A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA AND ZIMBABWE OPEN UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF EDUCATION IN EDUCATIONAL MANAGEME
Date
2018
Authors
Phiri, Evelyn
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Abstract
The standard working hours for civil service workers as stipulated by the International Labor
Organization (ILO) in most countries is 8 hours. The eight hour work day policy has been
enacted in the labour law act of Zambia as a guide for every employer and employees. Recently,
teachers were also mandated to follow this policy as they are equally part of the public service.
This is due to the fact that teachers are supposed to work for eight hours as this equates the
norHowever, this policy has been criticized by some teacher unions and the teachers themselves.
Former Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) called on the government to implement the
eight hour policy for teachers to promote effective teaching. On the other hand, the National
Union of Public and Private Educators (NUPPEZ) executive president said that the eight hour
policy in its current form was retrogressive to teachers. He further urged the Ministry of General
Education to seriously engage the teacher unions to help look into the effective handling of the
policy by both administrators and teachers alike. Therefore, this clearly shows that the eight hour
policy has been received with different views by the teaching fraternity.
A sample of 40 respondents which included teachers and head-teachers were purposively and
randomly selected and interviewed. Therefore, this included three (3) public primary schools and
three (3) public secondary schools. The study was mainly qualitative in nature and used
The findings of the study revealed that of the six (6) schools that were visited, only two schools
strongly supported the introduction of the eight-hour policy. The other two (2) were against the
policy while the other two had mixed feelings. Overall, there was a higher percentage of teachers
who believed that the policy was not favouring the teaching fraternity.
descriptive surveys. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data.
Arising from these findings, several recommendations were advanced to the Ministry of
Education and the Head teaches and these were as follows; In line with its findings; (a) Ministry
of General Education should provide conducive teaching environment in public and secondary
by revisiting the newly introduced eight-hour policy for teachers. (b) the Ministry of Education
should improve infrastructure in most schools such as staffrooms where teachers can prepare
their work and relax in a conducive environment for eight hours. (c) Ensure that there is routine
monitoring by Standard Officers to all schools for adequate data collection on the effects of the
newly introduced policy. (d) Ensure that necessary measures are put in place by the Ministry to
address the major issues regarding the eight-hour policy for teachers in Primary and Secondary
Schools.
Additionally, it was further recommended that the Head-teachers should do the following; (a) be
proactive and engage all stakeholders to improve the physical working environment of teachers.
(b) Work hand in hand with Parent Teachers Committees (PTC) and school administration on
measures to increase and improve staffrooms so that teachers are motivated as they try to adapt
to the policy. (c) Avoid written warnings for teachers who have problems with complying to the
eight-hour policy and find flexible strategies in dealing with the concerned teachers. (d) Ensure
that they have routine meetings to get the views from different teacher unions on the implications
of the newly introduced policy in schools.
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School management and organization --Zambia