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Teacher Absenteeism: Engaging a District to Understand Why It Happens and What It Means

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The Impact of Teacher Absenteeism on Student Performance: The Case of the Cobb County School District

Mary Finlayson

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Summer 2009

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Master of Public Administration (MPA)

Political Science

Common sense that is supported by research tells us that when a teacher is absent from the classroom, student learning is disrupted. When that teacher is repeatedly absent, student performance can be significantly impacted in a negative way. The more days a teacher is out of the classroom, the lower their students tend to score on standardized tests. Nationally, teachers are absent from the classroom on average 10 days per year. Cobb County School District teachers are out of the classroom on average 14 days per year. There are other reasons to be concerned with teacher absenteeism:

• Financial costs to the school system – The Cobb County School District spent approximately $8.5 million dollars to pay for classroom and clinic nurse substitutes during the 2008/2009 school year.

• Students attending school in low socioeconomic areas experience more teacher absences. Research tells us that teachers tend to be absent more often from low-socioeconomic schools, which has a detrimental affect on students who are already struggling.

• Unmonitored usage of leave in a school can affect the absence behavior of employees, leading to more leave usage.

This analysis was conducted in the Cobb County School District, a large suburban school district with a total number of 114 schools, more than 6,800 classroom teachers, and more than 106,000 students. Data was collected on 453 third-grade teachers and 7683 third-grade students from 64 elementary schools. A regression analysis was performed on the variables of all Cobb County third-grade teacher absenteeism rates and their student scores on the math and reading sections on the Criterion Reference Competency Test (CRCT). A regression analysis was also performed on the percentage of students receiving free and/or reduced lunch per school and those students’ scores on the math and reading sections of the CRCT.

The results of the analysis support previous research findings that higher teacher absenteeism leads to lower student math scores on standardized tests. This study also found that students attending low-socioeconomic area schools scored significantly lower on the reading and math sections of the Criterion Reference Competency Test (CRCT).

Recommendations to address this issue include better collection and monitoring of teacher absenteeism data, requiring teachers to make personal contact with the principal or other administrator when reporting absences, and implementing incentive programs to improve teacher attendance.

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Teacher Absenteeism in South Africa

A National and International Perspective

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• First Online: 23 February 2021
• Cite this reference work entry

• Keshni Bipath 2 &
• Linda Naidoo 2  

Part of the book series: Global Education Systems ((GES))

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Teacher absenteeism is a huge concern both internationally and nationally. There have been many studies regarding the reasons teachers get absent and the impact this has on student achievement, among other factors. In South Africa, for instance, the provision of education at all levels is a serious challenge and compels attention. This is exacerbated by high rates of teacher absenteeism. The reasons cited for absenteeism and its effects, it is argued, need to be disseminated more directly to both educators and departments of education so that they inform progress in educational planning and management to counter the resulting dysfunctionality of schools. This chapter offers some understanding, through qualitative enquiry, of what teacher absenteeism is and why it manifests. It presents insights and observations, with statistics, from a selected group of international sites and South Africa, and what effects absenteeism has overall. The chapter includes recommendations and action from different countries, the key one for South Africa being more effective management of teacher absenteeism.

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Bipath, K., Naidoo, L. (2021). Teacher Absenteeism in South Africa. In: Adeyemo, K.S. (eds) The Education Systems of Africa. Global Education Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44217-0_54

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• Learning processes
• Instruction time
• Number of teaching hours
• Days of instruction (single shift)

Teacher absenteeism

• School completion
• Drop-out/Push-out
• Obstacles to teaching and learning
• Teacher-related constraints
• Teaching and learning
• Pedagogical management

To ensure education quality and student learning, addressing teacher absenteeism must be a top priority in each education system. Absenteeism is defined as ‘any failure of an employee to report for or to remain at work as scheduled, regardless of reason’ (Casio, 2003, cited in Rosenblatt and Shirom, 2006: 371). The reasons for teacher absenteeism can be encompassed in three main categories: authorized leaves, absences due to official duties and those without reason. In the first category, one can find maternity leaves, annual leaves, and medical leaves, among others. In the second one, one can find academic duties such as in-service teacher training ; administrative duties such as submission of reports, marking national examinations or supporting national elections; and absences due to collecting salaries. In the third category, multiple issues are found such as tardiness , truancy , moonlighting , teacher strikes , ‘ abscondment ’, and ‘ ghost teachers ’ (ADEA WGEMPS, n.d.).

Teacher absenteeism is more prevalent in lower-income schools. Studies show that schools that have lower socioeconomic and minority students also have higher teacher absence rates and lower student test scores (Rogers and Vegas, 2009). High levels of absence undermine the quality of schooling and learning, reduce parent confidence in the school, and tend to reduce student attendance.

Key variables that affect teacher absenteeism include work environment, school characteristics such as educational level, size, income level, teacher health and job-related stress, as well as teaching experience. Failure to address teacher absenteeism further lowers teacher morale and sets low standards for other teachers. When teachers are absent without cause, the ability of teacher management systems to respond in an appropriate and timely manner is fundamental.

Promising policy options

Develop a tracking system to monitor teacher absenteeism

Developing a tracking system to monitor teacher absenteeism allows each school to identify patterns of absenteeism, establish a form of accountability and take measures accordingly. Research has found that tracking systems must not rely solely on one authority. For example, a study done in Ecuador highlighted how headteachers reported more than one-quarter of absent teachers as being present (Rogers and Vegas, 2009). Therefore, when possible, it is key to appoint more authorities and various mechanisms to track attendance. For example, the pilot project launched in 2020 by the Sierra Leona’s Teaching Service Commission (TSC), known as the Sierra Leone Education Attendance Monitoring System (SLEAMS), use mobile devices as well as daily self-reporting by school administrators, teacher fingerprint data and monthly visits from district deputy directors to track attendance (Castillo, Adam and Haßler, 2022).

Local education offices should support the monitoring of teacher attendance in schools (UNCEN, UNIPA, SMERU, BPS, UNICEF, 2012). Regular supervision in schools can be performed by local authorities and appointed stakeholders to reduce teacher absenteeism, just as highlighted in the Sierra Leone example mentioned above. This support provided to schools and the monitoring of teacher attendance is particularly relevant in remote, rural schools (UNCEN, UNIPA, SMERU, BPS, UNICEF, 2012). In addition to recognising teachers’ absence, monitoring and supervision can also help identify issues such as ‘ghost teachers’ (paying teachers that do not exist), moonlighting (teachers holding more than one job), and ‘abscondment’ (teachers who leave their posts for other posts without any formal notification) (ADEA and WGEMPS, n.d.).

Empowering students, parents, and community members to monitor and report teacher absence is an effective strategy (Karamperidou et al. , 2020; UNCEN, UNIPA, SMERU, BPS, UNICEF, 2012). Indeed, research has shown that community and parents’ participation in monitoring teacher attendance, as well as effective school-based management (SBM) reforms, have increased teacher attendance (Karamperidou et al. , 2020; UNCEN, UNIPA, SMERU, BPS, UNICEF, 2012). For instance, this was highlighted by the EDUCO programme in El Salvador, as well as School-based management projects in Honduras, Chile, Mexico and Nicaragua (Rogers and Vegas, 2009). To institutionalise parents’ and community members’ monitoring roles, community-based monitoring systems can be created (UNCEN, UNIPA, SMERU, BPS, UNICEF, 2012).

Monitoring depends highly on the degree of community’s involvement as well as the capacity and power that they have to take action against excessive absenteeism. Thus, it is key to raise awareness on the issue and build community members’ capacity to ensure effective monitoring (UNCEN, UNIPA, SMERU, BPS, UNICEF, 2012). It is also important to keep in mind the difficulties of implementing community monitoring in practice. For example, through the programme META –Mejor Educación a través de más Tiempo en el Aula– implemented in Peru in 2004, parents voluntarily monitored teacher attendance in schools three times a day. Although the research found that the programme was giving the expected results it was discontinued two years later because of logistical challenges (Cueto et al ., 2008).

Disciplinary action to decrease absenteeism

Research shows that most school systems prefer ‘low-stakes’ disciplinary interventions to real disciplinary sanctions which might lead to dismissal (Mulkeen, 2010). For example, teachers’ pay could be based on the number of days that they were present or require them to pay a fine when they exceed the admitted leave days (Mulkeen, 2010). The latter is the case in Liberia, where teachers who are absent more than three days per month must pay a fine (Mulkeen, 2010). Another example is the programme implemented in Rajasthan, India, by the NGO Seva Mandir, where teachers earned bonuses for every day they attended above the required minimum and were fined for every day they did not attend below the required minimum (Duflo, Hanna and Ryan, 2012). Findings revealed that teachers’ absenteeism in Rajasthan decreased by half and students’ scores improved (Duflo, Hanna and Ryan, 2012).

Other important recommendations to combat teacher absenteeism are (NCTQ, 2014; Smith, n.d.; UNCEN, UNIPA, SMERU, BPS, UNICEF, 2012):

• restrict leave on specific dates, such as ‘before or after holidays and vacations, during the first and last week of the school year, during state testing and/or on professional development days’ (NCTQ, 2014: 12);
• demand medical certification to recognise sick leave;
• conduct workshops explaining to teachers the effect of their absenteeism rates on students’ outcomes; and
• design and implement a code of conduct (or review an existing one) to regulate teachers’ attendance misconducts as well as develop attendance guidelines.

To explore further

For more information on how to design and use teachers’ codes of conduct consult:

Pecuniary and non-pecuniary incentives to complement monitoring and supervising systems

Research has found that pecuniary incentives can increase teacher attendance, as highlighted by the META programme implemented in Peru (Guerrero et al ., 2012) and the programme implemented by the NGO Seva Mandir in Rajasthan, India (Duflo, Hanna and Ryan, 2012). Pecuniary incentives can include paying teachers their ‘unused sick leave’ at the end of each school year or at retirement (NCTQ, 2014: 12). Another strategy is to provide bonuses to teachers with exemplary attendance (NCTQ, 2014; Miller, Murnane, and Willett, 2008; Rogers and Vegas, 2009).

Non-pecuniary incentives can also help reduce teacher absenteeism, it is key to ensure that all teachers are accessing them, particularly those located in marginalised and remote areas. For instance, establishing a motivating career structure where attendance plays a key role in teacher’s evaluations and promotions can help reduce teacher absenteeism (Crehan, L. 2016; NCTQ, 2014; UNCEN, UNIPA, SMERU, BPS, UNICEF, 2012). Other innovative ideas, such as providing ticket vouchers for events or conferences to teachers respecting attendance goals, can also be implemented (NCTQ, 2014). Providing food assistance is also a common incentive (UNCEN, UNIPA, SMERU, BPS, UNICEF, 2012). Recognising and rewarding teachers who have excellent attendance rates has also been found successful in reducing absenteeism (Knoster, 2016 as cited in Akyeampong, 2022).

Providing quality housing near or within schools is a key strategy, ‘highly associated with teachers’ capacity to report to school without fail and on time’ (Karamperidou et al ., 2020). Through the research project Time to Teach (TTT), implemented in eight countries and territories in Eastern and Southern Africa, researchers found that ‘[t]eachers 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 than teachers who did not report distance to school as a reason for being absent’ (Karamperidou et al ., 2020: 37). Various countries such as Papua New Guinea, Uganda, and Rwanda have thus constructed and provided housing facilities to teachers nearby schools (Rogers and Vargas, 2009; Karamperidou et al ., 2020). Ministries of Education must ensure that teachers in remote, rural areas are benefiting in particular from this type of strategy (UNCEN, UNIPA, SMERU, BPS, UNICEF, 2012). When housing provision is not possible, providing adequate transportation to teachers is key, particularly to those serving remote, rural areas (Karamperidou et al ., 2020; ACDP, 201; Rogers and Vegas, 2009).

Providing quality school infrastructure, particularly WASH facilities and electricity, has also been found to be a determinant factor for teacher attendance (Barrett et al ., 2019.; UNCEN, UNIPA, SMERU, BPS, UNICEF, 2012). Research in Bangladesh, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Peru and Uganda showcased how ‘moving from a school with the lowest infrastructure index score to one with the highest (that is, from a score of zero to five) is associated with a 10-percentage point reduction in teacher absence’ (Chaudhury et al . 2006 as cited in Barrett et al ., 2019: 17). It is key to pay particular attention to school infrastructure serving marginalised populations to ensure they are not doubly disadvantaged.

*For more on this subject, see Policy page School infrastructure .

Teacher motivation and satisfaction

Teacher motivation is a substantial factor in increasing teacher attendance, with several factors contributing to high morale in a work environment. All teachers must be treated fairly and equally and they should be valued, appreciated and recognized for their work.

Fair wages and career structures also play an essential role in teachers’ motivation.

• For specific information on career structures consult IIEP-UNESCO teacher careers research project .
• For information on salary policies consult the following Policy pages Teacher incentives ; Logistical constraints in paying teachers ; and Financial constraints in paying teachers .

It is also key to improve work conditions for employees and implement supporting measures, such as granting small salary increases, providing assistance in specific tasks, such as student discipline, and giving feedback on classroom practices and performance, among others (Smith, n.d.). It is also key to provide adequate teaching and learning materials, as ‘limited TLMs are associated with classroom absenteeism and reduced time on task’ (Karamperidou et al ., 2020).

Improving the school environment overall is key to haul teachers’ intrinsic motivation and commitment to the profession. This can be done, for instance, by letting teachers have autonomy over their work and encouraging good relationships and collaboration opportunities between colleagues, among others (Crehan, L. 2016). (For more information consult Policy page School climate ).

Concerning teachers who are returning from their leave, they should be welcomed back and recognized for being back. Teacher burnout can contribute to teacher absenteeism, so when absenteeism is related to this issue, the following can be considered (according to Leithwood, 1998 as cited in Smith, n.d.):

• Support teachers to identify and meet short-term individual progress goals as well as the school’s improvement goals.
• Alternate teachers’ classroom duties.
• Provide adequate financial and material resources.

Strong local or central management system

Develop a strong local or central management system to regulate teacher absenteeism and create mechanisms to place substitute teachers when needed (ADEA and WGEMPS, n.d.).

Teacher management systems must minimise official administrative absences, for instance by ensuring that professional development opportunities occur outside teaching hours or that substitute teachers are present if done during school hours (Karamperidou et al ., 2020; UNCEN, UNIPA, SMERU, BPS, UNICEF, 2012).

Teacher management systems must also ensure teachers’ adequate payment, as this is a high determinant factor to teachers’ absenteeism (Karamperidou et al ., 2020). Different payment methods for teachers, particularly for those in remote rural areas, have to be explored and provided, and existing barriers must be removed (such as obliging teachers to travel long distances to collect their salary) (Karamperidou et al ., 2020; Niang, 2017). For instance, alternative, innovative solutions such as electronic or mobile banking platforms, or implementing a traditional paycheck system can be explored (Karamperidou et al. , 2020; ADEA and WGEMPS, n.d.). For more on this subject, see Policy page Logistical constraints in paying teachers .

In addition to management systems, it is crucial to create ‘a stable pool of substitutes to reduce the detrimental impacts of unexpected teacher absences’ (Miller, Murnane and Willett, 2008: 196). Although this is a costly measure, and it would be best to address teacher absenteeism, it is also key to provide quality teacher substitutes so that children’s learning is not impaired in the absence of the regular teacher (Miller, Murnane and Willett, 2008; Karamperidou et al ., 2020; UNCEN, UNIPA, SMERU, BPS, UNICEF, 2012). This measure must be complemented by ensuring that regular teachers leave quality lesson plans to their substitutes (Miller, Murnane and Willett, 2008).

Ensure good leadership within the school

Headteachers’ leadership is essential to control and reduce teacher absenteeism. Headteachers should explain attendance expectations to teachers at the beginning of the school year (Knoster, 2016). They should also involve teachers in developing clear absence guidelines as well as attendance improvement plans (Smith, n.d.).

Requiring teachers to speak directly to headteachers –or attendance improvement coordinators– for sick leaves can also help to reduce teacher absenteeism (NCTQ, 2014; Finlayson, 2009; Miller, Murnane, and Willett, 2008). Even though this might increase headteachers’ workload, it is found to be very effective in reducing teacher absenteeism, much more than through centralised reporting system (NCTQ, 2014; Miller, Murnane, and Willett, 2008).

Other policy options

Information and communication technologies

Use information and communication technologies (ICT) to report teacher absenteeism on a daily basis in schools. For instance:

• Cameras can be used to provide date- and time-stamped photographs. This strategy was implemented in Rajasthan, India (Duflo, Hanna and Ryan, 2012).
• Cell-phones can be used to track absenteeism. This strategy was implemented in The Gambia where a mobile platform was developed to track teacher absenteeism (ADEA WGEMPS, n.d.).
• Electronic systems can also be developed for that purpose. An example is the Human Capital Leave Management System HC-LMS implemented in South Africa (ADEA WGEMPS, n.d.).
• Biometric fingerprint controls can be implemented instead of traditional logbooks. This strategy was put in place in Gujarat, India (Cooper, Jeeva, and Honeyman, 2017; Cooper, 2013).

Although research has found that using ICT to monitor teacher absenteeism has increased teacher attendance, they still pose multiple challenges, the most important one being teacher unions’ resistance (e.g. South Africa’s HC-LMS program was rejected by teacher unions (ADEA WGEMPS, n.d.)). Additionally, logistical conditions such as internet availability, electricity supply, cameras and phones available also pose a problem. Lastly, with limited budgets, the costs that represent the implementation of such methods may make their implementation unfeasible.

A study in New York City found evidence that teacher mentoring might reduce absence, however, further exploration of this topic is needed (Rockoff, 2008, as cited in Rogers and Vegas, 2009).

Shorter school week

Implementing a 4-day (or 4.5 days) school week has been found to increase teacher attendance rates as it gives additional time for professional development opportunities and teacher planning. It also decreases the need for substitute teachers. Nevertheless, such arrangements can be considered controversial, which is why further research and context-based solutions are needed (e.g. France’s four-week day controversy). It is also necessary to keep in mind that this type of arrangement might imply including extra time to the remaining school days to meet annual instruction time requirements. For instance, in the United States, around 560 districts in 25 states have included extra time to the remaining four days in school. The OECD points out an average of 799 hours of compulsory instruction time per year in its member states (OECD, 2018: 334).

Hire ‘para-teachers’

‘Para-teachers’ or ‘contract teachers’ are teachers ‘who are hired on short, flexible contracts to work in primary schools and in non-formal education centres (NFEs) that are run by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and local governments’ (Duflo E.; Hanna R.; Ryan, S.P. 2012:1241). ‘Para-teachers’ can be easily monitored and supervised as they ‘do not form an entrenched constituency, they are already subject to yearly renewal of their contract, and there is a long queue of qualified job applicants.’ (2012:1242). Therefore, by employing them and providing them with incentives, teacher absenteeism could be reduced. Yet, keep in mind that this type of policy poses significative parallel challenges, for instance, it can lead to tensions with regular teachers –civil servants–  and affect the quality of education, as much as the respect given to the teaching profession.

Policy options for improving Equity and Inclusion

Gender-responsive policies.

All of the policies and strategies previously recommended apply for this category. However, when designing and implementing the aforementioned policies, educational planners, policymakers and school managers should analyse if there are underlying gender issues affecting and leading to higher absenteeism rates and thus target policy options accordingly. In some contexts, female teachers’ absenteeism rates are higher than males’ (Bennell et al., 2002 cited by Guerrero et al ., 2012; Chaudhury et al., 2006, cited by Nedungadi, Mulki and Raman, 2017) while in other contexts, male teachers’ absenteeism rates are higher than females’ (Indonesia, 2014).

Policies for children with disabilities

Children with disabilities are one of the most marginalized and vulnerable members of society (UNICEF, 2013). Teacher absenteeism affects every student’s learning process, but especially that of students with disabilities, who already face multiple barriers in schooling and learning. Particular attention should be therefore given to this issue. Policy-makers, educational planners, school management and teachers themselves must make sure that every minute that a student with disability spends in the classroom is used to its fullest potential.

In order to tackle the issue, all of the previously recommended policies and strategies apply.

Policies for displaced populations

While there is no specific literature on reducing absenteeism of teachers serving displaced populations, it is a very relevant issue to ensure adequate learning processes for these already vulnerable members of society. All the policies and strategies recommended in the general section of the present Policy page apply to this category. In addition, gathering knowledge on ‘the unique challenges these teachers face’ is key to ‘better understand the idiosyncratic factors that may affect their attendance’ (Karamperidou et al ., 2020: 49). For instance, research highlighted that in West and Central Africa, the ‘the lack of training and difficult employment conditions’ lead to frequent teacher absenteeism (UNHCR RBWCA, 2021: 5). Thus, improving teachers’ working conditions, delivering adequate teacher training, as well as providing incentives and adequate salaries is essential to boost their motivation and ensure their attendance (for more information consult Policy page Appropriate teacher candidates and Teacher incentives). Moreover, displaced community members and students can be empowered to hold teachers accountable for their absence or tardiness, which can in turn help decrease their absenteeism rates (UNICEF, 2014). This strategy was implemented in Nepal’s programme Schools as Zone of Peace (SZOP), where child clubs within the schools ‘worked to minimize teacher absenteeism and increase teachers’ regularity in school by pointing out to them if they were late or absent’ (UNICEF, 2014: 22).

Provide counselling and mental health support to reduce teacher absenteeism

Providing mental health support to teachers in crisis-settings is of key importance. Indeed, research has shown that the ‘threat of violence reduces educators’ intrinsic motivation and affects their school presence’ (Karamperidou et al ., 2020: 9). Through a strong collaborative approach with the health sector, ministries of education can provide the required mental health support to all school staff, particularly teachers, and students. This can have positive effects on teacher attendance and on their classroom practices (Karamperidou et al ., 2020).

Policies for minority populations

A wide number of studies have highlighted that minority populations, particularly those living in poor, rural, remote areas, are the most exposed and affected by teacher absenteeism (Karamperidou et al ., 2020: Cheng and Moses, 2016; ACDP, 2014; NCTQ, 2014; Miller, 2012; UNCEN, UNIPA, SMERU, BPS, UNICEF, 2012; Rogers and Vegas, 2009; Miller, Murnane, and Willett, 2008; Clotfelter, Ladd, Vigdor, 2007). From an equity standpoint, it is key that educational policies address teacher absenteeism while paying particular attention to those serving minority populations. For this purpose, all of the different policies and strategies recommended in the general section of the present Policy page apply to this category. In addition, to address teacher absenteeism issues, decision-makers and educational planners must ensure equitable teacher recruitment and allocation, so that sufficient quality teachers are allocated to marginalised, poor, remote and rural areas where the majority of minority populations dwell (Clotfelter, Ladd, Vigdor, 2007; Karamperidou et al ., 2020; UNCEN, UNIPA, SMERU, BPS, UNICEF, 2012).

* For more information consult Policy pages Equitable teacher distribution .

Policies for OVCs and HIV affected populations

Comprehensive HIV/AIDS education sector workplace policy and programs

HIV/AIDS work place policies should be developed with key stakeholders, such as teacher unions, HIV positive teacher networks, civil society, and community organizations. In line with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the workplace, these policies should cover issues including:

• medical support, including prevention and treatment services. (Crucially, access to ARVs, and VCTs );
• care services including counseling and psychological support (counsellors can make regular school visits);
• deployment and transfers (provisions for teachers needing closer access to health care services);
• teaching coverage, sickness, absence provisions and reintegration into work after leave;
• recruitment, promotion and retirement provisions (there should be no requirement of HIV screening);
• alternative working arrangements (such as increased flexibility in working hours, changing responsibilities); and
• protection from discrimination, addressing issues of HIV status disclosure, and confidentiality.

Teachers should be made widely aware of these policies and all of the services available to them. In some cases, countries that have had grants available for treatment costs were underutilized because teachers’ did not know that they existed (UNESCO, 2008b). Teacher unions can aid the Ministries of Education in disseminating policies and relevant information about services available.

Implementation of HIV/AIDS workplace policy can be supported by:

• sufficient training and capacity development of headteachers and school leaders;
• institutional framework, especially concerning the management of human and financial resources;
• a functioning grievance mechanism, with no fear of retribution;
• collaboration with teacher unions, Ministry of Labor, and HIV positive teacher networks; and
• consideration of the specific needs of teachers, considering factors such as sex, location, and level of access to services.

Teacher training institutions educate on HIV/AIDS issues, provide support and access to services

A key preventative measure is supplying teachers with HIV knowledge and support services during pre-service training, which also helps in reducing the discrimination and stigma surrounding HIV/AIDs, which can later affect teacher’s school environments as well as the values that they pass on to their students.

Mainstream HIV/AIDS into TTC institutional policies and programs by partnering with clinics, NGOs, civil society organizations to strengthen capacity, and utilize free training and ARV and VCT services. Facilitate access to VCT centers with free testing and counselling, condoms and reproductive and health services (usually health clinics provide referrals to local services). Get HIV/AIDS prevention integrated into curriculum, and tested in examinations.

Foster regional cooperation, such as regional inter-country information network to share best practices, funding financial assistance and scholarships to prevent teaching students from turning to transactional sex. Ministry of Education or regional office can reward model TTCs in their responses to HIV/AIDS, and share their best practices with other institutions.

Planning for the effects of HIV/AIDS on teacher supply and absenteeism

Strengthen EMIS to assess the impact of HIV related absenteeism, mortality and attrition and apply data in planning by having decentralized information systems monitoring teacher absenteeism, and attrition.

Raise the capacity of teacher training institutions based on projected supply constraints. For example, Guinea increased the output of its teacher training colleges tenfold, by shortening the duration of training courses (World Bank, 2006). However, attention must be paid to the effects on training quality.

Policies for pastoralist and nomadic populations

All of the policies and strategies previously recommended apply for this category. While there is no specific literature on reducing absenteeism in pastoralist/nomadic schools, it is a very relevant issue for these populations, especially in poorly resourced areas, and underfunded alternative schools. Inadequate compensation for teachers in pastoralist/nomadic areas fuels the situation, as well as the lack of recognition of some alternative school teachers by the formal education system.

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Student Engagement

Is student absenteeism a growing problem at colleges, too, by rebecca koenig     may 16, 2024.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of children regularly miss elementary, middle and high school .

Is the same pattern of absenteeism playing out at colleges, too? If so, what’s driving the trend? And what can professors and higher ed leaders do about it?

To find out, EdSurge interviewed Terri Hasseler, a professor in the Department of History, Literature, and the Arts at Bryant University in Rhode Island. She’s also director of the Center for Teaching Excellence there, which provides faculty with support for instruction, edtech, course design, classroom management and grading.

That vantage point gives her insight about what’s keeping students from feeling fully invested in showing up for class ready to truly participate in the learning process. She believes contributing factors may include a lack of ‘academic stamina’ among today’s students, changing parenting practices and inadequate explanations from faculty about why showing up actually matters.

The following interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

EdSurge: Why is student disengagement or absenteeism something that you’re thinking about?

Terri Hasseler: One of the things that I spend a lot of time with faculty on is things that they're seeing in the classroom. And over the last year, as we see things that are happening nationally in other institutions as well, we're seeing higher levels of absenteeism [and] greater elements of disruption and distraction in the classroom that are manifesting in all sorts of different ways. And in my position, I've been working with faculty to find ways to navigate those problems.

Is absenteeism a problem in college as well as at the K-12 level?

In terms of measuring absenteeism in college or university settings, it's harder because most schools don't have university-wide policies on absences. Some schools do, but a lot of schools generally leave absence management up to individual instructors. And so, much of the information that we find about whether people are engaging in classes … is primarily anecdotal — though I will say we hear this pretty broadly across the United States, but in my own institution as well, we hear that students are absent from class.

And then when we talk about absence or distraction — and I would argue that distraction and disengagement is still very much an issue, and we can talk a little bit about why that may continue to be the case post-pandemic — but distraction, absenteeism manifests itself perhaps differently.

So a student may not come to class or a student may come to class and then walk out of class five minutes into class and then be gone for 20 minutes and return sometime within the midst of that. They may disengage by being physically in the classroom, but on their phones or their laptops feigning attention , feigning participation in class, but they're really in their Amazon cart or they're in their email or they're someplace else.

So this kind of absenteeism may not be just not being physically there. It might be also the disengagement we're talking about, of not being mentally or emotionally available or present in the classroom.

Do you find that professors take attendance? Do they count that as part of a grade or is it more like if you choose not to show up, you're not going to learn?

It depends. I think some professors have very clear absence policies. I have an absence policy in my class. Though I think many people's absence policies are more lenient of late because of what the pandemic did for thoughts about health and well-being in the classroom. We don't want students in the classroom when they're not physically well. We don't want them getting other students unwell or getting us unwell. So the definition of being in the classroom, or the leniency of coming into the classroom because of health, has I think changed a lot. The pandemic did a lot in that way — in some ways in a good way — because I think people dragged themselves to places they didn't belong because they were unwell. And now we have more humane guidelines around that.

To your point though, more broadly, I think one of the issues is that we can no longer assume that it's a shared belief structure that we all think being in the classroom is the thing to do post-pandemic.

I mean, from the pandemic we've learned, ‘Oh, I can get lecture notes, I can get slides, I can get a video of the classroom, I can get all of the content that I need outside of the classroom, so why do I go to class?’ And a lot of that material that you can get outside of the class is really important for lots of reasons. It's good to support learning, it's important for accessibility, it's important to address accommodations for students. So that stuff is really important.

But faculty have to do a much better job of articulating why do you show up in the classroom now? What is the reason that you come to the classroom?

And for me as an educator, I always really subscribe to Paolo Freire's thoughts on the idea that you build knowledge together in the classroom with students. And the idea that 50 percent of the knowledge, 50 percent of the content enters the classroom when the students enter the classroom.

Students may not necessarily see it that way. It has to be articulated to them. They have to learn that a lot of the learning happens in context. A lot of the learning happens in relation to peers, the exchange of ideas, the importance of practicing ideas in a classroom and trying them on with your peers, with your instructor, the immediate access to the instructor that you get in the classroom and hearing ideas articulated in new ways that may be different from the external materials that you might get [from] the lecture slides or the PowerPoints. You can hear those articulated in different ways in the classroom. The iterative process of learning; the fact that you can't just read one thing once and know it, you have to go through it over and over again.

And I think some other things that we need to be better at communicating with students are the intangibles. Just showing up somewhere, practicing being present, practicing being on time, establishing a sense of responsibility to your peers that you are there being with other people.

Can you say more about that?

So I asked my students. I was thinking a lot about this kind of work and related to the question of how does physical absence affect other students in the classroom? If your classmate doesn't show up, how does that affect you?

And some of the things that I was thinking about and observing and seeing in my work and having a lot of faculty talk with me about this too, is that if students are distracted or physically present but not mentally present — they're on their laptop, for instance, and they're shopping in Amazon and you're sitting next to them as a student and you see this other student is clearly not there — that's very distracting. It's hard to focus if the person next to you is distracted, it distracts you. And it takes a while to get yourself back into the conversation. And there may be feelings about that, like ‘this is unfair, and why do I have to be there?’

And there's also a permissiveness about that. If it happens, it gives other students permission to think, ‘Well, maybe I should be on my Amazon account,’ or ‘I should be shopping.’

And I asked my students about that just recently. What do you think about students who don't show up? And it was really interesting because they got into a conversation about it, and they're very aware that others are not there, and they're very aware that some students who show up aren't there either.

And they immediately wanted to write those students off. They were frustrated with them, they wanted nothing to do with them. Some of the phrases were, ‘I'm glad when they don't come because they don't participate, and they just make it worse.’

And as I reflected on that, I thought it was sort of an interesting reaction because it seems to me it's almost a sense of betrayal, that their classmates have betrayed them in the learning environment. And if you're going to betray me, I don't want you here, just go away.

So students recognize this social contract — of the importance of being in space and learning together. But they're still trying to learn to articulate why it's important. And I think that's why faculty need to be better at articulating: You come to class for these reasons. This is why we spend time together in a room.

For students who don’t show up or who don’t engage, do their grades suffer?

My previous position was as an associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, and I will say that our DFW numbers [the percentage of students in a course who get a D or F grade or who withdraw] do increase across areas where students aren't engaging. But I can't put exact numbers on that.

Logically it follows that if you don't come, you're more likely to fail. You're more likely to not do well. You fail to establish your relationship with your instructor that could be your support system. If you're not doing well in the classroom, you lose access to the information that would prepare you.

Presumably higher education is voluntary. You've signed up to go to college. You've paid money to be there. You think there might be an economic prompt, if nothing else, to maximize this experience, but it sounds like that's not the case for everybody?

You would think. Certainly my background, where I came from, a lower-economic, rural farming community, I thought about the money that was invested and involved in the process of going to college. And I think our students do too. I mean, I think they're very aware of the economic reality. They see the student loans and the financial obligation of all of this.

And at the same time, we have students who are still disengaged.

Now, whether this is also something that can be tracked socioeconomically, I think that's an important question to ask.

Is disengagement a product of privilege? Possibly.

People who have more access to wealth, more opportunity to fail because financial support structures are there to help them if they fail, they may be more disengaged because of the product of that privilege. I have no evidence to support that, but it's certainly a reasonable question to ask.

Parenting practices have changed across time, too. … We've talked about helicopter parents for a long time. Now we're in that phrase of talking about snowplow parents, too — parents who remove all obstacles for students. And we're talking about that in my own Center for Teaching Excellence right now. We talk about that within the framework of the problem of kindness. How do you build a kind environment but don't interpret kindness as doing the work for them — doing the snowplow that removes all the obstacles — and still keep the necessary stress and discomfort of learning in place in ways that are supportive for students to manage that stress and discomfort? And I think that there's some arguments out there that because there's been so much work to remove some of those obstacles for students, they're less equipped to manage them.

A colleague in the CTE that I work with, Mary Boehmer, she uses the phrase ‘academic stamina.’ They haven't built the academic stamina because of the pandemic, because of, perhaps, parenting structures that move obstacles out of the way of students. And so we've done a disservice to students in not giving them the opportunity to fail. … And I think schools see that at this time of year especially, they really start losing that ability to get themselves through to the end.

Is there also an uptick in people not doing their academic work, not turning in assignments and expecting infinite extensions?

That could be a product of that sort of snowplow a conversation we just had. And also the necessary part of teaching during the pandemic, which is giving people multiple opportunities, making space for them to do it at their own pace because who knows what trauma they're dealing with in their family or in their home, and trying to build a space that gives them the time to do what they need to do.

And I would add that, we talk about being outside of the pandemic, but we're not outside of this heightened state of unrest, right? We are dealing with declining enrollments, the precarity of the world, the sense of people questioning the utility of education. So it may be that we're outside of the more formal frameworks of the pandemic, but we're still in discomforting times, and that's a part of the angst that students are in and that faculty are in, and people who work in academic settings are a part of the world, and they're experiencing that too.

So there is definitely noticeable anecdotal evidence to suggest that students are not coming to turn work in.

One of the things we noted in the fall is that we saw students coming back, they were more engaged, they were really excited. We thought, ‘OK, maybe we've turned the tide.’ Students were participating in much more events on campus, so we saw an increase in activity.

But then as the semester went along, that academic stamina issue arose. Less papers coming in. Students not following up. They would disappear. So there was sort of this performance of engagement that diminished as the semester went along because the stamina wasn't there to keep it.

Rebecca Koenig (@becky_koenig) is an editor at EdSurge. Reach her at rebecca [at] edsurge [dot] com.

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Ivan Specht decided to employ his love of math during pandemic, which led to contact-tracing app, papers, future path

Part of the commencement 2024 series.

A collection of stories covering Harvard University’s 373rd Commencement.

Ivan Specht started at Harvard on track to study pure mathematics. But when COVID-19 sent everyone home, he began wishing the math he was doing had more relevance to what was happening in the world.

Specht, a New York City native, expanded his coursework, arming himself with statistical modeling classes, and began to “fiddle around” with simulating ways diseases spread through populations. He got hooked. During the pandemic, he became one of only two undergraduates to serve on Harvard’s testing and tracing committee, eventually developing a prototype contact-tracing app called CrimsonShield.

Specht took his curiosity for understanding disease propagation to the lab of computational geneticist Pardis Sabeti , professor in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard and member of the Broad Institute, known for her work sequencing the Ebola virus in 2014 . Specht, now a senior, has since co-authored several studies around new statistical methods for analyzing the spread of infectious diseases, with plans to continue that work in graduate school.

“Ivan is absolutely brilliant and a joy to work with, and his research accomplishments already as an undergraduate are simply astounding,” Sabeti said. “He is operating at the level of a seasoned postdoc.”

His senior thesis, “Reconstructing Viral Epidemics: A Random Tree Approach,” described a statistical model aimed at tackling one of the most intractable problems that plague infectious disease researchers: determining who transmitted a given pathogen to whom during a viral outbreak. Specht was co-advised by computer science Professor Michael Mitzenmacher, who guided the statistical and computational sections of his thesis, particularly in deriving genomic frequencies within a host using probabilistic methods.

Specht said the pandemic made clear that testing technology could provide valuable information about who got sick, and even what genetic variant of a pathogen made them sick. But mapping paths of transmission was much more challenging because that process was completely invisible. Such information, however, could provide crucial new details into how and where transmission occurred and be used to test things such as vaccine efficacy or the effects of closing schools. 

Specht’s work exploited the fact that viruses leave clues about their transmission path in their phylogenetic trees, or lines of evolutionary descent from a common ancestor. “It turns out that genome sequences of viruses provide key insight into that underlying network,” said the joint mathematics and statistics concentrator.

Uncovering this transmission network goes to the heart of how single-stranded RNA pathogens survive: Once they infect their host, they mutate, producing variants that are marked by slightly different genetic barcodes. Specht’s statistical model determines how the virus spreads by tracking the frequencies of different viral variants observed within a host.  

As the centerpiece of his thesis, he reconstructed a dataset of about 45,000 SARS-CoV-2 genomes across Massachusetts, providing insights into how outbreaks unfolded across the state.

Specht will take his passion for epidemiological modeling to graduate school at Stanford University, with an eye toward helping both researchers and communities understand and respond to public health crises.

A graphic designer with experience in scientific data visualization, Specht is focused not only on understanding outbreaks, but also creating clear illustrations of them. For example, his thesis contains a creative visual representation of those 45,000 Massachusetts genomes, with colored dots representing cases, positioned nearby other “dots” they are likely to have infected.

Specht’s interest in graphics began in middle school when, as an enthusiast of trains and mass transit, he started designing imagined subway maps for cities that lack actual subways, like Austin, Texas . At Harvard, he designed an interactive “subway map” depicting a viral outbreak.

As a member of the Sabeti lab, Specht taught an infectious disease modeling course to master’s and Ph.D. students at University of Sierra Leone last summer. His outbreak analysis tool is also now being used in an ongoing study of Lassa fever in that region. And he co-authored two chapters of a textbook on outbreak science in collaboration with the Moore Foundation.

Over the past three years, Specht has been lead author of a paper in Scientific Reports and another in Cell Patterns , and co-author on two others, including a cover story in Cell . His first lead-author paper, “The case for altruism in institutional diagnostic testing,” showed that organizations like Harvard should allocate COVID-19 testing capacity to their surrounding communities, rather than monopolize it for themselves. That work was featured in The New York Times .

During his time at Harvard, Specht lived in Quincy House and was design editor of the Harvard Advocate, the University’s undergraduate literary magazine. In his free time he also composes music, and he still considers himself a mass transit enthusiast.

In the acknowledgements section of his thesis, he credited Sabeti with opening his eyes to the “many fascinating problems at the intersection of math, statistics, and computational biology.”

“I could fill this entire thesis with reasons I am grateful for Professor Sabeti, but I think they can be summarized by the sense of wonder and inspiration I feel every time I set foot in her lab.”

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Small Cars With Small Drivers Race Toward a World Championship

Inside the charming and intense competition to represent New York City at the international soapbox derby championship this summer.

In the northeast Bronx, elementary and middle school students build and race soapbox cars as part of their science curriculum. Credit...

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By Bernard Mokam

Photographs by Gabriela Bhaskar

• May 11, 2024

Valentina Ross arrived at the parking lot of Public School 111 in the Baychester neighborhood of the Bronx last Saturday seeking redemption. Spread all over the pavement were her opponents: 30 other soapbox derby teams, competitive elementary and middle schoolers and their teachers wearing matching shirts and attending to their gravity-powered vehicles. In last year’s race, she lost in the final heat, missing out on a chance to represent P.S. 83 at the Soap Box Derby World Championship in Akron, Ohio. She was determined not to let that happen again.

“You have this guilt built inside of you,” said Valentina, a 13-year-old from the Morris Park neighborhood. But she had prepared herself, doing yoga that morning and running hill sprints until she gathered with her team.

The race last Saturday was the culmination of months of effort from schools in the northeast Bronx, where students designed and assembled soapbox cars to compete for a place in the international championship this summer.

The derby racing was also a manifestation of the science curriculum in District 11 — one of a handful of New York City districts that have turned to soapbox to engage pupils and ultimately get them excited about going to, and being in, school.

Constructing the cars allowed students and their teachers to take a break from books, applying the concepts of physics and aerodynamics to test runs in the hallways and cafeteria.

The race on Saturday would send one winning team to what is officially known as the FirstEnergy All-American Soap Box Derby World Championship, which attracts nearly 400 contestants from around the world.

The rules are deceptively simple: Teams haul their cars (inspected by organizers to exacting specifications) to the starting line at the top of a modest hill off Baychester Avenue. Drivers slip into their cockpits, the starting gate opens and gravity does the rest. Over the 50-yard track, cars can reach speeds of 18 miles per hour.

The competition is designed like a bracket for a college basketball tournament: If a driver wins, she advances; if she loses, she goes home. Each heat has two races. After the first race, competitors swap wheels and start from the opposing lane of the track — an effort to eliminate material advantages. The driver with the fastest combined time moves forward.

Formalized soapbox derby racing emerged in 1930s, after the newspaper photographer Myron Scott witnessed a group of boys riding junkyard cars on the streets of Dayton, Ohio. In 1934, Mr. Scott pitched Chevrolet on a race for local youth; the company sponsored the All-American Soap Box Derby into the 1970s, and the competition has been held nearly every summer since.

Champions have come from all over the country: Clearwater, Fla., upstate New York, Bowling Green, Ky. New York City, however, has never produced an All-American Soap Box Derby champion.

It is not a cheap sport. Each soapbox car costs $1,800 — an official kit that includes lesson plans, basic parts and related race fees. (Teams are encouraged to customize the outer shell.) The schools in the Bronx also contribute to help pay for the winners’ trips to the championship race.

In 2022, Claudine Conover, the newly appointed STEM coordinator for District 11, introduced soapbox racing as part of the curriculum in the Bronx. That year, only 12 teams participated. Last year the number of cars ballooned to 46, and interest continues to grow, with more than 50 racers from 31 schools competing this year. Districts 7, 8, 9 and 10 in the Bronx have also asked Mrs. Conover to manage a derby for their schools.

School-sponsored races also occur in Staten Island and Brooklyn — and many participants credit Patricia Lockhart, a retired science teacher from Staten Island, with integrating soapbox into the city’s curriculum in 2015.

“Once you start, it goes crazy,” said Ms. Lockhart, who is now the New York City director for the All-American Soap Box Derby.

Building derby cars is woven into the philosophy of Leaders of Tomorrow, a Bronx middle school that has struggled in the past with violence and chronic absenteeism. It’s not only an engaging way to teach aerodynamics and physics. According to Joseph Biernat, the school’s principal, students on the soapbox team are “are more likely to come to school because there’s something else positive going on.”

The man in charge of Leaders of Tomorrow’s soapbox team is Ronald Washington Jr., a science teacher. Many of his students have dreams of playing basketball in college and beyond, he said, and he was impressed at their devotion to after-school soapbox sessions, when they might otherwise be at the gym.

Mr. Washington, a ballplayer himself who tore his A.C.L. playing at Bronx Community College, stresses to his students the importance of singing more than one song. His message is not to discard the game they love, but to continue to explore new opportunities.

“It’s more than just basketball,” he said to them, and they were all in. But after a couple of initial victories, Leaders of Tomorrow lost in the third round.

“It was very competitive,” said Jeremih Gayle, 12, one of the team’s drivers. “And I just enjoyed the day.”

One unfortunate aspect of soapbox racing: It is a team effort to build and test the car, but only one person gets to drive it. On race day, the rest of the team serves as the pit crew. They adjust the steering and replace the wheels, they push and pull the car up the hill to the starting line, and they greet the racer at the finish line.

Each car must weigh exactly 240 pounds at the start. Once a driver is in the cockpit — a student might weigh around 100 pounds — teams place weights in the car to meet the threshold. Even without a driver, it can still be a heavy load.

Manav Lall, 11, a member of the P.S. 87 pit crew, was prepared. “I do 20 push-ups a day,” he said.

His teammate Halvel Williams said he was prepared, too. “I have muscles,” he said. The 10-year-old flexed his biceps.

On Saturday, Manav and Halvel stood by the finish line holding small checkered flags. They wore coordinated red racing suits. Even their teacher, Dwayne Austin, wore the uniform.

After the first race, they chased after their driver, Jayden Cassanova, as he sped past the time sensor. Together with their teacher they nudged the car, decorated in honor of Lightning McQueen, the protagonist in the movie “Cars,” back to the starting line.

Though committed, the team was bounced after the first round.

Valentina, on the other hand, the driver for P.S. 83, dominated her competition early. She eased into the third round, where she faced P.S. 68 — the very school that beat her in the finals last year.

After the first race in a heat, Valentina would jump out of her car at the finish line and run uphill for the second race as if she were angry. But she was simply focused.

So, too, was Jayden Trapp, P.S. 68’s first-time driver, a fifth grader who wants to be an engineer like his father. Jayden, whose favorite subject is math, never missed a practice, according to his teacher, Craig Fogarty. And his mother, Elva, said Jayden could barely sleep the night before the race.

“I had to put him to bed early,” she said, describing her son as the type of kid who will break something “just to fix it.”

Both drivers slipped into their cars with practiced form. In her blue derby car with its yellow lightning-bolt stickers, Valentina looked one with her vehicle. Jayden, in his shiny burgundy car, looked like a pilot prepared to pierce through the wind.

The gate opened, the crews cheered and the two barreled downhill. It was close, but Jayden outpaced Valentina, who said she was disappointed but not angry. Jayden’s burgundy soapbox car went on to victory, and this July, he will get a chance to race for the championship in Akron.

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