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Learner absenteeism report published
31 March 2008
A study into learner absenteeism, commissioned by the Department of Education, has found that the prevalence of learner absenteeism in South African schools is between 5% and 15%. The study adopted a simple definition of absenteeism as a situation where a learner is not at school for an entire day.
In developed countries, absenteeism rates usually range between 6% and 8%. However, absenteeism rates in African countries have been found to be much higher, sometimes as high as 50%. The study also reported that many school, district and provincial officials reported that learner absenteeism is not as big a problem as teacher absenteeism.
The reasons for learner absenteeism generally fall in three broad categories: personal (illness, learning difficulties); socio-economic (transport, lack of parental involvement, dysfunctional families, the impact of HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy), and school-based (boredom, punishment for late-coming, bullying and violence in schools).
Editors' notes:
1. In 2007, the Department of Education commissioned the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE) and Joint Education Trust (JET) to undertake an investigation into learner absenteeism in South African schools. The aim of the study was to investigate the extent of learner absenteeism in schools, explore the reasons why learners absent themselves from schools, examine the systems that exist to record, monitor and reduce learner absenteeism, and review international and local good practice in recording and monitoring learner absenteeism.
2. The empirical investigation was based on a study of thirty schools throughout the nine provinces, complemented by interviews with officials from district and provincial offices.
3. To complement primary data collection, a detailed local and international literature review was undertaken. The local literature review aimed at assessing the extent of learner absenteeism in South Africa by examining existing large-scale studies on the incidence of learner absenteeism in South Africa.
Enquiries:
Lunga Ngqengelele
Tel: 012 312 5538
Cell: 082 566 0556
E-mail: ngqengelele.l@doe.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Education
31 March 2008