Abstract

The main objective of this research study was to assess the effectiveness of disciplinary procedures on teacher’s work behaviour in the Ministry of Education (MoE) with a special focus on the Central West Education Division in Malawi. The study’s objectives were to identify the common disciplinary problems teachers are involved in, examine the disciplinary measures followed to resolve disciplinary cases of teachers, evaluate the benefits of disciplinary procedures on teacher’s work behavior and to explore the challenges school managers face when employing disciplinary measures on errant teachers. The research study is qualitative in nature and the target population of this study was obtained from the Ministry of Education, Ombudsman, Central West Education Division officers from the human resource management section and those from the disciplinary committee and selected secondary school managers. It adopted the cross sectional design where the researcher only interacted with the respondents once due to time constraints. The study also used purposive sampling, in-depth interviews and document reviews. In addition, the researcher used Nvivo to analyze qualitative data. The study found out that the disciplinary procedures followed in the Central West Education Division are not effective because of lack of expediency in their handling. The other reason was loss of important documents from personal files due to length of time as officers refer to them every time they discuss the case and end up misplacing them, inconsistency and lack of ownership of the decision made on one’s case. The research recommended that disciplinary processes and procedures in the Central West Education Division be decentralized. Teachers should have their own council which should regulate their conduct. It should borrow a leaf from the way Nurses, Doctors, Pharmacists, Lawyers and Accountants and the private sectors do. They stripe off membership of those doing contrary to the regulations of their regulatory body. This will bring sanity to the teaching profession.

More details

School	: School of Law, Economics and Government
Issued Date	: 2025

Download full document