Job satisfaction variance among public and private school teachers: A case study

Abstract

Teacher job satisfaction is the degree to which employees like or dislike their profession; they are satisfied when they have positive attitudes and feelings towards their job. Many studies were conducted in developing and developed countries, but unfortunately, studies focusing on teacher job satisfaction in the Afghan context are very limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate job satisfaction variance among public and private school teachers in Takhar schools. The data were collected using a survey questionnaire, and statistical techniques were used to analyze the data. The finding of the study showed that almost half of the respondents were satisfied with their profession. The study found statistically significant differences in the satisfaction level of teachers by their schools, teachers in private schools were more satisfied with most of the variables than their counterparts in public ones. However, public school teachers were more satisfied with their job security than private schools. The findings of the study will help educational authorities and policymakers to improve strategies for school leadership and teachers’ job satisfaction.

Keywords:

• Job satisfaction
• private and public schools
• school management
• education in Afghanistan

1. Introduction

The history of education in Afghanistan indicates that Islamic Education (Schooling in Mosques) was the first education method in the country (Karlsson & Mansory, 2007). The Western Version of education was introduced in the country when trained workers were needed in the 19^th century. The term Western Education System is referred to an approach that students needed to experience taking different courses like mathematics, languages, science and history. In this kind of education, there were a grading system and course structure, school semesters and hours, midyear and annual examinations and teaching of different modules (Hernández et al., 2019). After the Western type of education was presented in the country, two institutions were established in Kabul city to teach royal family children in 1878 (Sherani, 2014). The first public school was opened for males in 1903. After 1919, several schools were opened in Kabul city and other provincial urban areas. The first school for girls was opened in 1921, and gradually modern education was expanded throughout the country (Karlsson & Mansory, 2007).

The Western sort of education in Afghanistan was extended and the students were only going to public schools until the Taliban took the power (Karlsson & Mansory, 2007). During the Taliban regime, many schools were closed and female students were not allowed to go to schools and universities, which negatively affected the education system of the country (Akramy et al., 2022; Noori et al., 2022). Before and during the Taliban administration, there was no private schooling in Afghanistan; the privatization of education was not even allowed in the country (Sherani, 2014). When the Taliban regime collapsed, the international community came to Afghanistan to support the new interim administration in 2001 (Noori, 2021a). Then the new government took some measures and tried to extend education in the country. For example, more schools and teacher training colleges were opened in the provinces and thousands of immigrants returned to the country who had the experience of private education in the host countries. Later. The government started encouraging private education in the country (Packer et al., 2010).

Privatization of schooling in Afghanistan was not prevalent, but it became more prominent in the last decade. The number of private schools has increased in Kabul and the main cities, which reflects a constant demand for private schooling in the country. According to the data from the Afghanistan National Statistics Department (2019), there were around 1644 private and 14,888 public schools in the country. Out of 9,242,902 students (38 percent female) enrolled in Afghan schools in 2018, only 518,418 of them enrolled in the private schools.

Some similarities and differences exist between private and public schooling in Afghanistan. Firstly, parents’ involvement, teaching and learning facilities are much better in most private schools than the public ones. Secondly, most of the students who enroll in private schools come from wealthier socioeconomic backgrounds. Students from poorer families rarely enroll in the private schools because they must pay monthly fees who cannot afford it. However, public education is free up to the bachelor’s degree throughout the country. Thirdly, public and private schools follow the defined curriculum by the Ministry of Education, but private schools provide additional textbooks and start teaching English and computer from grade one. Fourthly, some private schools provide more salaries than the public ones, but some of them are paying less to their teachers in small cities. Finally, there are more holidays in public schools than in private ones, but there are better capacity-building programs available in private schools than in public ones.

Views on public and private schools vary across different countries. Private schools are regarded from the political, cultural, religious and social perspectives in Iran. After the 1979 Islamic revolution, the education system was fundamentally changed, and the government operationalized new education policies on private schooling. They closed all private schools for a decade and transferred students to public schools. They believed that the private schools only served rich people, which developed inequality in the education and society of Iran (Bageri & Najafi, 2008). The government adopted education policies in 1999 and applied privatization of economy, including in the education sector. By 2010, the number of private schools increased to 13,000 in Iran (Arani et al., 2015), which shows higher visibility of private schools compared to Afghanistan. In Pakistan, the government supports private education compared to Afghanistan. Public schools in Pakistan are single-sex, whereas they have coeducational classes (Aslam, 2009). In India, most private schools are in rural areas, and their quality of education is better than the public ones (Goyal, 2009). In Kuwait, the quality of education in private schools is also much better than the public schools (Jasim, 2010). Like India, Pakistan, Kuwait, the quality of education in private schools is much better in Nepal than in the public ones, but the public schools in Nepal are called international schools (Thapa, 2013). In most European countries, private schooling is guaranteed by laws as an alternative to public schools, and they tend to have much more common with public schools. For example, in Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Finland, Luxembourg, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, and Norway, private education is fully or partially grant-aided. However, they operate in the same conditions as public schools (Simon et al., 2007). Unlike other countries, most of the private schools in Afghanistan are based in the main cities rather than the rural areas.

Different characteristics and working conditions in public and private schools in Afghanistan may affect teachers’ job satisfaction. Working condition in public and private schools is not the same in most parts of the country. Regarding salaries and benefits, some private schools may pay higher and provide more resources than public ones. However, the salaries of private schools in some provinces are much lower than those of public schools. Teachers in public schools teach for almost ten months a year and earn a whole year’s salary, whereas private school teachers earn a salary for the month they teach (Aslami, 2013). In addition, job security and working conditions in private schools are not the same as the public schools. In public schools, teachers remain in their jobs until they intentionally leave or retire. However, most private schools can easily terminate teachers at any time or circumstance because they mostly hire their staff temporarily (Duan et al., 2018). Therefore, this study aims to explore job satisfaction variance in public and private schools in Afghanistan and closely examine Takhar schools as a case study.

1.1. Problem statement

A strong education system of a country is directly related to a high-quality teaching force that successfully drives the cornerstone of any educational improvement. Teachers are human capital and a considerable amount of money is spent to prepare them in an educational context. Their attraction and retention for educational institutions are necessary because hiring and recruiting qualified teachers is costly, time-consuming, and challenging. Job satisfaction is the leading factor in why teachers leave their job or remain unresponsive. Many studies were carried out in developing and developed countries because job satisfaction has been the central focus and strategy of educational organizations. However, less attention has been paid to job satisfaction in the Afghanistan context. A few studies were conducted on job satisfaction in the banking sector of Afghanistan, the association between job satisfaction and employees’ retention in the private universities, the effects and causes of job turnover among English language teachers, Islamic work ethics, and the behavior of organizational employees based in Kabul, the association between leadership style and job satisfaction among the employees of the ministry of education and job satisfaction among instructors in teacher training colleges (Adil et al., 2020; Ahmadzai & Shah, 2020; Alemi, 2018; Khan & Arshad, 2016; Khawary & Ali, 2015; Saif, 2020). However, none of the mentioned studies addressed teacher job satisfaction among public and private school teachers in Afghanistan. This limitation is understandable in the literature and the current study will fill this gap by investigating job satisfaction variance among public and private school teachers. The study is significant because its findings will lead to the improvement of policies and offers insight into school management and teacher job satisfaction in both public and private school in Afghanistan and the third-world countries. It will increase the understanding of teacher job satisfaction in a broader context.

1.2. Purpose of the study

This study aimed to explore job satisfaction variance among public and private school teachers and examined Takhar school as a case study in Afghanistan. It focuses on six dimensions (payment, job security, working environment, colleagues, organizational support and educational supervision) leading to teachers’ job satisfaction. It addresses the below research questions.

1. To what extent were teachers satisfied with their job?

2. What factors influenced teachers’ choice of school (Public or Private)?

3. Were there any statistically significant differences in the satisfaction level of public and private school teachers?

2. Literature review

The term job satisfaction was defined and construed by different scholars and researchers in the literature (Aziz et al., 2021; Davies et al., 2017; Eliyana & Ma’arif, 2019). Troesch and Bauer (2017) defined teacher job satisfaction as the degree to which employees like or dislike their profession. Aziz et al. (2021) stated that job satisfaction is an employee’s feeling about the job. Mérida‐López et al. (2019) stated that job satisfaction is the level of happiness of an employee regarding the occupation. Aziri (2011) believed that teachers are satisfied when they have a positive perception and attitude towards their profession.

The level of teacher job satisfaction is related to school climate and school geographical location (Cemalcilar, 2010; Grayson & Alvarez, 2008). Teachers in developed countries are more satisfied with their job than those in developing countries (Evans & Olumide-Aluko, 2010; Khan et al., 2012; Sahito & Vaisanen, 2020; Zembylas & Papanastasiou, 2004). In developing countries, the resources are limited (Hashemi et al., 2022; Orfan et al., 2022), and teachers earn less salary and benefits . Moreover, the governments in developed countries provide more training programs for teachers and principals than those in developing countries so that they learn practical teaching and management skills, which improves their job satisfaction and performance (Li et al., 2019).

There are many factors that may affect teacher job satisfaction (Rezaee et al., 2020). Communication, cooperation, and good relationship between teachers tend to impact teacher job satisfaction and motivation in schools (Hoy & Miskel, 1987; Klassen & Chiu, 2010). Hughes (2012) stated that workload can be one of the main factors of teacher job satisfaction in the United States. You et al. (2017) indicated that teacher job satisfaction is influenced by school’s academic environment and organizational support. Lim and Lee (2010) added that colleagues’ support motivates teachers to help each other and like their profession. Additionally, principals’ leadership style is one of the key factors that influences teacher performance and job satisfaction (Hoy & Miskel, 1987; Noori, 2021b; Jeong & Jeong, 2008; Jung, 2009; Noori et al., 2023). Rezaee et al. (2020) concluded that organizational factors such as salary and benefits, reward and supervision, working conditions and type of school influence teacher job satisfaction.

Teacher job satisfaction is one of the key determinants of teachers’ retention and commitment to their work. Perrachione et al. (2008) believed that teachers’ positive perceptions about their job, in turn, could have a remarkable influence on their retention. Shen et al. (2018) added that teachers with a low level of satisfaction leave their occupation robotically, however, satisfied teachers lean to remain longer in their profession. Zembylas and Papanastasiou (2004) also exerted that satisfied teachers have a positive attitude towards their job while unsatisfied teachers are inclined to have a negative attitude towards their careers. It is indicated that teachers’ feelings and attitudes are guided by their status of job satisfaction, which leads to their retention and improvement in instruction.

Job satisfaction has become an important element of organizational management in the educational context. Caprara et al. (2006) exposed that teachers with a low level of stress managed to boost students’ achievement in Italy. http://OAED_A_2189425.docxCrossman and Harris (2006) stated that job stress and low motivation were the main reasons for leaving occupation among school teachers in the United Kingdom. Teacher job satisfaction was found to be correlated with quality education and student learning performance in South Korea (Cho, 2005; Lee, 2010). Kumar (2021) declared that motivated and inspired teachers strive to bring about change and perform their tasks enthusiastically. Kazi and Zadeh (2011) believed that teachers with a higher level of satisfaction are more dedicated to their job. Caprara et al. (2006) concluded that highly satisfied teachers use new techniques to boost student achievement and their learning performance.

Many studies have examined job satisfaction among private and public school teachers (Tilak, 2013; Bhatt & Remigius, 2015; Dar, 2013; Bukar et al., 2011; A—Qalhati et al., 2020; Msuya, 2016). Shabbir and Wei (2015) studied the satisfaction level of private and public school teachers in Kashmir, Pakistan. They collected data from 300 respondents using a survey questionnaire. The results of logistic regression analysis showed that teachers in the governmental schools were more satisfied with their job than their counterparts in private schools. They believed that teaching in private schools was temporary and more challenging, private schools did not provide enough salaries compared to the public ones, and public schools provided more facilities and holidays to teachers than the private schools.

Papanastasiou and Zembylas (2005) explored the difference in the satisfaction level of Cyprian kindergarten instructors. They collected data using a survey questionnaire from 347 teachers and found that private kindergarten teachers were more satisfied with their job than the public ones. Studies by Bhatt and Remigius (2015), Dar (2013), Bukar et al. (2011), A-HQalhati et al. (2020), and Msuya (2016) also explored the satisfaction level of teachers in public and private schools and reported that teachers in private schools were more satisfied with their job than those in public schools. They also found that factors such as salary and benefits, reward and promotion, job security, working conditions, working hours, organizational support, school environment, and school culture were significantly correlated with the satisfaction level of teachers in private and governmental schools.

Furthermore, Rezaee et al. (2017) studied the job satisfaction of English language teachers in public and private schools in Iran. They collected the data through a mixed-method study and found that the teachers in both public and private schools were moderately dissatisfied with their profession and their level of job likability was low. Different dimensions of organizational climate such as job security, salary and benefits, reward system, job flexibility, and principals’ leadership style played a key role in teachers’ job satisfaction. They reported a strong positive correlation between organizational climate and teachers’ job satisfaction, the relationship was higher among private schools than public ones. The study concluded that the organizational climate was completely different in the private schools compared to the public schools. The study recommended improving the organizational climate to advance teacher job satisfaction and education quality. Markovits et al. (2007) investigated organizational commitment and job satisfaction and surveyed both public and private sector employees. They found that effective organizational commitment was a highly influential factor affecting job satisfaction in Greece. Rainey and Bozeman (2000) through the use of an empirical research examined the job satisfaction of public and private employees in the United States of America. They found that several factors influenced job satisfaction among public and private employees; among the factors, public staff had to obey more formalization than the private ones, which affected their job satisfaction in the working environment.

In addition, Sultana et al. (2017) investigated the variances in the satisfaction level of teachers in governmental and nongovernmental schools in Bangladesh. They collected the data using a survey from 40 respondents and found no significant difference in the satisfaction level of teachers in governmental and nongovernmental schools. Akhtar et al. (2010) comparatively examined job satisfaction differences among public and private school teachers in Lahore and found no important difference in their level of satisfaction. Mahmood et al. (2011) found no significant differences in the satisfaction level of teachers in urban and rural schools. Meanwhile, Ghosh (2015) found the same satisfaction level among governmental and nongovernmental school teachers in Ranchi. Likewise, Tilak (2013) investigated the variation in job satisfaction among public and private school teachers in India and found no difference in the satisfaction level of public and private school teachers. Similarly, Pepe et al. (2017) explored the variation of teacher job satisfaction across six countries (Russia, Netherlands, Hong Kong, United States, Italy and Palestine) and reported no major difference in the satisfaction level of teachers in these countries.

2.1. Conceptual framework of the study

Many empirical and conceptual studies support job satisfaction in the working environment (Fila et al., 2014; Fritzsche & Parrish, 2005; Judge et al., 2017). Among the theories, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1958) is much more relevant to the current study. He believed that employees are satisfied with their job if they get what they want or when their needs are fulfilled. If their expectations did not match, they would be dissatisfied with their profession (Kaur, 2013; Suyono & Mudjanarko, 2017). This theory assesses the psychological needs of employees in the working environment (Ștefan et al., 2020). These needs can be job security, working relationship in the organization, salary and benefits, superiors’ supervision, organizational environment and support (See Figure 1) (Nguyen et al., 2020). He represented humans’ needs in a pyramid, including physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization (Sosteric & Raktovic, 2020). Physiological needs are the fundamental needs of organizational employees, like food, drink, and shelter that typically come from the salaries paid to them (Barnes, 2021; Tripathi, 2018). Employees as individuals have some fundamental needs which help them to survive, their needs have to be fulfilled to promote their well-being to work comfortably and enthusiastically (Ingsih et al., 2021). Safety refers to job security, which protects the employees to remain for a longer time in their profession. Maslow (1958) indicated that when employees feel safe, they will remain longer in their profession and work feasibly. Job security comes from a negative feeling of downsizing, termination and turnover (Lautsch & Scully, 2007). The next aspect of job satisfaction is belonging and social needs, which includes relationships in the working environment. Examples can be friendship, intimacy, acceptance, feedback, family and being connected to other members. When members’ needs of belonging are met, they will feel included, valued, heard and satisfied (Leary et al., 2013). However, they will quit their job when they feel not connected (Mahfouz, 2020). Gaudiano (2023) believed that humans are social animals who want to be part of a society to share common belief systems and values to feel respected, cherished and belonged which will lead to their job motivation and retention. Sirota and Klein (2013) whispered that one of the key liabilities that workers get from their employer is having a good relationship; this might result from a supportive boss or friendly co-workers, which will add meaning to their support and dedication in the working environment. Organizational employees also need to achieve high goals to be admired, which comes from their daily activities in the working environment. The last aspect of job satisfaction is organizational support and educational supervision. Employees need learning opportunities to develop and grow; individuals are motivated when there are good working conditions and working relationships so that they would be honest and loyal to their organization and remain longer in their profession (Burke & Ng, 2006).

Figure 1. Conceptual framework of the study (Maslow, 1958)

Variable leading to teachers’ job satisfaction; 6 factors such as payment, job security, working environment, colleagues, organizational support and educational supervision contribute to teachers’ job satisfaction in schools.

3. Methodology

3.1. Participants

This study employed a quantitative research design and a close-ended survey questionnaire was used to collect the data. The quantitative survey design was utilized to target a larger population, gather the proposed data, describe their characteristics and come up with statistical findings. The population of the study was both public and private school teachers based in Takhar city, a Northeastern province of Afghanistan. According to the Ministry of Education (2021), the total number of schools in Takhar city was 145 which 21 were private. There were 2660 public and 341 private school teachers across Takhar city. The researcher used stratified random sampling and selected 545 teachers as the respondents of the study. He divided the teachers into subgroups (e.g., public and private) and selected samples from each group. Out of the total population, 425 of them were selected from the public and 120 of them were chosen from the private schools. Cresswell (2012) indicated that the researchers could divide the population into categories and choose samples among them. So samples were chosen using the Excel sampling formula among the groups. 78% of the respondents were public school teachers and 22% were private school teachers.

To observe ethical considerations, the researcher negotiated with Takhar Education Department and explained the purpose of the research to asked their support for data collection. The Department of Education referred the researcher to the Department of Science and requested them to support the researcher in collecting the data from schools. The researcher provided a consent form to the respondents asking for their voluntary participation in the study. Participation in the study was completely optional and they needed to sign a consent form if they agreed to participate in the study. After they agreed to participate in the survey, copies of the questionnaire were distributed to collect the data.

3.2. Instrumentation

A survey questionnaire was used to collect the data from 545 school teachers in Takhar province, Afghanistan. The questionnaire was adapted from Lester (1987), and had three main sections. The first section aimed to ask about the demographic information of the respondents. The second part (on a nominal scale, yes and no), focused on the factors that influenced teachers “choice of school (salary & benefits, holiday & working hours, relationship in school, and pressure from family) and the third part with 24 items and six sub-constructs asked about teacher job satisfaction from different aspects. A four-point Likert Scale questionnaire was used to measure teachers” job satisfaction (1 = Highly Unsatisfied, 2 = Unsatisfied, 3 = Satisfied, 4 = Highly Satisfied). The sub-construct items asked about teacher payment, job security, work environment, colleagues, organizational support and education supervision.

3.3. Validity and reliability

The study instrument was already validated by the previous research. The researcher translated the questionnaire into the Dari language because English is learned and taught as a foreign language in Afghanistan and most of the participants cannot speak it (Orfan et al., 2021). The translated version of the questionnaire was given to three lecturers at Takhar University and the problematic items were modified based on their feedback. A pilot study was carried out to examine the reliability of the study and 30 teachers were asked to fill out the questionnaire. The results of the pilot test (See, Table 1) revealed that each sub-construct had an acceptable value > 0.70, which shows higher reliability of the instrument.

Table 1. Reliability statistics

Aspect	Quantity of Items	Cronbach’s Alpha Value
Payment	4	0.81
Job Security	4	0.79
Work Condition	4	0.78
Colleagues	4	0.82
Organizational Support	4	0.8
Supervision	4	0.83

3.4. Data analysis

The researcher used MS Excel and SPSS to analyze the data. He entered the data in an Excel spreadsheet and imported them to Statistical Package for Social Sciences for analysis. Descriptive statistics (e.g., frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Mann-Whitney U-Test) were used to compare the variances in the satisfaction level of teachers by their school.

4. Results

4.1. Teachers’ job satisfaction across different dimensions

The author conducted descriptive statistical analysis on the below 24 items to answer the first research question (to what extent teachers in public and private schools were satisfied with their job? Teachers’ job satisfaction level was measured using a questionnaire containing a satisfaction scale (1 = Highly Dissatisfied, 2 = Dissatisfied, 3 = Satisfied, 4- = Highly Satisfied).

4.1.1. Payment

The results showed that most of the respondents were dissatisfied with their salary and benefits, incentives and salary increments, but there was no considerable difference in the satisfaction level of public and private school teachers (See, Table A1 in the appendix).

4.1.2. Job security

The results show that almost half of the respondents were satisfied with their job security and working hours, but teachers in public schools were more satisfied with their job security than the teachers in private schools (See, Table A2 in the appendix).

4.1.3. Working environment

The results showed that most of the respondents were satisfied with their working environment, but the satisfaction level among private school teachers was higher than the public ones (see Table A3 in the appendix).

4.1.4. Colleagues

The results showed that most of the respondents were satisfied from their relationship with their colleagues, but teachers in private schools had a higher level of satisfaction than their counterparts in public schools (See, Table A4 in the appendix).

4.1.5. Organizational support

The results showed that almost half of the respondents were satisfied with the organizational support, however, the satisfaction level was higher among private school teachers than the public ones (See, Table A5 in the appendix).

4.1.6. Educational supervision

The results showed that almost half of the respondents were satisfied with the educational supervision, but the satisfaction level was higher among private school teachers than the public ones (See, Table A6 in the appendix).

4.2. Factors influenced teachers’ type of school choice

The authors descriptively analyzed the data to answer the second research question (What factors influenced teachers’ choice of school?). The results showed that almost 45% of the teachers selected the teaching profession because of salary and benefits, from the total number of respondents, only 44% of them selected private schools for the reason of salary and benefits. In addition, the number of teachers who selected public schools because of holidays and working hours is higher than the private ones. Furthermore, relationships in the private schools highly influenced teachers’ choice of school, pressure from the family and no other opportunities for jobs had almost the same percentage among the public and private school teachers (See, Table 2).

Table 2. Factors influencing teachers’ type of school choice

Variables	Public	Private
Salary and Benefits	46%	44%
Holidays and Working Hours	72%	50%
Relationship with School	30%	65%
Pressure from Family	48%	46%
No other opportunity to get a job	69%	71%

4.3. Comparison of job satisfaction among private and public school teachers

Normality test was conducted to examine the normal distribution of the data. The results showed that the value P = 0.000 < 0.05 for both Kolmogorov-Smirnvo^a and Shapiro-Wilk is less than the significance level. As a result, parametric statistics could not be used.

The author conducted inferential statistics (Mann-Whitney U- Test) to answer the third research question (were there any statistically significant differences in the satisfaction level of public and private school teachers?). The results showed that the Alpha value for all variables (P = 0.001) is less than 0.05 (Significance Level). Therefore, it is indicated that there were statistically significant differences in job satisfaction levels of governmental and nongovernmental teachers. Table 3 shows that teachers in private schools were more satisfied with their profession across most variables (e.g., payment, working environment, colleagues, organizational support, and educational supervision) than those in public schools. However, public school teachers were more satisfied in terms of job security than their colleagues in the private schools.

Table 3. Mann-whitney U-test

Analysis on respondents’ demographic information
	N		Mean Rank		Statistic Values
Variables	Public	Private	Public	Private	Test statistic	Asymptotic Sig.(2-sided test)
Payment	425	120	258.3	324.7	31,711	0.001
Job Security	425	120	330.5	255.8	32,920	0.001
Working Environment	425	120	2493	356.6	35,539	0.001
Colleagues	425	120	263.6	306.2	29,493	0.001
Organizational Support	425	120	244.5	373.7	37,593	0.001
Educational Supervision	425	120	245.6	369.9	37,131	0.001

5. Discussion

Job satisfaction has been an important issue and received a great attention in the educational context. Teacher job satisfaction is not only important for teachers, but it is also crucial for school improvement and student achievement. This study investigated job satisfaction variance among public and private school teachers in Afghanistan and examined schools in Takhar city as a case study. In the current study, the variation of teacher job satisfaction was examined from six-dimensional perspectives, such as payment, job security, working environment, colleagues, organizational support, and educational supervision. It also explored the factors that influenced teachers choice to select the type of school as their own profession.

The results showed that most of the respondents were not satisfied with their salary, benefits, incentives and increment scheme in both public and private schools. This finding is in line with the finding of the studies by Asekun (2015) and Anand (2018), who found that teachers were not satisfied with their salaries and benefits because they earned an inadequate amount of wage, which was not enough for their living expenses. But teachers in public schools almost held a higher level of satisfaction regarding payment than their colleagues in the private schools. This finding is in support of the study of Shabbir and Wei (2015) who found that teachers in public schools were more satisfied than their counterparts in the private ones. In addition, around half of the respondents were satisfied with their profession in terms of job security, but teachers in public schools felt more secure with their job than their colleagues in the private schools. This finding is aligned with the study of Shabbir and Wei (2015) who found that half the teachers were satisfied with their job security and teachers in public schools were more satisfied with job security than the private schools. These differences in the Afghan context might be for the reason that most of the private schools hire their teachers temporarily and can easily terminate them at any circumstance, which affects their satisfaction level. Furthermore, most of the respondents were satisfied with their job, working conditions, and opportunities to develop their skills, however, the satisfaction level regarding the working environment was higher among the private schools than the public ones. The finding of the study supports the study carried out by Papanastasiou and Zembylas (2005) who reported that most of the teachers were satisfied with their profession in terms of working conditions and environment. Moreover, they had a higher level of satisfaction regarding their colleagues compared to other aspects. This finding supports the research of Shabbir and Wei (2015) who reported a higher level of satisfaction with their colleagues. Likewise, nearly half of the respondents were satisfied with school organizational support and supervision. This finding supports the research by Khalid et al. (202) who reported that the majority of teachers were satisfied in terms of organizational support and educational supervision.

The results also revealed that almost half of the respondents chose the teaching profession because of salary and benefits, most of the teachers choose to teach in the private schools because of their relationship with the school, and no further opportunity to find a job and almost half of them indicated that they chose to be a teacher because of pressure from their families. It is indicated from these findings that most of the teachers did not choose to be a teacher because of profession likability or its benefits, but other factors also influenced them to choose teaching as their profession. Teachers’ lack of motivation influenced their performance and negatively affected their commitment to their profession. Noori et al. (2020) believed that teachers’ motivation affects their performance and their students’ learning outcomes.

The study found that there were statistically significant differences in the satisfaction level of teachers by their school; private school teachers were more satisfied with their profession than their counterparts in the public schools. This finding is similar to the studies carried out by Papanastasiou and Zembylas (2005), Khalid et al. (2012), and Dar (2013), who found that teachers in private educational institutions were more satisfied than their colleagues in the public ones. On the other hand, it contradicts the finding of the studies by Ali et al. (2016), Shabbir and Wei (2015), Tilak (2013), Hameed et al. (2018), and Msuya (2016) who found that teachers in public educational institutions were more satisfied than their colleagues in the private ones. This finding is not surprising because most of the private schools tend to provide more benefits, facilitate more developmental opportunities and have a friendly learning environment than the public schools. Nevertheless, the studies carried out by Sultana et al. (2017), Akhtar et al. (2010), Mahmood et al. (2011), and Ghosh (2015) found no significant differences in the satisfaction level of teachers with regard to their profession. On the contrary teachers in public schools were more satisfied with their profession in terms of job security than their colleagues in the private schools. This might be because of the fact that most of the private schools can easily hire and fire teachers and this may reduce the satisfaction of teachers in terms job security. Referring to the literature about the factors that affect teachers’ job satisfaction, Aslami (2013) believed that employees will seek to find other opportunities if they do not feel safer in their working environment.

6. Conclusion, implication, limitation and recommendations for future research

The study showed that teachers in Takhar schools were not satisfied with their profession. It also revealed that there were statistically significant differences in the satisfaction level of teachers; teachers in private schools tend to be more satisfied with their profession than those of public schools. On the other hand, in terms of job security, teachers in public schools were more satisfied with their job than their colleagues in the private ones.

Based on the findings of the current study, some implications are suggested. Firstly, policymakers and educational authorities should review and adopt policies for recruiting teachers and provide more benefits and resources to improve teacher job satisfaction and motivation. This is supported by Madigan and Kim (2021) who analyzed teachers’ attribution, burnout and job satisfaction and found that job satisfaction is one of the key determinants for teachers’ decision-making about their job, they recommended improving teacher job satisfaction and motivation to help their retention to their profession. Secondly, job security should be ensured, especially in private schools since the study found that teachers in private schools were less satisfied and were hired more temporarily than their colleagues in the public schools. Ferreira and Martinez (2012) believed education authorities should improve teachers’ job security to reduce their burnout, otherwise, a huge number of them will leave their profession, which will be costly for schools and education departments. Thirdly, more promotional opportunities should be provided in both public and private schools to boost teachers’ satisfaction and motivation. Promotional and rewarding programs play a key in improving teacher job satisfaction which leads to their retention in the profession (Budhathoki, 2021). Fourthly, more rewarding, prizing and incentive programs should be provided for high-achieving teachers in both public and private schools. Lastly, educational supervision should be improved in both public and private schools. This is supported by Wolomasi et al. (2019) who recommended that effective educational supervision improves teachers’ job satisfaction in schools (Wolomasi, et al., 2021).

This study is limited in several aspects. Firstly, accessing teachers in both public and private schools was challenging because the spread of the COVID-19-constrained face-to-face meetings. Secondly, it also was challenging to reach the respondents through online platforms because some of them did not have smartphones or did not use social media. Thirdly, the number of teachers in private and public schools was different; fewer of them were working in private schools compared to public ones and the researcher could not choose equal number of teachers in public and private schools. Lastly, this is a case study and cannot be generalized to all public and private schools in Afghanistan.

Since this study has employed a quantitative research design, future researchers may conduct qualitative or mixed studies in different regions of the country to come up with a more descriptive and general finding and address the issues affecting teacher job satisfaction in Afghanistan.

Acknowledgements

This study was assisted by the science department of Takhar Education directorate.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors have no funding to report.

Notes on contributors

Abdul Qawi Noori

Abdul Qawi Noori is an Assistant Professor at the English Department of Takhar University, Afghanistan. He is a PhD candidate at Monash University of Australia. He obtained a M.Ed. in Educational Management and Administration from the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and a B.A. in English Language and Literature from Takhar University. His research areas are teaching and learning, data-driven decision making, school effectiveness, quality assurance and management, education for diversity and inclusive leadership in education.

Appendix A

Table A1. Teachers’ job satisfaction regarding job payment

Statements	% of VS & S		Mean
	Public	Private	Public	Private
I am satisfied with my salary.	47	46	2.1	2.2
I am satisfied with my job’s benefits.	56	49	2.5	2.4
I am satisfied with the incentives I receive.	27	32	2.0	2.4
I am satisfied with my salary increment.	33	46	2.2	2.3

VS = Very Satisfied, S = Satisfied

Table A2. Teachers’ job satisfaction regarding job security

Statements	% of VS & S		Mean
	Public	Private	Public	Private
I am satisfied with my job working hours.	68	50	2.3	2.1
I am satisfied with my current job security.	57	48	2.2	2.0
I am satisfied with my job’s financial security.	62	51	2.3	2.1
I am satisfied with my future job security.	66	46	2.4	2.1

VS = Very Satisfied, S = Satisfied

Table A3. Teachers’ job satisfaction regarding working environment

Statements	% of VS & S		Mean
	Public	Private	Public	Private
I am satisfied with my job as a teacher.	69.9	83.0	2.3	2.4
I am satisfied with my working condition.	58.8	81.7	2.4	2.8
I am satisfied with the opportunity to develop my skills.	52.5	86.7	2.4	2.8
I am satisfied with my working environment.	47.3	78.0	2.2	3.0

VS = Very Satisfied, S = Satisfied

Table A4. Teachers’ job satisfaction about colleagues

Statements	% of VS & S		Mean
	Public	Private	Public	Private
I am satisfied with colleagues whom I work with.	75.8	85.0	2.7	2.8
I am satisfied with stimulation receive from my colleagues.	57.2	82.0	2.3	2.7
I am satisfied with colleagues competence.	47.8	82.5	2.2	2.8
I am satisfied with the support I receive from my colleagues.	75.3	85.0	2.5	2.8

VS = Very Satisfied, S = Satisfied

Table A5. Teachers’ job satisfaction about organisational support

Statements	% of VS & S		Mean
	Public	Private	Public	Private
I am satisfied with the resources provided.	45.6	81.0	2.1	2.9
I am satisfied with the promotional opportunities.	47.3	74.0	2.2	2.8
I am satisfied with my career development opportunities.	47.3	69.0	2.2	2.8
I am satisfied with the training programs.	45.6	72.0	2.1	2.9

VS = Very Satisfied, S = Satisfied

Table A6. Teachers’ job satisfaction regarding educational supervision

Statements	% of VS & S		Mean
	Public	Private	Public	Private
I am satisfied with the performance appraisal.	45.6	68.0	2.1	2.9
I am satisfied with my relationship with my supervisor.	80.7	94.2	2.8	2.9
My supervisor listens to work related problems.	52.7	76.7	2.3	2.7
I am satisfied with respect receive by my supervisor.	50.8	82.5	2.3	2.8

VS = Very Satisfied, S = Satisfied