Maximizing the performance of education systems: the case of teacher absenteeism

Teacher absenteeism affects the quality of education by reducing instructional time. Moreover, as teachers represent the single largest item in the education budget of all countries, their absence from the classroom represents a direct loss of resources, estimated in some countries at between 10 and 24 per cent of recurrent primary education expenditure. This paper presents a framework for discussing corruption issues in education and applies it to the specific case of teacher absenteeism. It presents evidence on some promising pathways for improving the performance of education systems and reducing corruption in the sector. These include: better monitoring; linking performance to incentives; and, increasing accountability and transparency. It argues that issues of teacher absenteeism require additional analyses and that the piloting and evaluation of approaches that show promising results is necessary.