Half of primary school tutors don’t attend class
What you need to know:
- World Bank report says Kenyan teachers skip lessons costing economy Sh27bn yearly.
Nearly a half of primary school teachers in Kenya do not attend classes, a new report by world leaders shows.
The report puts the loss linked to absenteeism at Sh27 billion a year as 47 per cent of school teachers stay away from classes, 16 per cent of them choosing not to report to school at all.
It means that out of about 200,000 teachers in primary schools, 32,000 of them never show up in schools at all while 94,000 colleagues who report to schools do not teach students.
The report by the Education Commission, a team made up of presidents, former prime ministers, business and education leaders, was presented to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon yesterday at the start of the 71st General Assembly in the US.
The report observed that teachers are the single largest expenditure item in education budgets, accounting for up to 90 per cent of recurrent costs in some countries.
In Kenya, the Treasury allocated Teachers Service Commission Sh194 billion this financial year with most of the cash going to teachers’ salaries.
“Increasing the number of hours of actual instructional time is one of the most effective ways to improve learning. But teachers are too often not in school or not teaching because they are expected to perform non-teaching tasks (such as fundraising or administration), because they need to travel to receive their pay or attend training courses which could have been delivered locally or because they are subject to poor or non-existent management and supervision,” notes the report.
The report says books are among the most effective investments in improving learning outcomes. It says many countries in sub Saharan Africa, Kenya included, textbooks are underfunded, priced too high, unavailable to many learners or poorly used.
The report reveals that books costs in Kenya are 50 per cent higher, because publishers deliver them through middlemen whereas in Rwanda they supply textbooks directly to schools.
“Involving communities to help oversee the distribution of textbooks can help to reduce losses. Opening up the bidding process can lower costs,” says the report.
Earlier, Education secretary Fred Matiang’i had announced plans to review distribution of textbooks in public schools after it emerged that most head teachers were not buying books.
The report notes that low-income countries should dedicate up to five per cent of their national incomes to education to facilitate transition to high-income status.
