Getting teachers back to the classroom. A systematic review on what works to improve teacher attendance in developing countries - Paper

Education remains one of key pillars of development, and indicators like literacy rate and school attendance are regularly used as a measure. "Getting teachers back to the classroom. A systematic review on what works to improve teacher attendance in developing countries" by Guerrero et al, looks more specifically at one component of education: teacher attendance.

Abstract

"This article reports on a systematic review of research on the effectiveness of interventions aimed at increasing teacher attendance in developing countries. After a comprehensive search process, nine studies met the inclusion criteria. Pooled effects sizes of included studies were estimated (with the exception of three studies that had unavailable information to calculate their effect sizes). Results show that direct interventions coupling monitoring systems with incentives and indirect interventions involving the community and parents in students’ education had statistically significant effects on teacher attendance, suggesting that close monitoring and attractive incentives are mechanisms of high potential to reduce teacher absenteeism".

To note that this paper looks at a very limited set of studies (9), as it only reviews rigorous impact evaluations within their parameters. The findings themselves are not groundbreaking and fairly intuitive: both direct and indirect interventions have a positive effect. Those that already following educational issues will not be surprised, but it may be useful as a quick overview on teacher attendance for newcomers.

Probably the most interesting fact is that they could not link teacher attendance and student achievement (although the study was not specifically looking at that). While school may have other social benefits (i.e. socialization, keeping youth contained), the main stated objective is educational outcome. However, increased teacher attendance does not necessarily lead to improved educational outcomes. Probably the leading advocate these days on this issue is Lant Pritchett, but also others have highlighted time and again the disconnect between educational inputs (focus on teachers,  buildings, materials) and actual educational outcomes.