TSC lists Common Causes of Teacher Absenteeism in Schools
Teachers Service Commission TSC has issued a number of main causes for teacher absenteeism in schools. According to the Commission Teacher Chronic Absenteeism is taken as a serious offence that if committed that can lead to disciplinary action.
TSC defines Teacher absenteeism is as a Persistent/repeated absence from duty without permission and lateness for duty attendance.
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When the commission wants to take a disciplinary action, it requires the following pieces of Evidence from the Head of Institution:
- TSC Casualty returns
- Official letters from authorities reporting the teachers absence from school
- TSC Monthly staff returns.
- Official Warning/show cause letters for absenteeism.
- Teachers’ Daily attendance registers/clock in register.
Under the latest research, TSC discovered that Illness is becoming the main cause of teacher absenteeism in schools which is now over 70 percent.
It has been also discovered that some teachers skip lessons to attending burials and others claim some excess workload causing burn out.
The other reasons for teacher absenteeism include:
- Teachers’ payslip committed more leading to stress and inability to travel to school,
- Teachers’ domestic issues – marital/family misunderstandings .
- Teacher having stress,
- Engagement in alcoholism,
- Teacher following up issues at TSC offices,
- Teacher having low morale as a result of low pay and lack of promotions,
- Other teachers engaging in some income generating activities; commonly known as side hustles,
- Cases of insecurity more so in hardship regions
- Teacher participating in running income generation activities hence teacher
- Teacher engagement in politics and
- Teacher being confined in police cell or prison.
Inorder to curb absenteeism cases , the Commission introduced the teachers performance Appraisal Development TPAD
There are some serious activities that have have worked in TPAD .These include:
- maintenance of daily school and teacher attendance registers which are are important documents
- The introduction of records for teachers’ accountability and proof of performance for both the appraisees and appraisers
According to TSC , proper maintenance of these records helps to keep track of appraisee performance in lesson attendance,total lessons missed and total lessons recovered.
TSC lists Common Causes of Teacher Absenteeism in Schools