Teacher Transfers and Teachers’ Performance: Experience from Uganda Primary Schools

Achievement of excellent academic performance depends largely on the quality of the teachers deployed in the school. The main objective of this study was to examine the relationship between teacher transfer and teachers’ performance in Uganda. The study used exploratory and descriptive designs where both qualitative and quantitative approaches were applied. Quantitative data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) Ver. 20 which helped to obtain descriptive statistics that were used in interpreting the data while correlation and regression analyses were used for testing and predicting the study hypotheses. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis where data was divided into themes, sub-themes and categories which helped to sort data according to its relevance to each piece of data that was obtained in the findings. Questionnaires and interview guide were used to collect data from a sample of 140 respondents of which 111 returned their completed usable filled questionnaires giving a response rate of 79.3%. The findings revealed that all the dimensions of teacher transfers (voluntary and involuntary transfers) were positively and significantly associated with teachers’ performance in Uganda. The major reasons for voluntary transfer were lack of accommodation, distance from families, promotion and illness while involuntary transfers were due to poor performance of teachers, misconduct, conflict with management and drunkenness. The study concludes that voluntary transfer factors are stronger than involuntary factors in accounting for a variation in teachers’ performance in Uganda primary schools. The study recommends that the district leadership should map or grade all schools in the district in terms of low, average and high performing schools as well as bring indiscipline teachers to book instead of transferring and establish adhoc transfer committees.