South Africa’s education system has another problem: teachers not turning up

The Department of Basic Education has published its latest School Monitoring Survey, showing where the country’s schools are improving and also where things are getting worse.The survey was commissioned by the department in 2017, and sought to measure the progress of public schools through to 2019.Across the major indicators, the department measured areas of concern including vacant teaching posts, teacher absenteeism, access to books and libraries, the functionality of school governing bodies, and the effectiveness of national exams.While some areas showed improvement since the previous survey (2011), others underlined growing problems.According to the department, on the positive side, access to libraries has increased across South Africa’s schools – even more so in poorer areas.Schools have also become more effective in terms of their governing bodies and infrastructure needs. However, only 59% schools meet the national infrastructure standards, the report showed.Teachers also remain a problem, with teacher absenteeism increasing. As many as one in 10 teachers are AWOL on any given day – this despite vacancies filling up.According to the survey results, cases of teacher absenteeism have increased from under 8% in 2011, to over 10% in 2017/18.The tables below show the percentage of absenteeism at primary and secondary schools in South Africa, by province.For primary schools, Northern Cape teachers tend to be absent the most – while Eastern Cape teachers are the biggest offenders at secondary school level.