Impact of unemployment on the choice for teaching as an occupation

This study sought to establish whether the widespread unemployment being experienced in Zimbabwe has influenced people to take up teaching as a career, even though teaching was not their first-choice career. It also sought to establish the level of commitment to teaching of people who become teachers due to failure to secure employment elsewhere. Two school heads and their deputies and 31 teachers participated in this study through the completion of questionnaires. The other 12 teachers were verbally interviewed. This study found out that more than 50% of practising teachers joined the profession because employment opportunities in their preferred professions were not available. It also established that some people who join teaching to escape unemployment eventually develop a liking of the profession. This study also showed that for the majority of teachers teaching was initially taken as short –term occupation hence most teachers would not want to remain teachers up to retirement. The desire to leave teaching is always accompanied by lack of commitment to or negligence of professional duties Most teachers are pursuing studies to brighten their chances of leaving teaching.