I came across a blog talking about Esther Duflo, a French economics professor at MIT.
Duflo (2007) conducted a research (Monitoring Works: Getting teachers to come to school)Teachers to to reduce teacher absenteeism in rural India. In fact the problem is not endemic to rural India only; it is a widespread phenomenon in many developing countries in rural backwaters including in Pakistan and more specifically in the rural Sindh. The main cause is that schools are located at distant locations, and the schools are usually one or two teacher schools.
Duflo in association with her colleague Rema Hanna, took a random sample of in Rajasthan, and used cameras for teachers daily attendance monitoring. Students took pictures of teachers in the morning and before school close. Cameras were temper proof with date and time stamps.
The study proved that it was a simple idea, and it worked. Teacher absenteeism plummeted, as measured by random audits, and the class test scores improved markedly.
The million rupee question is could we in Sindh do something innovative/similar to enforce/encourage teachers availability at schools? Needs in depth discussion and review of ground realities.
There could be several ways to increase the teacher attendance. I think the teachers are usually not well-paid in government schools. If the attendance is linked to wage enhancements/bonuses or to the performance of his/her students in the class, this could lead to more interest in teaching and hence more attendance.
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