Barriers to Effective Job Performance of Secondary School Teachers in Fragile Countries: A Study of Public and Private Secondary Schools in Jubek State, South Sudan

Abstract

This study explored barriers to the performance of teachers in public and private secondary schools of Jubek State, South Sudan. Two research questions guided the study: what are the barriers to the performance of teachers in both private and public secondary schools of Jubek State? What strategies can be put in place to improve the performance of teachers in Jubek State?

A concurrent triangulation mixed methods research design was adopted for this study in which cross sectional survey and phenomenological research designs complemented each other. The study targeted all teachers, students and head teachers in public and private secondary schools in the state. Ten public and private schools were selected for the study using stratified random sampling technique, 100 teachers and 100 form three students were randomly sampled from the ten schools. Ten head teachers and three officials from the State Ministry of Education were purposively sampled. Questionnaires, interview, observation guides were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the quantitative data. The qualitative data was subjected to thematic analysis. The study revealed that many schools had inadequate teaching and learning materials, teachers were paid low salaries with poor working place conditions, lack of career development opportunities and recommendations to improve the performance of teachers were made.