teacher absenteeism in the iganga district of uganda

Protecting the children,

securing the future

ANSLEM WANDEGA, ANPPCAN

UGANDA CHAPTER

Teacher Absenteeism in the

Iganga District of Uganda


securing the future

Introduction

ANPPCAN Uganda is a non- government

organization that is committed to addressing the

problem of child abuse and neglect and

promoting the rights of children. It is part of

ANPPCAN Africa, a regional organization that

seeks to protect and promote the rights of

children in Africa. For over 16 years, ANPPCAN

Uganda has significantly contributed to raising

public awareness on child rights and empowered

both adults and children to seek redress when

violations against children occur.


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Introduction ct’d

One of ANPPCAN’s major interventions is to

facilitate children’s access to their right to

education.

ANPPCAN operates in 12 districts in Uganda

including, Kampala and its environs, Mukono,

Jinja, Iganga, Kamuli, Busia, Kitgum, Pader, Apac,

Arua, Rakai and Kasese.

ANPPCAN was supported by TAP to undertake the

study on absenteeism in 30 education facilities

in Iganga district, Eastern Uganda


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Background to

UPE

Uganda is one of the countries the world

over that have pledged to meet the MDGs

which aim at eradicating extreme poverty

and improving the conditions of the poor.

As a member, Uganda therefore has to

ensure universal primary education for all

children by 2015.

In 1996, president Y.K Museveni

announced that four children of school

going age per family would benefit from


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Background ct’d

from free primary education, starting

from January 1997. This directive became

a policy known as UPE. It was seen as the

main tool for achieving the economic,

social and political objectives outlined in

the Ugandan Ministry of Education and

Sports policy document of 1998 in a

decentralized framework. Broadly, the

objectives of UPE are to:


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Background to

UPE ctd

o Establish, provide and maintain quality

education as the basis for promoting human

resource development;

o Provide the facilities and resources to enable

every child to enter and remain in school until

the primary school cycle of education is

complete;

o Make basic education accessible to the learner

and relevant to his or her needs, as well as

meeting national goals

o Make education equitable in order to eliminate

disparities and inequalities


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Background to

UPE ctd

o Ensure that education is affordable by the

majority of Ugandans

o Meet the objective of poverty eradication by

equipping every individual with basic skills

and knowledge.

When the implementation of UPE started

in 1997, the registration limit of 4

children per family proved problematic,

particularly regarding the exact definition

of a family in the Ugandan context.

Eventually, the government removed this


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Background to

UPE ctd

restriction and allowed all children that wanted

primary education under the UPE program to

enroll. Under the program, the government of

Uganda abolished tuition fees and PTA charges

for primary education.

To ensure access, the government instituted

complementary financing measures. Financing of

the education sector as a whole increased

significantly, from 2.1% GDP in 1995 to 4.8% of

GDP in 2000, while share of the education sector

in the national budget increased from 13.7% in

1990 to 24.7% in 1998.In the financial year

2005/6, government spent about 635.6bn Shs. on


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Background to UPE

ctd

making it the second largest funded sector

in the country.

Uganda’s Education Sector Investment

Plan also makes it mandatory that not less

than 65% of the education budget must

fund primary education.

UPE is also being implemented alongside

private school education, though the

latter is concentrated in the urban

centers.


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UPE Background

ct’d

Despite the abolition of tuition and PTA charges,

primary education was not made entirely free,

since parents were still expected to contribute

exercise books, pens, uniform, bricks, and labour

for classroom construction through community

work. During the implementation stage however,

the government realised that parents were not

willing to contribute large amounts of bricks and

labour, partly because of the many other

demands on their time.

The government has since then provided money

for construction of more classrooms, paying of


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Background to

UPE ctd

more teachers and purchase of requisite

instructional materials, especially text books.

Stakeholders in the UPE Policy Implementation

o The Ministry of Education and Sports

o Local Authorities

o School Management Committees

Progress

o Strengths

Increased access to UPE from 3.1 million pupils

in 1997-8.2 million pupils in 2009

Increase in the number of schools from 13, 576

in 2005 to 14,179 in 2008


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Background to

UPE ctd

Growth in the number of teachers with diplomas

from 2,905 in 2007 to 5, 397 in 2008.

Three in every five pupils in lower have adequate

sitting space

Literacy levels have increased to 69% at national

level

The number of teachers reduced by

13.8% between 2007/8.

The teacher pupil ratio increased from

1:50 in 2005 to 1:57 in 2008 as a result

of streamlining the teachers’ ceiling


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Background to

UPE ctd

The pupil completion rate is still low. For

example out of the 1,712,420 pupils who

started P1 in 2002, only 516,890 pupils

sat in 2008 and an average 450,000 in

2007, representing only 27% and 26% of

the children only.


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Objectives

Goal: To generate evidence to be used in

an advocacy campaign aimed at curbing

teacher absenteeism in public schools in

Uganda

Specific Objectives

o To document the magnitude of teacher

absenteeism in UPE schools in Iganga district

o To identify causes of teacher absenteeism in

UPE schools in Iganga district

o To establish a relationship between teacher


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Objectives ct’d

absenteeism and pupil performance in UPE

schools in the district

o To identify existing initiatives to curb teacher

absenteeism within the district

o To identify and document best practices for

countering teacher absenteeism for synergy

and replication in other schools within the

district


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Methodology

Study reached 620 people, i.e

Commissioner Pre-primary and Primary

Education, Assistant Commissioner

Children and Youth Affairs, District

Education Officer, Resident District

Commissioner, District Chairperson of the

Social Services Committee, District

Inspectors of Schools, School heads or

their deputies, parents, children,

members of the SMCs, CSO

representatives and community members.


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Methodology

Study was conducted in 30 purposively

selected UPE schools located in 5 of the

19 sub-counties of Iganga district

Schools were selected in a consultative

meeting with the district leadership (LC V,

RDC, CAO, DEO, DIS and District Planner)

based on their poor record of

performance in the Primary Leaving

Examinations conducted between 2006

and 2008


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Methodology

Document review

o Secondary documents were reviewed

To assess trends and magnitude of teacher

absenteeism within the selected schools

Identify best practices

Aid in the development of data collection tools

Key Informant interviews

Existing policies/guidelines on teacher absenteeism

Knowledge/concern about teacher absenteeism

Factors underlying teacher absenteeism

Strategies employed to curb the problem


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Methodology

Focus group discussions

o These were held with children, parents and

other community members to obtain

information on teacher absenteeism in the

schools in their areas.


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Methodology

Facility survey

Following the selection of the 30 education facilities,

a letter from the Chief Administrative Officer copied

to the Resident District Commissioner was sent

through the District Inspectors of schools to the

respective schools heads and chairpersons of the

school management committees to come along with

their school timetables for a consultative meeting

with ANPPCAN officials in Iganga town

In a consultative meeting with school heads and

chairpersons of the school management committees

from the 30 schools, official school timetables with

names, dates, times and classes the respective

classroom teachers were expected to teach were

obtained by the study team to develop a register


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Methodology

Based on the register drawn, three un announced

visits were made to each of the selected schools.

During the visits, the enumerators met with the

head teachers and where they were absent, their

deputies or the teachers in charge to foremost up

date the register given at the consultative meeting.

Head teachers or their representatives were then

asked to go through the register to indicate whether

the mentioned teacher was present or not. If the

head teacher or the representative indicated that a

teacher was absent, he / she was further asked why

that particular teacher was absent on that particular

day.


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Methodology

After the interview with the either the head teacher

or their representative was completed, the

enumerators started interviewing teachers enlisted

on the register, one at a go to a minimum of six

teachers per school (based on the total number of

teachers employed at the school).

Teachers’ records were also accessed from the head

teachers to verify whether the reasons given by

particular teachers were actually those that

appeared on the records in the head teachers’ or

their representatives’ offices.

Visits were conducted between 8:30-4:00 pm,

excluding break and lunch times


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Methodology

A teacher or head teacher was considered to be

absent when at the time of the un announced

visit, he / she could not be physically seen in the

school teaching a class she / he was supposed to

be teaching as stipulated on the register and was

away for reasons given other than official leave,

transfer, reassignment to teach a different class

or do administrative tasks


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Background to

Iganga district

It is located in the South Eastern part of

Uganda. It borders Mayuge, Namutumba,

Jinja and Kaliro.

It has 3 counties and 19 sub-counties, 115

parishes and 644 villages

Has a population of 540,939 people.

Population growth rate is 3.4%, 0.2% above

the national average

There are 248 UPE schools

Has a shortfall of 100 teachers


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Iganga

Total enrollment is 132,858 pupils

On average, schools have under enrolled

by 2,230 pupils

Some schools have over enrolled by over

400 pupils.

506 teachers are undergoing training

Between 2006 and 2009, 5,310 passed in

first grade, 31,476 in second grade,

26,688 in third grade, 19,442 in fourth

grade, 7268 in grade X (did not sit) and


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Iganga district

27,768 failures in division U. In other

words, a total of 117,952 pupils who sat

for exams between 2006-2009 in the

district who failed to join a secondary

school or any other institution of learning

3.6% of the 70,266 pupils who failed in

the country came from Iganga district.

Gross enrollment rate is 120 children

Net enrolment is 102

Gross intake is 120

Net intake is 59


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Iganga district

Teacher pupil ratio was 1: 63 in 2008

Pupil classroom ratio was 85:1 in 2008


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Magnitude

A total, 561 teachers were registered to

teach in the 30 schools

Absenteeism rates per visit

Visit Percentage

First Visit 48.5

Second visit 46.5%

Third visit 35.8%

Average 43.6%


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Magnitude

51% of the teachers absent were female

compared to 49% male

Interviews with CSO’s and communities revealed

that in a school of 6 teachers, 2 are absent for at

least 3 days and the rest are either absent on the

first or last days of the term or last days of the

month or both


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Findings

Head teacher absenteeism

Visit Percentage

First Visit 30%

Second visit 20%

Third visit 9%

Average 19.7%


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Causes of teacher

absenteeism

A total of 236 teachers were interviewed

on what the causes were and findings

were as follows:

o 40.7% said that their colleagues absent

themselves to engage in IGAs and supplement

their incomes

o 28.4% said that their colleagues absent

themselves to attend to domestic problems

o 19.9% said that their colleagues get absent

because of transport problems

o 10.6% said that their colleagues get absent to go

and collect salaries


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Causes of teacher

absenteeism

An interview with 30 head teacher or their

representatives revealed the following:-

o 33.3% of the teachers are absent due to sickness

o 13.3% are absent because they are engaging in

income generating activities

o 6.7% are absent because they are doing farming

especially during the rainy season

o 6.7% are absent because they are attending events

such as marriage ceremonies, funerals, etc

o 3.3% are absent when they go to banks to

withdraw their monthly pay


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Causes of teacher

absenteeism

40% of the community members said that most

teachers fake illnesses as they can actually be seen

walking around in the village and doing their other

work

20% of the community members also said that most

teachers are absent because of the distance from

their homes to schools, especially during rainy

season

10% of the community members also said that most

teachers are absent because their head teachers are

also absent

Others said that most teachers are absent because

they have gone to collect a salary in town


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Causes of teacher

absenteeism

Inadequacies in inspection cause teacher

absenteeism. Teachers and head teachers with

connection to the top district officials had access

to information on inspection dates and could

choose to appear in school or inform others about

the impending inspection. A total of 9,013 out of

14,179 schools in the country were inspected at

least once a term.

All respondents said that teacher absenteeism was

partly to blame on low teacher pay. As a matter of

fact, most (35.2%) of those interviewed said that

they were living with more than 6 people in their

homes and 41.9% said that they are the sole bread

winners in their homes.


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Causes of teacher

absenteeism

Transport was found to be a cause of teacher

absenteeism. 48.3% of the teachers interviewed

reside between 2-5 kilometers away from the school,

27.5% reside some 5 kms away from the school

while 23.7% reside less than 2 kilometers from the

school. Accommodation had been given to only 8.9%

of the teachers who were involved in the study with

the rest either renting or coming from their own

homes

In terms of hours of travel to school, most (19.6%) of

the teachers said that they travel for more than 5

hours to school, 7.6% for more than 4 hours, 12.3%

between 2-4 hours and 17.8% between 1-2 hours and

the rest for less than 1 hour


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Causes of teacher

absenteeism

Weak disciplinary measures taken against

absentee teachers are also partly

responsible for teacher absenteeism.

16.7% of the head teachers interviewed

said that they advice teachers who are

absent not to do it again, 80% give them a

warning letter while 3.3% report them to

the school management committees.


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Teacher

absenteeism and

pupil performance

To establish this relationship, records were

reviewed, teachers and head teachers who had

been at the school for more than three years were

asked to comment on the trends of teacher

absenteeism and how these have affected pupil

performance in their respective schools.

Teachers said that they had been absent from the

school at least once since they were recruited for

one reason or the other.

6.7% of the head teachers said that teacher

absenteeism has been very often been occurring in

their schools in the past 5 years, 3.3% said that it

has often been occurring in their school 86.7% said

that it has


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Teacher

absenteeism and

pupil performance

been rarely occurring in the past 5 years in their

schools and 3.3% said that it has been very rarely

occurring in their schools in the past five years.

40% of the head teachers said that the quality of

teaching and learning had improved in their

schools, 46.7% said that it had slightly improved,

10% said that it has remained the same and 3.3%

said that it had become worse.

80% of the children interviewed said that their

grades became low when their teachers were

absent because of non completion of the

syllabus.


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Teacher

absenteeism and

pupil performance

Between 2007 and 2009, 2,122 pupils had sat for

PLE and 65 had passed in first grade, 1084 in

second grade, 166 in third grade, 673 in fourth

grade, 69 in division X and 65 in Division U.

Teacher absenteeism was found to be partly

responsible for poor pupil academic performance

in the selected schools


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Existing

initiatives to curb

absenteeism

Use of school inspections. 37% of the

schools had been inspected within the

month of the visit, 23.3% six months

before, 13.3% a year before the visit.

Head teacher supervision. 50% of the head

teachers observe classes once in a week,

6.7% twice in a week, 20% thrice a week

and 23.3% every day.

Use of school registers. This was being

practices in very few schools


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Best practices

The following are the approaches being

used to reduce teacher absenteeism

Introduced school registers (63.3%)

Changed school administration (3.3%)

Encouraged community involvement (3.3%)

Recruited highly qualified staff (3.3%)

Increased inspection visits (3.3%)

Parents cooperation (3.3%)

Introduced allowances for teachers (3.3%)

Increased supervision at school level by SMCs and

head teachers (3.3%)

Elected a new SMC (6.7%)


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Recommendations

Strengthen inspection. Inspectorate departments

at national and district level should be

strengthened with more man power and finances.

Inspections are ideally supposed to be abrupt but

in some instances, before the inspector reached a

school, information on the visit had been already

leaked to the teachers and they would rush to

attend to their classes. A heavy penalty to punish

those who share such sensitive information should

be clearly spelt out and enforced

Strengthen local accountability mechanisms.

Head teachers should increase the times they

monitor classes to at least twice in a week and

should also be checking for absenteeism


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Recommendations

There is need for strong SMCs since where they

were strong, absenteeism was low due to constant

monitoring

Punish non compliant school heads. There is need

for stronger penalties for head teachers who do not

effectively supervise their staff.

Teacher transfers. Teachers who stay at the school

for 20 years should be transferred. Young head

teachers fear to punish such teachers because they

have served for long and understand all the

dynamics in that school.


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Recommendations

Empower children and communities to

monitor teacher absenteeism

Provide accommodation for teachers at

the schools.

Provide meals for teachers.

Ensure timely distribution of instructional

materials

Increase salaries for teachers in rural

areas.


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Recommendations

Leaves. It was found out that some teachers were

out of the school because they were sick. There is a

need for school administrators to ensure that

teachers who go are absent because they are sick

submit proof of medical treatment from a

recognized health institution upon return. This will

discourage faking of “sickness” by teachers as

reported by the communities.

District officials should engage private sector

providers to extend banking services to teachers

in rural areas.

Appoint teachers and head teachers on contract


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Way Forward

Meeting to validate and disseminate

findings at district level (targeting

District Political and Technical Staff

concerned with education service

delivery, Head Teachers, Teachers, SMC’s,

Children, Teachers’ Unions, CSO’s, etc

Public Dialogue on Teacher

Absenteeism at national level: To

disseminate findings at national level but

also engage key actors (Parliamentary

Social Services Committee Members,


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Way Forward

Parliamentary Budget Committee

Members, Uganda Parliamentary

Committee for Children, Primary

Education, Ministry of Finance, Planning

and Economic Development, Minister of

Education and Sports, State Minister for

Primary Education, Commissioner and

Directors for Pre-Primary and Primary

Education, Education Funding Group

(EFAG) Members, Media, CSO’s and UN


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Way Forward

Agencies on teacher absenteeism in

Iganga district and Uganda as a country

Follow up meetings with the key issues

identified during engagements both at

local and national levels (As an

organization but also through established

coalitions-EFAG, FENU, UNICEF Education

Sub-cluster)

Multi-media campaign with messages on

teacher absenteeism(Press conferences,


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Way Forward

posters, T-shirts, Caps, Radio and TV talk

shows and spots, News and Opinion

Articles in the Leading Newspapers

Organize DAC Celebrations with a focus

on teacher absenteeism in Iganga district

Produce and disseminate 500 copies of

the report to education officials at district

and national level and also higher

institutions of learning

Effectively participate in the Education


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Way Forward

Sector Review meeting for 2010-2011 to

profile issues that appeared in the report

Train and support 30 children and 10

focal teachers to monitor levels of

absenteeism in 10 of the selected 30

schools


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THANK YOU

teacher absenteeism in the iganga district of uganda

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