Abstract

This research aimed to study the factors that affect the persistence of ordinary teachers in private schools in three southernmost provinces of Thailand. The samples were 246 ordinary teachers in Islamic private schools divided into 2 categories: the first group was 131 teachers who remained an instructor in the school and the second group was 115 ex-teachers who had resigned from school. This was a mixed method research, using questionnaire and semi-structured interview. Discriminant analysis was employed for data analysis. It was found that only one discriminant variate differentiated between teachers who remain and those who had resigned; this vairate was the time period they had worked in schools. Results from interviews showed that for teachers to continue to work in Islamic private schools, there is a need to change the welfare system of the school teachers and develop a clear and transparent system for their salary promotion. Also, teachers should have more opportunity to show their full potential. Teachers also recommended that to promote teachers’ morale and motivate them to remain teaching in schools, Ministry of Education should reform rules or regulations of teacher recruiting as government employees. These newly-created rules and regulations should be clear and transparent. Consequently, both religious and ordinary course teachers have opportunity to be recruited equally. They believed that this change could affect the quality of teaching in the schools in positive way. In conclusion, the Thai government should support education in Islamic private schools seriously.

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