HOW TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF TEACHER ABSENTEEISM
If some of us still hold the idea that school teachers are near-perfect in behaviour, manner and style, then reports that some teachers actually indulge in scandalous (mis)behaviour is disconcerting, to say the least.
According to the 2020/2021 report by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) of Tanzania, teachers of dubious probity are usually involved in five major crimes across the land.
These include (with the percentage of the reported cases shown in brackets): absenteeism from work (51.9 percent); forged qualifications (25.7 percent), and love affairs with their pupils (11.8 percent).
Others were stubbornness/obstinacy at work, and drunk while they were, or should have been, on duty.
Speaking to the Press on this at his office in the national capital Dodoma recently, the TSC chairman, Dr Willy Komba, revealed that some 931 school teachers were accused of absenteeism from work countrywide during the year under review.
In fact, 105 of the teachers were reported absent in the period from July to September last year alone (2021) – and, if nothing else, this made absenteeism from work the leading offence among teachers in Tanzanian schools.
On the other hand, cases of forged documents which were uttered and/or otherwise produced to the authorities at one stage or another of the teachers’ careers numbered 461 in total.
Also, 211 “love affairs” involving school teachers and their pupils – short-lived or prolonged affairs – were reported to the Teachers Service Commission for appropriate punitive and/or remedial action.
It can reasonably be argued that not all incidents of such behavioural malpractices are reported to the Teachers Service Commission and/or other relevant authorities. Therefore, it would also be reasonably logical to surmise that if all the incidents were made public in one way or another, this could be shocking all-round.
A matter of course
Furthermore, it is presumed that the foregoing statistics relate only to pre-primary, primary and secondary school teachers – and not to educators at the tertiary level of education, where such malpractices are also believed to occur as a matter of course.
Generally speaking, teachers are people who normally help pupils or students to acquire knowledge, competence, etc, in a given subject or matter – usually doing so in formal settings such as schools.
But – in most countries of the world, anyway – teachers are also supposed to be professionals who are themselves not only properly educated and trained for the job… They must also be adequately remunerated, and otherwise compensated, for their very noble role of imparting education and other forms of knowledge upon other people within the context of formal training.
“Compensation” here includes – but is by no means limited to – formal pay and other favourable working terms and conditions that are guaranteed and sustainable as a matter of course.
Also to be taken into account are possible occupational hazards, as well as the obligation upon teachers to honour and respect the rights of students and other persons up and down the line in the education stakes.
The relevant Tanzanian authorities must, therefore, ensure a harmonious working and learning environment to avoid errant teachers in our midst.
