Addressing teacher absenteeism in schools

The Global Monitoring Report — Education for All 2000-2015 — indicates that more than 40,000 of the 200,000 primary school teachers in public schools (or 20 per cent) do not teach when they are required to. Worse still, the report reveals that some teachers do not understand the curriculum and are, therefore, not competent to guide the learners. This problem is attributed to lack of support from the government and training institutions.

It is instructive that another report released in January 2014 revealed that millions of Kenyan children fail examinations because most primary school teachers lack mastery of the subjects they teach. The report cited a 2010 survey of primary schools in which Class Six teachers scored an average of only 61 per cent in mathematics tests designed for their pupils. This was an indication that some Kenyan teachers are weaker in the subject than their pupils.

The report also indicates that Kenya lost Sh4 billion, which was meant to fund education in the form of capitation grants, due to corruption.

What all this boils down to is that whether we acknowledge it or not, we have a crisis. Our children are being cheated of their right to be moulded into responsible and productive citizens, the core objective of any serious education system.

The problem of teacher absenteeism must be addressed with the urgency and seriousness it deserves. It is a fact that most teachers absent themselves from class because they are trying to make extra money to supplement their meagre salaries.

That is why in most rural areas, most small businesses such as kiosks, shops, and bars are owned by teachers. In the process, these teachers short-change their schools and charges. That is why the government must address the perennial problem of teachers’ salaries once and for all.   

The government should also address the shortcomings of teachers. The most urgent intervention is to enhance training in the curriculum. The Education Ministry could organise short courses for teachers during school holidays. It could also facilitate programmes to help primary school teachers adopt effective pedagogic approaches.

The recently gazetted Basic Education Act Regulations, 2015, will go a long way in checking corruption. This is because the rules aim to regularise the authority that school heads appointed by the Teachers Service Commission have been exercising in managing school resources by making them accounting officers.

The resources include funds provided by the Free Primary Education and Free Day Secondary Education programmes, fees charged on parents, and money for infrastructure development from the national government, the CDF, and grants from development partners.

School heads handle these funds and coordinate their use without any contractual or legal arrangements to account for their use. The regulations will make the head of an institution accountable for these funds. The new rules must be adopted to ensure that this country delivers to its children the best education that it can provide in terms of resources, knowledge, experience, and wisdom of stakeholders.

Reference : www.nation.co.ke