The South African education sector is riddled with several challenges affecting the provision of quality education to learners. For instance, the post-democratic South African education system is faced with the challenge of ensuring that schools have sufficient numbers of motivated and skilled teachers. In addition, the sector is plagued with several problems, such as shortage of teachers in certain subjects, poor performance of teachers in classrooms, and teacher absenteeism, which lead to loss of time for teaching and insufficient coverage of the curriculum. The right to education entails giving learners adequate quality education. In this regard, the constitutional court of the Republic of South Africa in its jurisprudence observed that role-players in the education sector, such as national officers, provincial officers, and bodies governing schools, have an obligation to make sure that the right to education is achieved [
1]. Thus, among the role-players, teachers are an important human resource towards building a functional and effective system of education, and act as “loco parentis” because they also assume the role of ‘‘parents for the learners’’. The learners in the classroom look up to their teachers as role models, hence they are expected to conduct themselves based on the behavior of their teachers, whether good or bad. Teachers play a critical role in nurturing learners, building their skills and knowledge base, which can help them to contribute positively to society. They are also expected to provide support and motivate the learners so that their academic performance is enhanced. However, this can only be done and achieved by teachers who are present and actively participating in education programs [
2].
Teacher absenteeism is a problem that affects many countries. This problem is very high and prevalent in developing countries compared to developed countries, and also other jobs or workers in countries that are less developed [
3]. According to the World Bank National Absence Surveys (WBNAS), an absenteeism rate of 10–12% is deemed to be higher than the absenteeism rates in countries with high income, but is lower than the absenteeism rates in countries with low income. Thus, based on the physical presence of teachers in their designated schools rather than their attendance as indicated on logbooks, the WBNAS found that there was a 17% absence rate in Zambia, 19% in Indonesia, and 25% in India. Furthermore, it was noted that there was a 6% absenteeism rate in Canada, and as high as 26% in Brazil. In India, at least one in four teachers were absent on a typical working day. As a result, there is fiscal wastage because the government has to pay salaries for teachers who are not reporting for duties. The cost of teacher absenteeism is very high in India, as it is reported that approximately
$1.5 billion is the fiscal cost associated with absenteeism [
4]. According to the World Bank, 10–24% of expenditure spent on education across the globe is a result of teacher absenteeism. This includes approximately
$16 million spent in Ecuador and
$2 billion spent in the Indian education sector [
5].
South Africa has not been immune to the scourge of absenteeism. According to the Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshegka, 7.5 million teachers were absent during the year 2012. Furthermore, South Africa has the highest rate of teacher absenteeism in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region. Teacher absenteeism in SADC is on average 9 days per teacher annually, whereas, in South Africa, teacher absenteeism was on average 19 days per teacher annually as of 2012 [
6]. Chauke [
7] argues that teacher absenteeism contributes to students’ underperformance in schools. It is assumed that between 10 to 12% of teachers shun schools, and these amounts to 39,000 teachers on a daily basis. In addition, 77% of instances where teachers are absent are Mondays and Fridays. Thus, despite spending a lot of money on the education system as compared to other countries in Africa, South Africa is faced with the challenge of weak education outcomes. For instance, South Africa provides for 6% of its GDP on education, which is on par with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries [
8]. According to Brown and Arnell [
9], teacher absenteeism is a global challenge which may lead to wastage of financial resources and short-changing young students. Simply put, it is viewed as one of the worst forms of corruption in education. While some teachers may have legitimate reasons for staying away from the classroom, the majority have no valid reasons for absenteeism. They are involved in ‘moonlighting’, thus working or conducting private teaching lessons not sanctioned by the school where they are supposed to be teaching. In some cases, absences that are purported to be official may be the genesis of inefficiency or corruption upstream. Regardless of the reason, teachers and the system are failing the learner due to high levels of absenteeism [
10]. “Because it is not measured, chronic absenteeism is not acted upon. Like bacteria in a hospital, chronic absenteeism can wreak havoc long before it is discovered. That havoc may have already undermined school reform efforts of the past quarter-century and negated the positive impact of future efforts.” [
11] (p. 3). The impact of teacher absenteeism is severe and real hence it is important to investigate the problem and find ways of addressing it. Thus, addressing teacher absenteeism is critical for the education sector so that government resources in the form of public expenditure on salaries are justified [
12]. This research analyzed changes in the rate of teacher absenteeism in South Africa among the nine provinces as a major in-class factor contributing to student performance and effective learning. Specifically, the research looks at what has changed between 2011 and 2017.