Efficiency and productivity of human resource depends upon many factors including motivation. The study on “Perceptions of governmental secondary school teachers towards their motivations and its effects to their performance in Tanzania done in Ilemela district” aimed at evaluating perceptions of governmental teachers towards their motivations and its effects to their work-performance. Three objectives: to evaluate the perceptions of governmental teachers towards their motivations; to assess effects of the motivations towards teachers’ performance and lastly suggest alternative measures for improving teachers’ performance guided the study. Chapter two covers literature review which addresses motivation strategies, effects of motivation and the theory of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs guiding the study because it emphasizes on the idea that, motivation is based on a hierarchy of needs. The methodological section employed a case study design interviewing school heads and DEO while questionnaires were for both teachers and students forming a sample size of 235 respondents. Both purposive and simple random sampling techniques were respectively used. Findings from the field showed that, most teachers had negative perception towards motivation due to dissatisfaction with it negatively affecting performance. For example, most students and teachers said teachers were to some extent or lowly satisfied with the motivations they get. The evidence is the frequent complains and protests done by them as heard in mass media. Therefore, the government as an employer should ensure that all problems associated with teachers’ motivation are dealt with high effort and on time, this is because delaying them discourages workers including teachers in their work performance.