- The study investigated factors affecting teacher attendance and time spent teaching in primary schools in Eastern and Southern Africa between 2017-2021. - It found that on average, 16% of teachers reported being absent from school at least once a week, with absence rates varying by country, school characteristics, and teacher characteristics. Common reasons for absence included health issues, family obligations, distance, and low salaries. - Education system factors like insufficient training, low salaries, lack of teaching materials, and excessive workload contributed to higher rates of absenteeism and less time spent teaching. Promising interventions included better teacher monitoring, community involvement, and ensuring timely salary payments.

1. Time to Teach
Teacher attendance and time on task in primary schools in
Eastern and Southern Africa

2. • Multi-country study investigating the
factors affecting teacher attendance
and time on task
• National governments, national research
institutes, UNICEF country and regional
offices and UNICEF Office of Research -
Innocenti
• Research funded by BMGF, Italy, MCF,
UK FCDO, UNICEF Education Thematic
Fund (mainly supported by Norway)
• September 2017 – March 2021 Note: The designations employed in the maps contained in this presentation do not imply
on the part of UNICEF the expression of any opinion whatsoever concerning the legal
status of any country or territory, or of its authorities or the delimitations of its frontiers.
Participating countries
Background

3. @
Rationale and Objectives
Rationale
Previous studies in primary schools
in Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank
SDI, 2015)
14% - 45% absent from school
22% - 56% absent from class
Objectives
• ]
• Researching the factors associated
with teacher absenteeism and
variations across countries, types of
schools and teachers’ characteristics
• Finding out promising policies and
practices for addressing teacher
absenteeism

4. Explanatory Framework
Types of absenteeism
• ]
Levels of analysis

5. @
Methodology
Qualitative Data
• In-depth interviews (955 participants)
 MoE officials
 Teacher union representatives
 Sub-national education officials
 Teachers
 Head teachers
 Community representatives
• Focus Group Discussions (1,190 students)
 Students aged 10-13
• Structured school observations (180 schools)
Quantitative Data
• Teacher Survey (2,200 teachers)
• Statistical analyses
• Triangulation with qualitative data

6. Findings

7. How frequently teachers reported being absent?
• ]
Absence from school (16%)
Late arrival/early departure (17%)
Classroom absence (14%)
Reduced time on task (17%)
Figure 1: Percentage of teachers who reported being
absent at least once a week, by form of absence and
country/territory
School and teacher characteristics that matter
 School location: Rural (18%) vs. Urban (15%)
 School governance: Public (17%) vs. Private (13%)
 Teacher level of education: Secondary school
graduates (17%) vs. Primary school graduates (12%)
 Teacher employment status: Volunteer (28%) vs. Non-
volunteer (16%)
 Gender: not a predictor of absenteeism

8. Why are teachers absent?
• ]
Figure 2: Primary reasons for absenteeism by form of absenteeism

9. Education system factors affecting teacher
attendance
Teacher Monitoring
ü Monitoring capacity and leadership
skills of head teachers strongly
associated with increased
school attendance and time on
task
ü Frequency of inspection
visits associated with lower rates
of school absenteeism
and increased time on task
ü Greater community and parental
involvement associated with lower
school and classroom absenteeism

10. Education system factors affecting teacher
attendance
 Only 60% of teachers reported having access to
training opportunities
 Insufficient training associated with school and
classroom absenteeism and reduced time on task
 Timing of in-service training counts. Teachers in
training reported higher school absenteeism than
their peers (40% vs 33%)
Teacher training

11. Education system factors affecting teacher
attendance
 Only 31% of teachers are satisfied with their
pay and only 42% say it is sufficient to cover
monthly expenses
 Low salaries do not always lead to absenteeism.
The timing and ease of receiving pay have more
impact on absenteeism than the amount that
teachers receive
 Teachers who find receiving their salary
challenging are more likely to be frequently
absent from school and unpunctual
Teacher pay

12. Education system factors affecting teacher attendance
Only 55% of teachers
reported having enough
teaching and learning
materials (TLMs)
Teachers with adequate
access to TLMs are 2.6
times less likely to be
frequently absent from the
classroom and 2.3 times
less likely to reduce their
time on task
Teacher workload
and allocation
Teaching Materials
 Administrative tasks is the main
reported reason for explaining
absence from the classroom
(62%)
 Teachers reporting “too many
class preparation tasks (lessons
prep; correcting homework….)”
are 1.5 times more likely to
reduce teaching time in the
classroom
 Inequitable teacher distribution
across schools and among
grades within schools

13. Non-system factors affecting teacher
attendance
Health
• Health is the most
frequent reason for
absence from school
(62%) and late
arrival/early
departure (53%) and
the second most
frequent reason for
being absent from the
classroom (51%)
•Teachers serving in
rural areas and
remote areas are
more prone to
health-related
absenteeism
Family
obligations
•Teachers distracted
by family obligations
are 1.45 times more
likely to reduce the
time they spend
teaching (while in the
classroom)
Weather
•Weather (heavy rain
and excessive heat) is
an important reason
for school absence
(27%) and late arrival
(39%)
•Weather is highly
associated with
teachers cancelling
classes and
shortening lessons
•School infrastructure
is critical for
understanding
weather-induced
absenteeism
Community
infrastructure
•Poor transportation
networks and
services are a
common reason of
teacher absence
(19%) and lack of
punctuality (22%)
•Teachers who cited
distance to school as
a reason for
absenteeism were 1.5
times more likely to
be absent from
school and 2.8 times
more likely to arrive
to school late or leave
school early
Conflict
•Interviewed teachers
and head teachers
(mostly in South
Sudan and northern
Kenya) stated that
lack of security is a
major driver of
teacher school
absenteeism and
desertion
Policy Implications
& Promising Practices

14. Kenya: Head teacher leadership training
Puntland: Community Education Committees
Comoros: Mothers’ engagement
Rwanda/Uganda: Fingerprint recognition
Implications and promising practices for the
COVID-19 era and beyond
 Support head teachers in their role
as leaders and mentors
 Boost parental engagement
 COVID-Related: Reconceptualize
attendance and its monitoring
during remote/blended learning
 Ensure that teacher training has a
strong practical component
 Ensure that enough substitute
teachers are available to cover
teachers in training (during school
days)
 COVID-Related: Provide training in
remote/blended learning, accelerated
learning and learning levels
assessment
 Ensure the timely pay of teacher
salaries and improve access to
financial services
 COVID-related: Protect education
financing in light of additional
funding needs and risk of funding
cuts during COVID-19 recovery
period
Monitoring Training Remuneration
Kenya/ Tanzania/ Mozambique:
Public service regulatory reforms
that ensure timeliness of payments
and improved access to financial
services (ATMs)

15. Implications and promising practices for the COVID-19
era and beyond
Provide teachers with
sufficient teaching and
learning materials
COVID-related: Adapt
teaching learning materials to
remote/blended/accelerated
learning and improve access
to ICT tools and connectivity
 Strengthen inter-sectoral
collaboration to address factors
external to education, in
particular in relation to
health, community
infrastructure and security
concerns.
 COVID-related: Safety
measures in school / classroom
Resources
Cross-sectoral
collaboration
Workload
 Reduce administrative tasks
for teachers and incentivize
teaching time (vs class
preparation work) when in
classroom
 Develop incentive strategies
to make postings in rural and
hardship areas more attractive
and enforce teacher allocation
rules
Zanzibar: Decentralization
of teacher recruitment and
allocation
Rwanda: Inter-ministerial
collaboration for housing teachers
Mozambique: Inter-ministerial
collaboration during COVID crisis

16. COVID-19 and
teachers: some
reflections

17. @
During school closures: some teachers expected to
teach remotely during school closure
Just under one third of ESAR countries required
to their teachers to teach remotely during school
closures
Yes
29%
No
71%
Countries in ESAR where teachers were
required to teach remotely during school
closures
Yes No
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
36%
18% 18% 18% 9%
36%
How teachers were supported to
teach remotely?
Out of the countries that required teachers to teach
remotely, 36% of countries did not offer any support to
teacher for this new and challenging way of teaching.

18. During school closures: how did teachers support
learning remotely?
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Phone calls to students
or parents
Emails to students Text/WhatsApp
messaging to students
Home visits No specific
guidelines/efforts for
interaction
38% 38%
77%
8%
15%
What kinds of interactions were encouraged between teachers and
students/parents in ESAR countries?

19. As schools re-open: teacher training and support
to recover lost learning
 Handwashing facilities not present or not
functioning in a significant proportion of
schools in ESAR countries
 Insufficient teaching staff and overcrowded
classrooms to cover the needs required for
physical distance
 Insufficient protection of teachers: absence
of PPE in some places and of specific
measures for at risk teachers with the
existing health conditions.
 Limited training to support teachers adapt to
opening schools during a pandemic
About 38% of schools have no water service
Average of 16 of 21 ESAR countries for which we have data
Primary PQTR is approx. 46:1
Average of 10 of 21 ESAR countries for which data is available
in last three years
Only 1 in 10 ESAR countries indicated that they would be
adding teachers to reduce class size
http://tcg.uis.unesco.org/survey-education-covid-school-closures/

20. Education budget cuts and its
repercussions on teachers
Contraction
in education
spending in
ESAR
(UNICEF estimates
7%, Albright (2020)
estimates 10%)
Teachers
represent by
far the
largest part
of education
budget
(80%+)
•Pay freezes
•Recruitment
freezes
•Reduced
non-financial
support
(housing,
TLMs)
•Increased
PTR
•Deterioratin
g conditions
of service

21. @
Potential trends arising from coronavirus pandemic
 Increased workload pressure on teachers – focus
on safety, double shifting, increase PTR as, in
fiscally restricted context, new teachers are not
recruited
 Risks of irregular salary payment due to fiscal
restrictions
 Classroom disruptions impact teacher’s sense of
efficacy and motivation: increased student learning
loss, increased push for digital learning solutions
Increased partnership with households
and communities to support learning
Increased intersectoral collaboration
arising from safety measures that enable
schools to better support learners
Access to ICT to support teachers
improve teaching and learning
Stresses on
teachers Support to
teachers

22. Thank You

23. Annexes

24. Learning Crisis/Poverty
53% of children in low- and middle-income
countries are in “learning poverty”
In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), learning
poverty is 87% with significant variation
among countries (World Bank, 2019)
Teachers are a critical prerequisite to
learning
15 to 45% of primary school teachers in
SSA are absent from school and 23 to
57% are absent from the classroom
(SDI, 2015)
Note: this map was elaborated using latest available data on “Learning poverty: Share of Children at the
End-of-Primary age below minimum reading proficiency adjusted by Out-of-School Children (%)” from :
Learning Poverty (October 2019), The World Bank and UNESCO Institute of Statistics
(https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/dataset/learning-poverty)

25. Number of study participants
by level of analysis and data collection method

26. 4.2
4.4
4.6
4.8
5.0
5.2
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
220
240
260
280
300
320
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020p 2021p
Percentage
of
GDP
US$,
2011
constanr
prices
ESAR Average-Per Capita Government Expenditure on Education (2011$, constant prices) ESAR Average- Government Expenditure on Education (% of GDP), Right axis
Average government expenditure on education in ESA,
2000-2021, (in per capita terms and as a % of GDP)