School Heads Experiences in Motivating Zimbabwean Rural Teachers in an Unstable Education Environment

This study focused on establishing motivation challenges and strategies school heads are implementing in managing schools in an unstable socio-economic environment in Zimbabwe. Teachers' salaries fell from US$540 in 2018 to less than US$200 by 2021. This demoralised teachers and caused motivation challenges in school management. Using a qualitative approach, a case study on Bikita District was carried out. Purposeful sampling was used to select 10 school heads from the best performing 20 schools in the district using 2020 Grade 7 National Examination. The study found that very low salaries caused survival challenges for teachers resulting in uncontrolled absenteeism and several industrial actions. Learner performance declined from 52% in 2018 to 36% in 2020. School heads found it difficult to motivate teachers to commit to their task. In response, school heads became more inclusive in their leadership approach and relaxed school working schedules to allow for free afternoons and some days as a way to motivate teachers. Teachers were given land in the school grounds and in the community to grow food. These strategies had limited success, and the government should move quickly to pay teachers better while school heads should invest in critical leadership attributes like integrity and inclusiveness to generate community-based solutions to school problems.