arusha district community secondary schools. The study noted that the teacher-learner ratio is an important factor that, if not addressed, may lead to a massive failure of students and therefore lower the quality of education. The study reported that while the number of secondary school learners has increased, students' academic achievement has been declining, especially in public Secondary Schools.
Therefore, the shortage of teachers and other challenges in public secondary schools, such as inadequate teaching and learning materials as well as school infrastructures, limit the provision of quality education (Saga, 2014). Thus, quality education in public secondary schools will be provided if only schools have enough teachers to implement the curriculum.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study employed a mixed research approach, using a descriptive case study. The population of the study comprised of secondary schools in the Geita District. The population of the study was 796 education stakeholders. The researcher targeted 4 public secondary schools in Geita District. The sample size comprised of 83 respondents; it included 1 District Education Officer, 4 heads of schools out of 36 and 78 teachers. The sample was obtained by using simple random and purposive sampling techniques. The study used Maslow's and the Herzberg's Two Factor theories. The theory suggests that motivating people especially workers or employees is very essential because it increases their morale of working and helps them to meet their basic needs as well as other human wants. The basic needs includes shelter, food, clothing and belonging needs.
Data was collected using a single questionnaire and interview guide, content validity and Inter-rater reliability, helped to ensure the accuracy of the research instrument. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics with the help of SPSS software version 20 and it was presented in the form of tables using frequency and percentage while qualitative data was coded and analysed thematically. Yamane's formula was used to determine sample size.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This section presents the research findings and discussion based on the research objective, which states that; to investigate the effects of shortage of teachers on job performance in public secondary schools in Geita District.

The Effects of Shortage of Teachers on Job Performance in Public Secondary Schools
The researcher used questionnaires and interview methods in order to collect data for this objective.
The results from the questionnaire are summarised in above reveals that 74 participants, which is equivalent to 95 per cent of the participants revealed that shortage of teachers affects job performance as teachers are not able to prepare learning materials required in teaching and learning process, while 4 participants which is equivalent to 5 per cent of the participants disagreed that shortage of teachers affects job performance. It implies that when there is a shortage of teachers, teachers cannot effectively perform their duties such as preparing learning materials to be used for teaching as required. This finding implies that teachers use chalk and talk most of the time and therefore students are not able to understand the concepts the teacher is teaching. This could be as a result of teachers being over engaged in other activities such as marking assignments of large number of students which takes most of their time. HakiElimu (2017) attest to this in a study they conducted to find out the impact of the implementation of a fee-free education policy on basic education in Tanzania. The study results showed that there was an increase in teaching load per teacher due to the rise in the number of students. When administrators overload teachers by assigning them an excessive workload they will automatically reduce the teacher-effectiveness. Therefore, the number of teachers should be increased to ensure effectiveness in preparation of teaching and learning materials .
Furthermore, Table 1 reveals that 56 participants, which is equivalent to 71.7 per cent of participants showed that shortage of teachers led to uncovered syllabus, but 22 participants equivalent to 28.4 per cent of participants disagreed that shortage of teachers led to uncovered syllabus. Also, Lyimo et al. (2017) noted that shortage of teachers could affect the teaching-learning process, including coverage of syllabus on time. Similarly,  and Nyawara (2011) conducted a study that identified that job overload, which led to uncovered syllabus is due to the shortage of teachers. Thus, the government improve working conditions as a stimulus to attract teachers to stay in margin and effectively perform their jobs well including covering the syllabus on time.
Additionally, the results revealed that 56 participants equivalent to 71.8 per cent of participants showed that shortage of teachers led to high level of stress among head teachers hence poor performance of administrative roles by school heads, while 22 respondents, equivalent to 28.2 per cent, disagreed. This means that a shortage of teachers causes the failure of heads of schools to perform well administrative roles such as planning and coordinating teaching and learning activities effectively.
Furthermore, the study findings reveal that 51 respondents equivalent to 73.1 per cent of the respondents agreed that shortage of teachers led to poor students' academic performance, while 21 participants, which is equivalent to 26.9 per cent of the respondents disagreed. This concurs with the study conducted by  to determine the influence of teacher workload on student's academic performance in secondary schools in Suba Sub-County Kenya, which came up with the results showing that in the period 2012-2015 the percentage pass mark in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) was low due to shortage of teachers which result to extra teacher workload and affects the job performance of teachers. That is, where the performance of students is high; the number of teachers is also high.
In Tanzania, Twaweza (2010) conducted a study whose finding shows that a lot of schools experience an average teacher-student ratio of 1:88. From the sampled schools, it was observed that only one school had reached the Secondary Education Development (SEDP) goal of the normal ratio of 1:40 in its classroom. When the number of students is high, and there is a shortage of teachers in school, it leads to a heavy workload to teachers because a large number of students adds large number periods as a result of the many streams created as well as other tasks such as many exercise books to mark.
In addition to that, interviewee revealed that: The findings from this interview confirmed that the shortage of teachers in schools results in ineffective teachers' performance and poor students' academic performance in public secondary schools because teachers cannot handle the teaching load effectively.
On the other hand, participants were asked through interviews and revealed various effects of shortage of teachers on job performance in public secondary schools, including poor supervision of students, overworking of teachers in duties and teaching by no-professionals.
Most of the participants said that there is poor supervision of students due to a shortage of teachers. This result is supported by Ayeni and Amanekwa (2018), who examined teachers' workload and how workload affects students' academic performance in secondary schools in Akoko North-East Local Government Area of Ondo State in Nigeria. The findings indicated that teachers' workload is high in teaching activities, including marking of students' scripts by 76.7 per cent. These percentages indicate an impact that is negative on supervising and consultation of students with needs. In that sense, therefore, it shows that heavy workload affects the performance of teachers at large.
Again, most of the interviewed respondents argued that a higher teacher workload is the effect of a shortage of teachers, which led to ineffective in performing their instructional duties. Similarly, Muindi (2011) investigated the impact of the introduction of the Free Secondary Education Programme on the quality of secondary education in Katangi Division, Yatta District. The study, which was undertaken in 6 public secondary schools, found that there was significantly higher enrolment in secondary schools as a result of FSE. The study also found that FSE led to understaffing, poor teaching, overcrowded classes, inadequate books, heavy teacher workload, and increased student indiscipline. The study recommends that the community at large should support the construction of more schools by providing land and labour to reduce high enrolment rates in the existing schools in the Katangi Division. It further recommended that the government should employ enough teachers so as to cater for the rising number of secondary school students in the district.

CONCLUSIONS
The study concluded that shortage of teachers affected teachers performance in several ways as they were not able to perform out their responsibilities effectively such as prepare teaching an d learning material to be used in instruction.
Those have administration role were stressed and this affected the performance of various duties. Teachers also lack adequate time to supervise students and this led to indiscipline which affected students' performance.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the conclusions, the study recommends that the Government of Tanzania is required to employ more teachers in public secondary schools, especially in science subjects. Also, the government should improve teachers working conditions' such as payment of good salaries, improving living conditions such as quality housing and teaching and learning environment so that teacher can perform better their roles and lead to improve students' achievement.