THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHERS’ ABSENTEEISM ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KAYUNGA DISTRICT, UGANDA

Abstract

The study established the influence of teachers’ absenteeism on academic performance in selected secondary schools in Kayunga district. The objectives of the study were: to examine what causes teachers to absent themselves in selected secondary schools of Kayunga district in Uganda, to analyse the students’ academic performance in the last 5 years in selected secondary schools of Kayunga district in Uganda and to examine the relationship between teachers’ absenteeism and students’ academic performance in selected secondary schools of Kayunga District in Uganda. The study used across sectional survey design strongly associated with qualitative and quantitative analysis. The study was limited to ten (10) Government aided secondary schools found in Kayunga district. The entire population for the study was 3,880 with the sample size of 211 respondents selected from the government aided secondary schools. This included 1 DEO, 10 head teachers, 100 teachers and 100 students. The researcher used both random and purposive sampling techniques in selecting respondents used in the study. It was found out that teachers in Kayunga district absent themselves from classes, come late to school, leave early from school, and miss school because they are dissatisfied with their jobs, they want to attend to family responsibilities like taking care of the children and family members, they are substituting their income with side businesses, they are undertaking further studies programmes, they are demoralized and some miss due to illness like malaria, diabetes, blood pressure and other diseases; schools in Kayunga district have had very few number of students scoring Division 1 for the past 5 years; there were many students scoring Division 9 in most secondary schools for the past 10 years; schools in the district have been ranked among the least performing schools in the country in terms of academic performance; and that most students who complete Advanced level have had no chance of obtaining government sponsorships in different public universities . It can be concluded that teachers’ absenteeism leads to less content coverage ,encourages learners absenteeism ,students’ negative attitude towards learning, poor working conditions between teachers and learners, creates indiscipline amongst students, leads to financial loss to the school through hiring more teachers to stand in for absentee teachers and creates a bad image for the school which in turn reduces students’ enrollment, poor class attendance and poor academic grades. It was recommended that school employers should ensure that there is constant supervision,stakeholder involvement and remuneration so as to motivate teachers as a way of curbing down teachers’ absenteeism hence improve academic performance