+TEACHER ABSENTEEISM

THE SOLUTION“SAARTHI”

DIVYA MITTALANSHUL GUPTAAVINASH KUMAR

+

HOW

BAD

IS IT

- A

GLA

NCE

India

Avkashpur

5 15 25 35

India Avkashpur

Absenteeism Rate

24 35

Absenteeism RateIndia & Avkashpur

Source: Transparency International

+WHY ABSENTEEISM – TEACHERS VIEW

Work Load• New Syllabus• Non Academic duties (Election, BPL survey etc)

Overcrowding – High Teacher/Pupil Ratio

Inaccessibility and Remoteness of Schools

+VIEW OF ADMINISTRATION

Strong Union of Teachers

• Thwarted Penal Action• Ineffective Monitoring

Unauthorized Absence

+WHAT IN THE GIVEN CASE WORKS IN FAVOUR OF OUR SOLUTION

Strong Political will

to check absenteeism

Good Infrastructure in Schools

60% of students in

District Study here

High Enrollment

Rates

High Reach of Schools – Total 1500+

schools

+STAKEHOLDERS

Parents & Village

Community

Teachers & Teacher Unions

Government Students

+SOLUTION FRAMEWORK

Incentivization

Dis-Incentivization

Technology Based Monitoring

Community Participation

+ SOLUTION - “SAARTHI”

Fraud in recording attendance

Satyapan(Hourly

Biometric attendance)

Lack of Incentives and disincentives for absence for

teachers

Sthanantaran(Disincentive

system)

Sarahana(Incentive

system)

Salahkar(Grievance redressal of

teachers and counseling)

Even after reaching school, teachers may not attend

classes

Sanjhedari(Social Audit)

Sookshma-niriksha

(Institutional Audit)

Lack of accountability of

the school (Leads to lack of monitoring

of teachers)

Spashtata(Transparent categorization of schools in categories based on teacher absence and associated monitoring and incentive structures)

PROBLEM

SOLUTIONS

+SOLUTION FLOWCHARTPer hour teacher attendance using

Biometrics on Tablet

Loading of Data Weekly on Gram Sabha Systems

One Time Data Loading on Main Server

• Leave Rules• Salary Rules• Teachers Profile (Age,

Training, Previous Absenteeism etc)

Main Server

• Process Leave Information based on available data and leave rules

• Automatic System Assessment of Absenteeism at year end

Generate Transfer List

Issue Transfer Orders

Monthly Leave Alerts to Teachers

• Approved/Unauthorized Leave

• Any Special Leave Case – Override to Principal

• GPS Tracking

+BIOMETRIC HARDWARE DEVICES

Fingerprint reader

+ASSUMPTIONS FOR THE SYSTEM

Following are the KEY assumptions

1. District radius: 40km2. Class lecture is of 1 hour3. Teachers are

natives of district4. At any point there are postings available in all zones

5. Teacher's distribution is uniform all over the district6. In case of

unauthorized absence either principle, vice principal or any other

teacher is taking classes. Burden sharing, will break teacher unionism.

+THE SOLUTION – “SATYAPAN”

Problem Area 1 : Fraud in Recording Attendance

Biometric attendance every hour by hand held device to be managed by the Community resource person (CRP – Village Panchayat) - with GPS location to ensure that the attendance is marked in the school itself. With specific over-rides given to the School Principal

The CRP will upload the data weekly on the Gram Sabha servers from where it will be loaded on the Main District Level Servers.

The Main Server will contain pre loaded data of Teachers Profile including Biometric Records, Leave Rules, Salary Data.

+THE SOLUTION –“STHANANTARAN”

Problem Area 2: No Dis-Incentives for absence of Teachers

Teachers to be characterized into bands of Red, Yellow and Green based on unauthorized absence

The Main Server will generate a list of transfers at the end of the year based on the Total Unauthorized Leave details of the teacher. Transfers away from the home based on the score. Teachers lying in the Red and yellow bands in the previous year to be transferred

+THE SOLUTION –“STHANANTARAN” Contd..

Formula for calculating band in ‘Sthanantaran’ system

No. of unauthorized absence days = n

0< n <= 10 – Green band

10<n <= 15 – Yellow band

n > 15 – Red Band

Explanation: If at the end of the day, no of unauthorized absent days are less than 10, teacher would lie in the green band. If between 10, 15, he would lie in the Yellow band; If unauthorized absent days are greater than 15, he would lie in Red band.

Eg. If a teacher has 13 unauthorized absence days, he would lie in the yellow band.

+Transfer policy (Assumption - District has a radius of 40km)

Depending on the band in which the teacher lies at the end of the year, he/she would be transferred away from his/her home.

Green band : 0-10 km

Yellow band : 10-25 km

Red band : > 25 km

If a teacher lies in the Green band, he would remain within 10 km of his home for the next year; If the teacher lies in the yellow band, he would be transferred in an area within 10-25 kms of his home; If the teacher lies in the Red band, he would be transferred in a school which is situated at a distance of more than 25 km from his home

THE SOLUTION – “STHANANTARAN” Contd..

+

Teacher’s home

District center

THE SOLUTION – “STHANANTARAN” Contd..

+THE SOLUTION – “STHANANTARAN” Contd.. A teacher who continues to remain in the yellow band for two

consecutive years, would be treated as lying in the Red band

A teacher who continues to remain in the red band for two consecutive years, would have disciplinary proceedings initiated against him

+THE SOLUTION –”SARAHNA”Problem 3: Lack of Incentive for Better Performing Teachers

Bonuses to teachers who remain in the green band for continuously 3 years

Social recognition: Yearly rewarding and felicitating teachers who are placed in the green band on district level by State Education Minister

Meritorious teaches to be made brand ambassadors of teacher profession. They would hold seminars for new teachers and impart attitudinal training

+THE SOLUTION – “SALAHKAR”

Problem Area 4: Lack of hearing to teachers problems

Grievance Redressal and Counseling

The teachers may actually be facing some problems which is resulting in the unauthorized absence. There would be grievance redressal committee at the district level to talk to teachers and redress the individual problems facing them. Counseling would also be available to teachers for ensuring better performance

+THE SOLUTION – “SANJHEDAARI”

Problem Area 5: Even after reaching school the teachers may not attend classes

SOCIAL AUDIT

Parents to be deputed daily and authorized to go to schools to check whether the teachers marked present are actually present in their respective classes or not. Some random checking can be done. Parent to be trained for this.

+THE SOLUTION: “SOOKSHMA NIRIKSHAN”

Problem Area 5: Even after reaching school the teachers may not attend classes

Institutional Audit

School inspection committees to be formed involving District Education Officers and NGOs. They would randomly check schools everyday to see whether the teachers marked present in the system are teaching in their respective classes at the time of the check

+THE SOLUTION: “SPASHTATA”

Problem Area 6: Lack of accountability of the schools - which leads to lack of monitoring of teachers

Schools to be similarly classified (Explained later) into Red, Yellow, Green bands at the end of each year based on the number of teachers in each band. This would help in easy monitoring of erring schools by the district administrative structure.

School Principals to be rewarded for the school's performance. Special bonuses to be announced at the end of every three years for schools which were in the green band for the entire period.

+THE SOLUTION: “SPASHTATA” Contd..

Formula for calculating band for school in ‘Spashtata’ system

Calculate the unauthorized absence days for each teacher in the school

Calculate the mean of the above – This would be the average unauthorized days of the school - n

The school would then lie in the same Red, Yellow, Green bands based on this average unauthorized absence number (n)

0< n <= 10 – Green band

10<n <= 15 – Yellow band

n > 15 – Red Band

Eg. If a school has 12 as the average unauthorized absence days, it would lie in the yellow band.

+THE SOLUTION: “SPASHTATA” Contd..

The district administration can easily monitor the schools in different bands. (Bird’s eye view) More monitoring can be done for Red zone schools

School principals would be rewarded based on the band in which the school lies. –

• Bonuses at the end of the year for the school lying in the green zone for three consecutive years• Teacher loans and other benefits to be linked with the status of the school – This would bring

teacher pressure on their peers to perform well. This would be helpful in reducing the power of unions

+CHECKING TEACHER UNION

Accountabil

ity

• Better Monitoring• Transparency in System

Peer Performan

ce Pressure

• Teachers incentives linked to the band of school-calculated based on mean absenteeism of all teachers leading to peer pressure for performance

Communit

y

• Participation by Village Community

+STAKEHOLDERS MANAGEMENT

Teachers

• Teachers : Everybody wants a job near to home. Less time in commuting more time with family, better family life.

• Performance bonuses

• Transparent Transfers

Parents & Students

• Social marginal benefit of education. Merit Good.

• Incentivizing schools will lead to better facilities and better education outcomes

Administrators

• Equal burden sharing will break unionism. Easier to manage for "Us"!!

What can be done to make the Stakeholders “Buy In”

+COSTING

Cost to be met using the district innovation fund and the untied funds available with VEC as part of SSA

+FUTURE IMPROVEMENTSIn the formula, currently the only parameter being considered is unauthorized absence of teachers. This would fall in the category of output assessment

We are aiming at the output. But in reality, the aim of any policy is to analyze the outcomes. In this case the desired outcome would be to have better learning outcomes for the students. Hence, the transfer policy formula under ‘sthanantaran’ should have a weightage for student learning outcomes also. This would mean that the teacher is not transferred based on their absence but also the improvements in learning outcomes achieved by the students.

+

The practical difficulties in this are as follows:

Student learning outcomes could depend on a number of parameters, which are exogenous to the teaching of the teacher. Some of these are listed below:

Teacher training

Teacher experience

Teacher load - no. of classes taken by them

Student teacher ratio

Inherent capability of the students for the subject – historical reasons (eg. In case of English)

This would imply that any performance assessment scores would need to be

regressed in terms of all these parameters and the impact of teacher training on the

assessment scores would need to be determined. Then the transfer formula should

be based on unauthorized teacher absence as well as the impact of the teacher on

the assessment scores.

FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS Contd..

+

THANK YOU!