RI teacher absenteeism 'third-highest' in world

RI teacher absenteeism 'third-highest' in world

Dewi Santoso
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Moonlighting teachers and the lack of toilets in many schools are
among the reasons for alarming levels of the absence rate of
elementary school teachers in Indonesia, a survey suggested.

The reason for the highest absence rate of 36.4 percent was
because "several grades are being taught in one classroom", the
study recently issued by the SMERU Research Institute
said.

It involved 147 state and private elementary schools in 10
major and small towns. The average absence rate was 19 percent,
the third-highest in the world after Uganda (39 percent) and
India (25 percent).

SMERU conducted the study for the World Development Report
2004 issued by the World Bank, whose Global Development Network
of research institutes compiled eight country case studies on
education. The teachers' absence rate, part of the Report's theme
on public services in education, were also surveyed in
Bangladesh, Ecuador, Papua New Guinea, Peru and Zambia apart from
Indonesia, India and Uganda.

During the research in October 2002 and March 2003 SMERU
workers made impromptu visits twice to each school and observed
over 1,400 teachers.

SMERU disclosed that schools where 45 percent of the teachers
were playing truant could not provide clear excuses for their
absence, while 36 percent were said to be sick or on leave.

Further interviews revealed that the employment status of
teachers, educational background and access to school facilities
like restrooms were the main reasons for absenteeism.

Part-time teachers were found to have a higher absence rate
(27.8 percent) as compared with those working full-time (18.2
percent).

"We strongly recommend that more part-time teachers be made
full-time teachers because of the large gap in income" which most
likely leads to moonlighting, a SMERU researcher, Alexander
Arifianto, said on Sunday. Moonlighting would explain much of the
unclear excuses found at the schools where teachers were found to
be absent, he added.

Part-time teachers receive a monthly salary of Rp 50,000
(US$5.5) to Rp 450,000, whereas full-time teachers earn Rp
782,000 to Rp 955,000, the survey says.

Minimum monthly provincial wages this year range from Rp
400,000 to Rp 700,000, depending on living costs in each
province. Jakarta has set the minimum regional wage at Rp
671,550.

The study also discovered that, within higher education,
teachers were more frequently absent without leave. The absence
rate of those who hold diplomas is 21.9 percent, compared with
4.1 percent for those with lower degrees.

"Teachers with higher education ...have greater opportunities
to find side jobs," said the survey.

Another reason for absence is the lack of school facilities,
such as nonavailability of restrooms (29.2 percent) and
inadequate classrooms (36.4 percent).

SMERU said the higher the level of absence of teachers, the
lower their students' school performance, particularly in
Indonesian language and mathematics.

In schools where the absence rate of teachers stands at 20.4
percent, the average grades of students in math and Indonesian
language are 59.5 and 74.6, after tests.

However, in a school where the absence rate stands at 18.9
percent, the average in math is 80.5, with 94.0 in Indonesian.

Worse still, the study found that in schools in some villages
where teacher absenteeism was relatively high, most fourth-year
students failed to pass dictation tests.

Apart from promoting qualified part-time teachers to full-time
status, SMERU's other recommendations include the improvement of
school facilities and buildings.

According to 2001 data the country employs 1,129,475
elementary school teachers. SMERU estimated the country needed at
least 236,500 more of them.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri said on Saturday she had
signed a decree on the appointment of 300,000 new teachers this
year. It was unclear, however, whether they would all teach
elementary school students.

The inadequate number of teachers has been blamed partly on
the low education budget.

The government has allocated Rp 15.3 trillion for the
education sector, or 3.49 percent of the total state budget of Rp
439.8 trillion in 2004 -- only 1.2 percent higher than the Rp
12.8 trillion allocated in 2003.

Its Southeast Asian neighbors like Malaysia, Thailand, the
Philippines and Singapore, respectively, allocated 23 percent, 22
percent, 20 percent and 19 percent of their state budgets to
education.