Sometimes I really wonder if there is a way to reduce teacher absenteeism in one/two teacher schools in the rural backwaters of Sindh. It's quite a big challenge for any district/taluka authorities to effectively monitor teachers' presence at schools. It is quite predictable that non availability of a teacher on regular basis at a school, should demotivate a child from attending schools and should ultimately affect learning outcomes of children.
Our current management model based on Taluka (sub district ) and Union Council (UC/basic unit of a taluka) has not solved the problem of teacher absenteeism. There are many questions to be investigated and answered, for example:
i. Do teachers not come to school because there is no adequate monitoring mechanism in place?
ii. Are teachers not afraid of disciplinary punishment even if they are found to be absent?
iii. Do teachers bribe the officials for their absence from schools out of their salaries?
iv. Do teachers at the disposal of schools under a regular head teacher (sanctioned post) attend more regularly than at a school administered by non regular ones?
v. Can community monitor the teacher's absenteeism to help reduce absenteeism?
vi. Should teachers be made part of a pool at the disposal of an implementation partner to ensure availability of a teacher at each school?
vii. Does political element or unions play a critical part in teacher's non availability at school?
And, myriad questions, come to my mind. But I have not thought out any quick fix solutions. I think we need to investigate and see what should be done to reduce teacher absenteeism in rural Sindh. A concerted media campaign could also play a key role for improvement of the situation.
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