EFFECTS OF LIVING SEPERATELY ON THE TEACHING PERFORMANCE OF TEACHERS

February 4, 2023 Educator's Corner

In the 2022 proposed budget promulgated by the Department of Budget and Management, education is included in the top 10 Departments that are prioritized by the government. It can’t be repudiated that it is one of the most essential necessities of a human being; education caters progress in an individual’s life and can provide financial security. Since teachers and educators play an important role to the success of a quality education, they are endowed with great duties and responsibilities which primarily focus on creating provisions of knowledge and information to the students according to standards.

However, certain aspects are taken into consideration in order for them to fulfil their duties satisfactorily that will yield to job satisfaction. Is the aspect of the distance of an institution /organization from home affects teacher’s performance? The answer is, yes. A study in India divulged that there are impacts of workplace distance to an employee’s current home, short term and long term. Positively, short term, distance from hometown could amplify an individual’s performance by increasing the utility of working time and the use of consumption time.

This means that working far away from home faces incentives to allocate more time to work than leisure or household chores as economist Gary Becker argued on his book on the theory of allocation of time. On the other hand, long term, distance from hometown could hurt individual performance by triggering the psychological consequences of being away from family and friends. In his journal published in 1973, Schwartz describes “psychic cost” as a cost resulting of departure from family and friends. According to him, the longer the distance migrated, the lower will be the frequency of reunion, and thus, the higher will be the “psychic cost”.

In addition, scholars argue that employees with higher abilities might respond to the challenge of being away from friends and family by seizing opportunities to acquire new skills and might continuously perform better in long term. Employee performance has been a subject of great fascination to organizations and researchers alike since it is the key to achieve organizational goals. These are influenced by internal and external factors. Internal factors are those that influence a teacher’s perception of his or her role.

On the other hand, an external factor includes the views and expectations of the role of the teacher which involves students, parents, colleagues, school leaders and the public. However, the aspect of employee mobility is seldom noticed and discussed. Thus, the teacher’s performance is another important key in the success of a student’s learning. Factors that affect teachers’ performance should be taken into consideration in order for him/her to perform well to furnish quality education to students. On the other side of the coin, teachers need to be aware of the factors that influence their professional identity and development. Teachers must attend to the changes that occur and also to reflect on improving their performance, as well on their professional growth.

Amor P. Parista