• Study cites multiple reasons including numerous managerial interferences, regulations/protocols and paperwork, job insecurity, work overload and stress

There is an extremely high teacher turnover rate in international schools in Sri Lanka, especially in the arts and technology streams, due to managerial interference, strict rules and regulations and more protocols to follow including more paperwork to be completed regularly, the sense of job insecurity and overloaded levels of work, and the resultant stress.

These findings were made in an original article on the "Recruitment of teachers and strategies to retain them: A study conducted in international schools in Sri Lanka'' which was authored by F.S. Shariffdeen (attached to the Colombo International School) and published in the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology Journal of Humanities and Sciences' Third Volume's First Issue in December, 2022.

Teacher recruitment and retention in schools have been discussed as a national problem. According to B.H. See, R. Morris, S. Gorard and D. Kokotsaki's "Teacher recruitment and retention: A critical review of international evidence of most promising interventions", teacher recruitment is the process of employing professionals to the teaching profession while teacher retention, per K.L. Clarke's "Self care and self advocacy for improved educator engagement and satisfaction: A guide for teachers and administrators", is the rate of teachers who remain in the profession after a specific period of time. It is a global consideration to retain employees in any organisation and the effectiveness of employee retention to an organisation is proven in several measures such as organisational productivity and performance. However, in a school environment, the retention of teachers remains crucial concerning its importance in affecting the development of the learners.

Recruitment and retention

The importance of teacher recruitment and retention relies on its influence on quality education. A school is responsible for providing quality education to the learners and supporting their development effectively. A teacher plays a crucial role in facilitating students with an effective learning environment. This implies the significance of having qualified and trained teachers in schools. Further, the teachers should be knowledgeable enough to deliver the respective curriculum of the school. This also signifies the importance of examining the qualifications of the teachers adequately in the recruitment process. Another important factor is that it takes a considerable time for the learners to be comfortable with a teacher and the interaction or the relationship between a teacher and the students is crucial in education. When teachers resign from their roles quickly, it directly affects students. Therefore, teacher retention is a significant factor that contributes to the performance of a school. Recruiting and retaining good teachers should be one of the most important priorities for any school.

In Sri Lanka, the criteria for teacher recruitment and the steps taken towards ensuring teacher retention are doubtful. There are no standard criteria for international schools to recruit teachers. Therefore, it occurs at different levels in different schools which in turn affect the quality of the education provided by these schools. 

T.W. Lee and T.R. Mitchell's "Working in research teams: Lessons from personal experiences'' proposes the job embedded-ness theory which is that when the employees of an organisation are bound socially and professionally to a specific working culture, there is less of a tendency for them to leave the job. The theory explains some factors including the relationships that they have with colleagues, relatives, and friends, individual factors such as personal interests, skills, and knowledge, organisational factors such as job related requirements and the organisational culture, and other factors such as entertainment and activities. The process of teacher recruitment and retention in international schools of Sri Lanka is different from that of Government schools. In Government schools, teacher recruitment is done according to a systematic procedure where the teachers are selected through interviews and selection tests. After that, they are given three years of practical training. 

Further, as mentioned in P.G.K.M.C. Nishanthi and S.M.B.L. Suraweera's "An analysis of the factors affecting teachers’ retention in rural schools with special reference to the Walapane Educational Zone of the Nuwara Eliya District", it is also compulsory for them to work in a rural school for five years before being recruited to a school of preference. This procedure mostly ensures the qualifications of the teachers and also, the compulsory working period encourages them to remain in the profession even with difficulties.

Recruiting criteria

In contrast to the said recruitment procedure, the majority of the international schools in Sri Lanka recruit teachers based on some lightweight factors. B.M.J. Balasooriya's "Teacher recruitment and teacher mobility in Sri Lanka" points out that although a few reputed and well-established international schools recruit teachers according to a systematic procedure, the majority of the international schools do not consider much about the requirement process. This has caused a lot of problems in the school environment and it has also made the retention of teachers in the profession quite uncertain. According to G. Odland and M. Ruzicka's "An investigation into teacher turnover in international schools", administrative leadership, compensation, and personal circumstances have been identified as major factors affecting the higher turnover rates of international school teachers while the recruitment process has also affected this situation. Further, taking required measures such as providing monetary and non-monetary benefits for the teachers to encourage them to remain in the profession, is significant.

Starting in the early 1980s, international schools have no regulation or control by the Ministry of Education as it comes under the Board of Investment. Due to this, the standard of education varies greatly between schools. According to G. Gunasekara's "The muddle that is Sri Lankan education", these schools are not confined to the expatriate community and anyone with the ability and willingness to pay high tuition fees can join these schools. They follow the British curriculum such as Cambridge or Edexcel. Most top international schools recruit well-qualified teachers with experience. Teachers should possess subject specific knowledge as well as English language skills in order to enter these teaching jobs as the medium of instruction is English.

Shariffdeen's study was conducted based on a survey research design. The target population in this research was 300 teachers from six leading international schools in Colombo. A sample of 72 teachers was selected purposively from six international schools and from each school, 12 teachers were selected, representing three teachers each from the science, commerce, arts, and technology streams. These teachers were heads of departments (HoDs) and senior teachers. They were selected based on the purposive sampling technique because they are directly involved in recruiting new teachers before it is finalised by the school management.

A questionnaire was used. Three questions were open ended while the rest of the questions were close ended. The data was collected during a period of one month.

Out of the 72 respondents, in terms of gender, 56% were female teachers and 44% were male teachers.

The findings first and foremost revealed that these international schools recruit qualified teachers to their relevant streams. A total of 60% of the respondents stated that they recruit teachers who are qualified with a special degree to teach the relevant subject in their respective fields. A total of 30% of the respondents stated that at times, they have to recruit teachers with a general degree due to the shortage of subject qualified teachers. A small number of respondents (5% each) mentioned that they consider a Post Graduate Diploma in Education and a Master’s degree as well. Since many young teachers are recruited into these schools, professional qualifications are not given priority during the recruitment process.

Considered criteria

Other factors besides academic and professional credentials are taken into account when recruiting new teachers. Seven traits were ranked by the participants, namely, the teacher-student interaction, the teaching experience, pedagogical competencies, voice projection, having a firm personality, language skills and subject knowledge. The two main traits which were considered by 80% of the participants were subject knowledge and language skills. It is very important that the teacher possesses a thorough subject knowledge in their respective field in order to teach the British curriculum. Teachers working in international schools must also be proficient in their language skills. Even if the teachers are extremely qualified, it will be difficult to survive in these schools if they lack the language proficiency, especially in English.

Local students come from an elite financial background and communicate mostly in English. Approximately 10% of the student population in these schools comprises expatriates from different nationalities. Therefore, teachers must be able to communicate very well in English, so that all students can understand and interact during the lessons. Having a firm personality and voice projection are the third and fourth traits which were considered important by the respondents, which were 70% and 66%, respectively. Due to the high school fee paid by the parents, strict disciplinary measures cannot be implemented at these schools. Therefore, maintaining discipline and preventing disruptive behaviour in the classroom can be accomplished by being firm, and having good voice control is required for this purpose. If not, classrooms might become chaotic, making it impossible for the teacher to maintain any sort of class control.

Local teachers are recruited by conducting an interview. If they are chosen from the interview, thereafter, they are expected to conduct a lesson demonstration on a given topic by the HoD. The mentioned personal traits and other factors such as the lesson plan and preparation, the usage of information communication technologies (ICT) based skills, and time management are also considered during the lesson observation. Due to high standards and expectations, recruiting teachers to international schools becomes a very difficult task in all streams. A total of 60% of the HoDs find it difficult to recruit a suitable candidate to their relevant streams with all the mentioned criteria.

There is a shortage of qualified teachers in all the streams, especially in the arts and technology streams, respectively. As per the results, it can be assumed that the teachers who are currently teaching in these schools are overloaded with extra periods that they need to teach per week and they have a large number of students per classroom.

Teacher turnover rates were very high in the arts stream, which was 44%. The arts stream represents subjects like history, geography, psychology, and languages such as English, French and German in these international schools.

Better opportunities

The technology stream, which represents ICT and computer science, had a 28% turnover rate while the science and commerce streams had a 14% turnover rate, each. Due to the nature and the demand of the subject, many teachers resign for better career prospects. Some teachers have also received migration opportunities due to better career prospects. Therefore, the turnover rates are high in these two streams which also cause a shortage of teachers in these streams.

The results suggest that 5% of the newly recruited teachers leave after teaching less than one year in these schools, 25% leave between one to two years, 30% leave between three to four years, and 15% leave between four to six years, and above six years, respectively. This clearly shows that approximately 40% of the teachers leave after teaching for a maximum of two years in these international schools.

A total of 55 out of 72 (76%) respondents felt that the main reason for teachers to leave international schools is the interference of the school management. A total of 69% of the sample felt that strict rules and regulations are also another cause. In some instances, both these factors will be enforced by the management when there are complaints against a teacher such as the lack of classroom management, the lack of subject knowledge, the lack of communication skills, the lack of planning and preparation for the lessons, and so on. The lack of job security is another concern for newly recruited teachers.

In general, all teachers are recruited for a six months’ probation period. There onwards, they are on a one year contract. Contracts will be renewed after an evaluation conducted by the HoD with the recommendations from the head of the secondary school and the principal, at the year end. A total of 56% of the respondents think that the overload of work is also another crucial reason for teachers to quit their jobs. There is an extensive amount of paperwork and planning, and preparation that is expected from a teacher. Teaching is expected to go beyond textbooks. Teachers must find additional resources to support their students. ICT skills are highly encouraged to be used in lessons. Many teachers are unable to handle this additional burden and pressure. As a result, they tend to leave. Moreover, due to a shortage of staff in certain streams, some teachers have to do extra cover work until a new teacher is recruited. This also makes teachers unhappy and frustrated.

To promote retention

A total of 30% of the respondents believed that financial incentives will help to retain teachers and 20% agreed that reducing the workload is also important. This is because HoDs feel that the newly recruited teachers are unable to cope in schools which have high expectations. A total of 15% of the HoDs agree that management should be more flexible and supportive towards the teachers. Instead of interfering, they must appreciate and have faith in the teachers to carry out their duties appropriately.

Improving working conditions (15%) should also be considered as a strategy. Especially, reducing the number of students in a class will help the teachers to manage the classroom better and more individual attention can be given to students which will enhance the quality of the teaching. Decades ago, the average class size in international schools was below 20. However now, in some classes, student numbers have exceeded above 30 due to the rising demand for these schools.

A total of 20% of the respondents believe that teachers could be retained if more induction and mentoring programmes and professional development programmes are conducted. According to the HoDs, there are very few mentoring and professional development programmes for teachers in these international schools. If the school management could incorporate training programmes and workshops related to ICT, classroom management, lesson planning and preparation, team building and leadership, and so on, it will be very beneficial for the teachers.

Furthermore, in these schools, higher studies are not encouraged due to the leave related factor. Teachers find it difficult to pursue their post-graduate diplomas or Master’s degrees while in school due to this reason. Teachers are highly discouraged to take leave in these schools. These factors have demotivated many teachers. Therefore, teachers can be retained if there is more empathy, support, and encouragement rendered towards them.

Overall, 83% of the HoDs and senior teachers stated that a system change is needed in the international schools where they currently teach due to the numerous challenges that the teachers face on a daily basis. A total of 17% of those surveyed disagreed with the change. They believe that these modifications will not have an impact on the recruitment and retention of teachers.

Change: no easy task

The findings of the study show that there are concerns in the teacher recruitment process in international schools. During the interview and lesson demonstration, other professional and personality traits are carefully considered in addition to the academic qualifications. Many of the applicants are ineligible to teach in these schools due to the high standard and expectations. Therefore, there is a shortage of quality teachers in all streams. Finding subject expertise with a thorough knowledge of the curriculum and good communication skills for subjects like history, geography and ICT is not an easy task. Hence, there is a shortage of teachers in the arts and technology streams. Further, all teachers have not specialised in their subject, while some have done it as a minor subject at the degree level. A significant number of newly recruited teachers complete only a minimum of two years of employment in a particular school. According to the findings, the teacher turnover rate is very high in the arts and technology streams. Teachers who work in these schools are under stress because there are more protocols to follow and more paperwork to be completed regularly. The study also revealed that these schools need a system change. The management should rethink the teacher recruitment and retention protocols. It is important to retain teachers mainly by giving them monetary and non-monetary benefits.

New teachers should receive induction and mentoring programmes along with appropriate leadership support during their probationary period. The school should also organise effective professional development programmes with the aim of providing teachers with active opportunities to learn and develop their professional competencies.

The wider context, in which head teachers and the management operate, can create pressure that leads to an excessive workload which distracts teachers from teaching. This creates an unfavourable working environment and overburdens the teacher. Therefore, the right climate and a supportive school culture should be established. Unnecessary paperwork and interfering in their teaching should be avoided. More focus should be given to teaching and getting the teachers to be accountable for what they teach. An internal digitalised system can be set up to increase efficiency.

Improving working conditions by maintaining an average class size is essential. Thus, teachers will be more productive and effective. This will also enhance the quality of the teaching and minimise classroom disruption.