ABSTRACT
Teacher absenteeism is one of the most serious forms of corruption in education. Obviously, there are many valid reasons for a teacher to be away from the classroom. Some absences are clearly illegitimate, however, such as when teachers ‘moonlight’ — namely working elsewhere when they are scheduled to teach. Moreover, there are official absences, the root cause of which is inefficiency or corruption upstream. Take, for example, cases in which officials rely on teachers for their party's election campaigning. Regardless of the reason, the system is failing the child when there are high levels of teacher absences. There are five primary forms of absenteeism: official teaching and non-teaching duties; excused absence; authorised leave; illness or other, unexcused, absences; and tardiness. 2
