Civil Society Education Coalition (Csec) has expressed concern over public school teachers’ rampant absenteeism, especially towards the end of the month, saying this is contributing to the degradation of education standards.
According to Csec Executive Director, Benedicto Kondowe, a teacher salary basket survey which was conducted recently found that teachers spend a good chunk of their time following up on their salaries, abandoning classes in the process.
He added that because teacher motivation is very low, they end up doing piecework at the expense of their profession and this, too, contributes to absenteeism.
He was speaking in Lilongwe during the Csec Annual General Assembly held under the theme ‘Building a Malawian Movement for Education Agenda 2030’.
“Because there is perpetual delay in teacher receiving salaries and the salaries are low, classes are absconded and once classes are absconded, it means learners are not taught and you note that the curriculum is not fully covered,” said Kondowe.
He added that of late, the learning environment has become volatile to children, particularly girls “and this is a matter that we have to take on collectively so that we make the learning environment as conducive as possible to avert dropouts.”
While admitting that there is absenteeism among teachers, particularly towards the end of the month, Director of Secondary and Basic Education, Chikondano Mussa, said salary delay is just a scapegoat.
“We acknowledge that indeed there is teacher absenteeism in the system but it cannot be totally blamed on late payment of salaries because I can tell you and assure the nation that government tries every month to pay teachers’ salaries in time,” he said.
She further claimed that if one did a survey, they would discover that most teachers are paid at least by the 25th of every month.
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