The article examines the public service motivations and its impact on the academic performance of students using four schools: St. Louis Senior High, Asanteman Senior High, Osei Kyeretwie Senior High and Achinakrom Senior High Schools which are category A, B, C, and D schools respectively as cases for study. Comparative case study design that employed both closed and open ended questions was used as instrument to collect data from 100 respondents who were selected through stratified sampling technique and analyzed with SPSS and thematic tools. The study revealed that public service motivation such as incentives, passion for teaching and accommodation exist at low levels among the teachers in the four schools but it does not have any direct impact on the academic performance of students. On the contrary, their teaching styles had direct impact on the academic performance of students. Secondly, there is no correlation between the level of motivation and commitment and performance of teachers. For instance, teachers in St. Louis SHS were less motivated than the teachers from other schools however; their level of commitment was higher than teachers from the other three schools, unlike the common assertion that teachers in Category A schools have better job conditions than their counterparts in other schools which is attributed to their high level of commitment. Additionally, Achinakrom (D) had a higher level of teachers’ motivation but their level of commitment was rather low. In addition, the conditions of service for teachers are poor in all the schools. PSM factors are in fact not distributed according to the category of schools. It is often based on merit when it is from the government or generated internally. Additionally the study revealed that little to no effort is made to address teachers’ problems in all the schools hence, most of the teachers are finding other avenues in order to sustain themselves and their families and this is ultimately affecting their level of commitment.

Keywords: Public service motivation, Performance, Teachers, Commitment, Incentives