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Low teacher attendance and reduced time on task not only short-changes students, but it also wastes valuable financial resources and is one of the most cumbersome obstacles on the path toward the education Sustainable Development Goal and to the related vision of the UNICEF education strategy: Every Child Learns.

Time to Teach (TTT) covers Comoros, Kenya, Mozambique, Puntland (State of Somalia), Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania (mainland and Zanzibar) and Uganda. Its primary objective is to identify factors affecting various forms of teacher attendance, which include: 1) being at school, 2) being punctual, 3) being in the classroom, and 4) teaching when in the classroom and use this evidence to inform the design and implementation of teacher policies. The study draws from qualitative data collection, capturing the voices of teachers and other system-wide education stakeholders, from across the national, sub-national, community and school level; it also analyzes quantitative survey responses of teachers working in 180 purposively selected primary schools (20 schools per country/territory). 

Research objectives

The key objectives of the study were to:

• Identify factors, both within and outside the education system, that affect primary school teacher attendance and time on task in the eight countries covered
• Examine variations and commonalities in the determinants of teacher attendance in different national settings as well as in different types of schools (e.g. public/private) and locations (e.g. rural/urban)
• Recognize promising policies and practices in improving teacher motivation, attendance and time on task, and encourage cross-country learning and policy transfer within the ESA region.

The report aims to answer the following questions:

1. How frequently are teachers absent?
2. Which schools and teachers are more likely to experience absenteeism?
3. Why are teachers absent?
4. What are the promising practices and potential recommendations for policymaking?

Definition, data and methods

The study moves beyond the conventional definition of teacher attendance – that of being present at school – to include other, subtler forms of teacher attendance, like being punctual, being in the classroom (while in school), and teaching when in the classroom (see Box 1). While there are many valid reasons for a teacher to be absent, the study does not distinguish between authorized and unauthorized absences, as its goal is to capture the total loss of time on task (during the school year), irrespective of the validity of the teachers’ absences.

How frequently are teachers absent? 

Confirming much of the existing literature, data drawn from the TTT survey – which was administered to 1,955 teachers working in 160 purposively selected schools across the ESA region – indicate that primary school educators are absent in various ways, albeit with varying degrees of frequency.

Across the region, 15.5 per cent of surveyed teachers reported being absent from school at least once a week. The highest national rates of school absenteeism were reported in South Sudan (30 per cent) and the Comoros (20.6 per cent) and the lowest in Kenya (8.9 per cent) and Rwanda (9 per cent).

Almost 17 per cent of surveyed teachers reported arriving to school late or leaving school early on a frequent basis (i.e. once a week or more). Among participating countries, the highest national rates of late arrival/ early departure were reported in Uganda (25.7 per cent), South Sudan (23.7 per cent) and the Comoros (22 per cent) and the lowest in Puntland (5.3 per cent), and Kenya (8.9 per cent).

As much as 15.7 per cent of surveyed teachers reported missing lessons while at school at least once a week. Teachers in South Sudan and in Zanzibar reported the highest rates of classroom absenteeism (26 and 22.7 per cent respectively) and teachers in Rwanda and Kenya the lowest rates (7.6 and 8.4 per cent respectively). Absence from teaching, defined as reduced time on task while in the classroom, was reported by 17.8 per cent of surveyed teachers as occurring at least once a week.

At the country level, the largest percentages of teachers reporting spending less time on teaching than originally planned at a rate of once a week or more were in South Sudan (31 per cent) and Zanzibar (20.7 per cent) and the smallest in Puntland (11 per cent), Rwanda (12 per cent) and Kenya (12.1 per cent).

Which schools and teachers are more likely to experience absenteeism?

Analysis of the TTT survey data shows that differences in the frequency of self-reported absenteeism exist within countries and across school type and location, and teacher characteristics such as work status and level of education. The findings summarized below are those for which the differences are statistically significant.

School location: Across the region, absenteeism is higher in rural areas (18 per cent) than in urban/ peri-urban areas (15 per cent).

School governance: Overall, approximately 13 per cent of private schools across the countries are affected by teacher absenteeism compared with 17 per cent of public schools.

Gender: There is no statistically significant difference between male and female teacher self-reported absenteeism in the region as a whole.

Level of education: Absenteeism rates differ according to the highest level of education a teacher has received. Vocational school graduates reported the highest level of absenteeism (20 per cent) followed by secondary school graduates (17 per cent) and university graduates (14 per cent). Teachers who reported completing primary school as their highest level of education reported the lowest rate of absenteeism (12 per cent). 

Work status: In all countries, teacher absenteeism is higher among volunteer teachers (28 per cent) than non-volunteer (civil servant or contracted) teachers (16 per cent).

Earnings: Teachers who supplement their teaching income through non-teaching activities have a higher rate of absenteeism (20 per cent) than those who receive income from teaching only (16 per cent). In all countries, being the sole earner in the household does not have a significant association with absenteeism. Teachers who report being in the highest third of salaries within their country report lower rates of absenteeism (15 per cent) than those who report being in the lowest third of salaries (18 per cent). Receiving salary payments on time is also strongly associated with lower levels of absenteeism across the region. Teachers who report receiving their salary in a timely manner are less absent (14 per cent) compared with those who report delays (19 per cent).

Benefits: Receiving a cash benefit is associated with lower absenteeism across the countries than receiving no cash benefits (15 per cent vs 19 per cent). Teachers who receive a non-cash benefit are also less likely to report being absent than those who do not receive non-cash benefits (14 per cent vs 19 per cent).

Why are teachers absent?

Overall, in the eight countries, ill health is the most frequent answer given for the absence from school, late arrival/early departure and reduced time on task forms, and the second most frequent answer given for absence from the classroom. Weather – in particular for late arrival/early departure – and family reasons were also very frequently mentioned.

Education system factors affecting teacher attendance

• Teacher monitoring
• Teacher training
• Teacher salaries, benefits and career development
• Teacher workload, recruitment and allocation
• School resources and infrastructure

Non-system factors affecting teacher attendance

• Health
• Family obligations
• Weather
• Community infrastructure
• Conflict

Insights from the field on promising practices – i.e. interventions by governments and development partners that may have the potential to bring about positive change and sustainably improve teacher attendance and time on task.

Teacher monitoring

In most countries, there exists a framework for reporting, monitoring and sanctioning teacher absenteeism, especially absence from school, but its implementation is often problematic due to lack of capacity and resources. To encourage consistent enforcement of teacher monitoring and management mechanisms, it is important to:  

• Ensure that all head teachers in public and private schools have access to training courses and tools on school leadership and teacher management. This includes teacher monitoring and oversight, curriculum implementation and supervision, instructional leadership and resource mobilization.
• Increase the frequency of school inspections, especially in rural and remote areas.
• Boost parental and community involvement, especially at low-income and rural public schools, as a way of improving teacher accountability and attendance.
• Improve system coherence and ensure that all actors engaged in teacher monitoring are aware of their roles and core responsibilities and understand how these are shared between levels of authority.
• Explore the use of technology in ensuring high levels of teacher school attendance.
• Intensify efforts to address multiple forms of teacher absenteeism. Few countries have developed frameworks for systematically monitoring forms of absenteeism other than school absence.

Teacher training

• Reform the pre-service teacher training model and curriculum to ensure that it is in tandem with the school curriculum and children’s needs and that it contains a strong practical component that includes teaching practice in schools and extensive practice in competency-based learning.
• Provide continuous and high-quality in-service training and ensure that all teachers have an equal chance of being selected to attend professional development courses.
• Ensure that in-service training does not conflict with classroom hours, as it is difficult for teachers to make up for missed lessons and achieve effective curriculum implementation.

Teacher remuneration and career progression

• Ensure the timely payment of salaries and remove obstacles to receiving pay.
• Consider boosting other important components of teacher motivation, such as by establishing a clear career progression path for the teaching profession.
• Ensure that salary reforms are well designed to avoid the risk of salary increases being inefficient or adversely affecting teacher motivation.
• Clearly define criteria for measuring teaching effectiveness when linking teacher performance to bonuses or higher salaries.
• Provide material rewards and incentives that do not encourage additional side work and do not distract teachers from their teaching duties.

Teacher workload, recruitment and allocation

• Develop incentive strategies to make postings in rural and hardship areas more attractive.  
• Strengthen the enforcement of teacher allocation rules.
• Consider decentralizing teacher deployment and allocation.

Potential solutions to external challenges

Collaboration between ministries of education, ministries of public works and transport, and local government is especially important, as poor infrastructure in the community limits teachers’ ability to carry out their duties. Special attention needs to be given to providing reliable transportation and functioning roads to improve teacher school attendance and discourage lateness. Ensuring decent housing conditions for teachers is also key for staffing schools in areas where housing options are limited or rental costs too high. Working in collaboration with parents and local communities on reinforcing school infrastructure (e.g. by replacing iron-sheet roofs) could help to reduce weather-induced classroom absenteeism and increase time on task.

Working in partnership with ministries of health is crucial for addressing inadequate health care and prevention programmes that affect teacher time on task. While malaria and HIV/AIDS are common causes of poor health among teachers in this study, their occurrence varies across districts and schools and therefore they require a needs-based approach. This involves working with development partners on establishing or scaling up school-based health programmes that are locally owned and incorporate some form of community involvement (to ensure sustainability). In areas affected by conflict, education and health ministries could work together to provide counselling services to teachers.

In countries facing security concerns, ministries of education could strengthen cooperation with police and security forces, civil society organizations, and local communities to increase the number of guards stationed at schools. Guards and escorts, who accompany teachers to and from school, have been used to encourage teacher school attendance in many conflict-affected settings with some success.

Ministries of education could also work with line ministries and development partners to improve school safety infrastructure, including by building boundary walls and installing safety and security equipment. However, it is important that efforts to strengthen school security do not ‘militarize’ schools or give them an intimidating appearance, as this could further reduce teacher attendance.

Recommendations for further research

Promising avenues for further research, which governments, development partners and researchers may consider, include the following:

• Strengthening the existing evidence base on the links between teacher absenteeism and student learning outcomes.
• Investing in more gendered analyses of absenteeism.
• Expanding research on teacher attendance at faith-based schools, among special needs teachers and for teachers serving refugee and nomadic populations.
• Expanding research on teacher attendance and time on task to other education levels.