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Abstract
Teachers who are satisfied with their job are more likely to teach well, which in turn should enable their students to better learn while in school. Sub-Saharan Africa is currently experiencing a learning crisis, with close to nine out of ten children not able to read and understand a simple text at age 10. This affects all types of schools and students, including students in Catholic and other faith-based schools. Improving working conditions and job satisfaction among teachers is part of the answer to this learning crisis. After a brief discussion of data for Nigeria, this article looks at the level of satisfaction of teachers in Uganda, its determinants, and its impact on the quality teaching. Specifically, four questions are asked: What is the level of teacher job satisfaction in Uganda? How does job satisfaction relate to the characteristics of teachers? What is the impact of teachers’ satisfaction on their performance, as it can be measured through various variables of teacher effort? Finally, what are the main factors affecting satisfaction according to teachers? The answers to these questions have implications for policy and practice in faith-based as well as in other schools.
Acknowledgements
The analysis and views expressed in this paper are those of the authors only and may not reflect the views of their organisations, their Executive Directors, or the countries they represent.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 On the importance of sub-Saharan Africa for Catholic education globally, and the role played by Catholic schools in the region to ensure education pluralism and thereby the fulfillment of the right to education, see Wodon (Citation2021a, Citation2021b, Citation2021c).
2 See for example Wodon and Tsimpo (Citation2021) in this journal on student performance in Catholic public and private schools in Uganda, D’Agostino (Citation2017) on differences in school culture and management in public and private Catholic schools, Wodon (Citation2017) on whether Catholic schools have benefitted from programmes aiming to increase secondary school enrollment, and Wodon (Citation2020) on whether the Catholic Church manages to reach the poor when building new schools.
3 As noted in Lange, Wodon, and Carey (Citation2018), human capital wealth, defined as the present value of the future earnings of the current labour force, accounts for two thirds of the changing wealth of nations, well above natural wealth (such as oil or forests) and produced wealth (such as factories or roads). To realise this wealth, countries must invest more in their people.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Patrick Nkengne
Patrick Nkengne is with Pôle de Dakar.
Olivier Pieume
Olivier Pieume is with UNESCO’s Inclusive Policy Lab.
Clarence Tsimpo
Clarence Tsimpo is with the World Bank.
Gilbert Ezeugwu
Gilbert Ezeugwu is with Boston College.
Quentin Wodon
Quentin Wodon is with the World Bank.