Abstract:
The study mainly assessed the working conditions of secondary schools teachers in private schools and their on
turnover rates in Musoma Municipality. It specifically examined teachers working environment andtheir
perception over the current working conditions as the bases for discussion under this objective. Mixed approach
based descriptive designs were employed. The study target population was 8,300 people who helped to get a sample
of 83 participants that comprised of 12 heads of school ad 71 teachers from selected private schools. School
headmasters were selected purposively and the later category was through simple random sampling. Its data were
collected based on questionnaires, interviews and documentary reports from headmasters’ office. Descriptive
analysis techniques were used for quantitative data with help of a statistical package for social sciences software
20 version. The qualitative data obtained under interview and headmasters reports were analyzed in the course of
content analysis. The findings indicated that urban private schools experience high teacher’s turnover rates due to
poor working conditions. Working environment was not favourable for teachers through teachers were stresses
with the leadership styles of their school owner and headmasters. Moreover, school leadership, broadly defined,
emerges as the most salient dimension of working conditions. Teachers perceived poor working conditions related
to their contracts are predictive of one-year actual departure. The study concludes that teachers’ turnover are
predetermined by working conditions. We suggest improvement in working conditions and school characteristics.
