Staff Appraisal and Teacher Performance in Public Secondary Schools in Mbale City, Uganda

Abstract

This study investigated staff appraisal and teachers’ performance in public secondary schools in Mbale City. The study was guided by three specific objectives; to establish the effect of goal setting, feedback and teachers’ perceptions about appraisal on teacher performance in public secondary schools in Mbale City. The study population comprised all the five public secondary schools in the city, targeting 423 teachers and 5 head teachers. Out of 423 teachers, a sample of 204 teachers was selected through a proportionate calculation to obtain a representative sample from each school and then simple random sampling technique. Whereas purposive sampling was used to select 5 head teachers. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey research design with both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS computer software (Version 20) to generate frequencies, percentages, mean, and standard deviation. Regressions were done to ascertain the effect of goal setting, feedback and teachers’ perceptions about appraisal on teacher performance; Qualitative data analysis was done through thematic content analysis. The findings revealed that goal setting and feedback have a statistically positive and significant effect on teacher performance in public secondary schools in Mbale City, while teachers’ perception about appraisal did not. It is concluded that staff appraisal may account for teacher performance in public secondary schools in Mbale City. It is therefore recommended that education policy makers and implementers pay much attention to staff appraisal in public secondary schools in Mbale City to enhance better teacher performance.