One of the challenges facing education systems worldwide is the motivation of qualified teachers to teach at rural schools. Teaching at rural schools is a challenge as rural areas are characterised by adverse living and working conditions, making qualified teachers prefer living and working at urban schools where conditions are more comfortable. Namibia implemented the financial incentive to motivate qualified teachers to teach at rural schools and improve learner performance. The implementation of the financial incentive in Namibia has received little research attention in establishing its effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the financial incentive on the performance of learners at rural schools, as this performance relates to teacher motivation. To achieve this, a literature study and an empirical investigation were conducted. An interpretivist research paradigm informed the methodology for the study. A mixed-methods research approach, which relied more on a qualitative research design, included a research sample of 28 teachers, five school principals and two education officials. Data were collected through interviews and document analysis. Individual interviews were conducted with education officials and school principals. Focus group interviews were conducted with teachers. Document analysis entailed accessing applicable documents of each research site in the office of the school principal. Textual data were analysed and presented thematically and numeric data were analysed and presented as frequencies and percentages. Key findings established that financial incentive has contributed little to the performance of learners in rural schools. The fact that rural schools are not properly categorised according to environmental challenges results in teachers not receiving realistic financial incentive. Teachers were therefore not motivated by financial incentive, but by other factors relating to being tuned to nature in rural areas, being exposed to lower living costs and enjoying accommodating school leadership and community care. A revisiting of the implementation of the financial incentive is recommended in order to negate shortcomings and enhance the potential of financial incentive to contribute to improved learner performance as steered by motivated teachers. / Educational Studies / Ph. D. (Education)

This sequential explorative mixed methods study aims to explore how selfassessment strategies can be used to enhance quality education in schools in the Zambezi region of Namibia. The researcher posits that teachers are key in enhancing quality education if accorded appropriate recourses to innovate and explore the use of self-assessment strategies in schools. A pragmatic research approach was used to guide this sequential explorative mixed methods study. The study sought participants’ perceptions on four sub-problems of the study: What entails quality and quality education? How can self-assessment strategies be linked to quality and quality education in general terms? What recourses are available to ensure that quality education is realised by the use of self-assessment strategies in the Zambezi region? How can self-assessment strategy models be developed to enhance the quality of education in the Zambezi region? Purposefully sampled school principals and heads of departments of five combined schools participated in the study. During the first phase, face-to-face interviews were conducted with the five participating school principals while the HoDs were engaged in a focus group interview. The qualitative data was later used to inform the design of the second phase of the study (quantitative). In the second phase, fifty-four teachers completed Likert-scale questionnaires which were analysed using IBM SPSS.19 and Microsoft Excel to compare with the qualitative data. This study revealed that schools have common understandings of quality and quality education albeit defined differently. The study also revealed that external professional support is inadequate to support teachers in continuous professional development activities. Furthermore, the study showed that the available recourses are seldom utilised to enhance quality education in schools. Finally, the study revealed that the use of one type of teacher self-evaluation (TSE) deprives innovative teachers from initiating and exploring other viable self-assessment strategies. Therefore, this study propagates the use of alternative self-assessment strategies that can contribute towards the enhancement of quality education in schools in the Zambezi region of Namibia. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed.