Online Chat with Authors, Monday, March 27, 10 AM EST. Read the discussion. Teachers and medical personnel in developing countries often skip on work, especially in South Asia.
| State-level teacher absence rates in India, 2003 (click on image for full size graph) |
A recent World Bank survey found that 25% of government primary school teachers in India are absent from work. Only 50% of teachers are actually engaged in the act of teaching while at work, according to researchers. These statistics represent average numbers taken across many states. The numbers are not so harsh across all of India and several Indian states fare much better. The survey is part of a broader World Bank research project on absenteeism, which set out to measure how widespread the problem is in six countries in the world, including India and Bangladesh. Survey teams paid unexpected visits to random primary schools and health clinics. They recorded that on average 19% of teachers and 35% of health workers weren’t at work on the surveyed day in the six countries. Teachers and health workers are extremely unlikely to be fired for absence, researchers found. Only 1 in 3,000 head teachers had ever fired a teacher for repeated absence. Better pay also doesn’t lower absenteeism. Older teachers, more educated teachers, and head teachers have better salaries but are also absent more frequently, according to a related research paper on absence among Indian teachers. Also contract teachers are paid much less than regular teachers but have similar absence rates. Absenteeism among teachers and medical personnel is widely cited in development literature as a barrier to improving education and health levels in developing countries. Developing countries often spend 80% to 90% of their education budgets on teachers, without getting the most basic of returns – getting teachers to show up to work. What can policymakers do? Working conditions are more likely to influence teachers’ absenteeism than fear of losing pay. More Information |
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