Teacher Absenteeism: A Theoretical Review

Teacher absenteeism makes an unhealthy environment in educational organization. It is an issue that affects developing as well as developed countries, their economy, their schools and their students. It strongly affects school effectiveness, academic achievement of the students and it also lead to student’s absenteeism. In India teacher absenteeism occurs due to different reasons. Some of the important reasons are lack of interest, illness of self and family members, family problems, qualification and lack of professional competence of the teachers. These are some important personal factors which influence teacher absenteeism. Besides personal factors, school factors and environmental factors also influence teacher absenteeism. School factors like, lack of adequate in-service training, poor leadership quality of headmasters, lack of effective supervision and monitoring by the school administration and ministry of education, and poor infrastructure facilities of school lead to the teacher absenteeism in India. Environmental factors are especially weather and community characteristics that in different ways contribute to teacher absenteeism. Some example includes distance of work place, unhealthy environment or weather conditions.