Missing Teachers in Schools

34.4% government primary school teachers in Punjab schools remain absent daily, found a secret survey in the 78 percent of primary schools conducted in state in 2005 by World Bank representatives Najmul Chaudhri, Jefri Hamer, Helsi Rogers. According to the World Bank report Punjab ranks third from the bottom, just behind Bihar at 37.8% and Jharkhan at 41.9%.
Overall in India 25 percent of teachers were found to be absent from school, and only about half were teaching, during unannounced visits to a nationally representative sample of government primary schools. With one in four teachers absent at a typical government-run primary school, India has the second-highest average absence rate among the eight countries for developing countries.
The investigation concludes that higher pay is not necessarily associated with lower absence. Older teachers, more educated teachers, and head teachers are all paid more but are also more frequently absent; contract teachers are paid much less than regular teachers but have similar absence rates; and although relative teacher salaries are higher in poorer states, absence rates are also higher. Teacher absence is more correlated with daily incentives to attend work: Teachers are less likely to be absent at schools that have been inspected recently, that have better infrastructure, and that are closer to a paved road. The report found little evidence that attempting to strengthen local community ties will reduce absence. Teachers from the local area have similar absence rates as teachers from outside the community. Locally controlled non-formal schools have higher absence rates than schools run by the state government. The existence of a PTA is not correlated with lower absence. Private-school teachers are only slightly less likely to be absent than public-school teachers in general, but are 8 percentage points less likely to be absent than public-school teachers in the same village.