Absenteeism is one of the most serious and unethical practices facing many organizations in the world nowadays.  Almost all institutions claim that there is no 100% attendance of employees in their work.  Common talk of the day is that employees report to work late, leave early from work, extend tea break, lunch and even toilet break attend private business during working hours, forge illness, and extend time to collect tools of work and unscheduled absence from work.  Most organization treat all the above as prior factors aiding teachers’ absenteeism. 

In his quasi experiment, Rockoff, in New York City found that monitoring program reduce teacher’s absenteeism, and improve retention.  In Rajasthan province of India, teachers’ attendance improved when cameras to monitor attendance were introduced while in North Carolina teachers’ attendance improved when a policy to charge for each day they took off was introduced. Multi-country survey report by Glewwe and Kremer [1], found that monitoring of teachers by school directors accompanied by disciplinary action reduce teachers’ absenteeism by a high rate. The survey found that in a school where teachers‟ attendance register is well kept and maintained, teachers‟ absenteeism rate is low.  Teachers who teach in schools located closer to educational offices and therefore receive routine monitoring have lower absence rate.  It has been observed that the rate of teachers‟ absenteeism tends to be higher when head teachers are not in the school because of lack of regular monitoring of the teachers as they perform their duties.       

Absenteeism is influence many factors Chaudhary et al thus personal illness, family conflicts, lack of job satisfaction leading to law morale lack of friendly work group norm poor leadership style at the work place, lack of effective supervision and inspection of employees, assignment of other duties outside work place, bad weather condition, union influence and poor working condition, among many factors.

According to Ehrenberg, et al [2], great organizational support can cause low absence rate of the individual teachers because it reduces stress.  Schools that lack strong staff welfare will have higher absenteeism rate of teachers. This is because there is no teamwork and some social needs are not met and this demotivates teachers.  A school where the head teacher’s leadership style does not involve teachers in decision making, that which does not allow teachers to participate in policy making demotivates them hence increasing rate of absenteeism.  While in schools that have good leadership style by the head teacher, teachers’ absenteeism rate has been reduced by a big percentage. 

According to Chaudhary, et al [3], the study on multi-country survey indicates that 10% of the teachers‟ absenteeism is attributed to illness.  In Uganda and Zanzibar HIV infection was found to be responsible for the largest share of teachers‟ absenteeism. Researchers‟ observation on the teachers’ absenteeism indicate that teachers who are sick or have sick family members will not attend school but stay at home to recover or to take care of the sick person. 

Glewwe and Kremer [1], established that, teacher absenteeism in Kenya varies from one region to another where the rate ranges from 20% to 28.4% of the time. He also argued that 12. 4% of teachers were in school but not in the class teaching. Komoni stated that while teacher absenteeism is a serious obstacle to the provision of quality education in Kenya, there is little systematic data on its extent.  This study therefore seeks to establish actual data on teacher absenteeism in Kenya and in particular North Pokot Sub-County. 

While presenting assessments report to the headteacher 2013, the sub-county Quality Assurance and Standards Officer confirmed that absenteeism of school head teachers in term 2, 2013 was at an alarming rate in North Pokot Sub-County.  In response to the report, the head teacher Konyao primary school observed that in his school the rate of teacher absenteeism was 32% during the June/July 2013 teachers‟ strike. 

According to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) county directors’ speech during the county educational day in 2013 at Makutano stadium, West Pokot County, teacher absenteeism is the key factor leading to poor performance in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in the county.

Statement of the Problem 

Teachers’ absenteeism underpins the delivery of quality education in many institution of learning system. In schools, absenteeism has a monetary cost to the authorities with regard to substitute teachers. In cases of excused (illegitimate) absence, payment of such teachers, represent unproductive public expenditure. It is investment without returns. In many countries (Kenya included), investment in education takes the lion’s share of the total budget. For example, El Salvador, Guinea, Morocco, Kenya and Yemen, in which one-fifth to one-third of public budget are allocated to education.

A small but growing volume of research on teachers’ absence behavior indicates that this problem is particularly severe among schoolteachers in underdeveloped nations. Thus, the influence of teachers’ absenteeism is real and hence the need to dig into its causes with a view to addressing it. Reducing teacher absenteeism will mean a great saving and justified public expenditure in form of teacher salaries. According to daily nation, dated 25th February 2018 by Augustine Oduor: He said that TSC demands regular absenteeism report from our public schools because of an acute poor performance in public schools.

 Literature Review

Research data available shows that personal characteristics influence teacher absenteeism. They include age and gender of the teacher, illness of the teacher or a family member, experience and job dissatisfaction of the teacher, seniority and the type of employment for the teacher; qualification and lack of professional competence of the teacher, compassionate leave and family conflicts among other family responsibilities. 

Research has established that teachers join the teaching profession when they are highly motivated but they, burnout‟ as the age of the teacher increases [1].  This explains why older teachers are often more absent. According to Ervasti et al. female teachers are absent more frequently than male teachers due to more family demanding responsibilities.  However, Rosenblatt and Shirom, argue that male teachers are absent more than their female counterparts who have few outside workplace responsibilities that are likely to take them away from the school.  General observation from Kenyan schools is that female teachers are absent more often than male teachers and that younger female teacher are more absent than their older counterparts due to more family responsibilities. 

World Bank report [4], revealed that during the first year of teaching, teachers tend to be effective but after two to three years of experience, the teachers become more effective and their attendance is good. However, the survey report done among many school administrators indicates that newly employed teacher’s absence rate is low compared to the long serving teachers.  According to Sargent and Hannum, when teachers lack job satisfaction the rate of absenteeism increases. Alcarliar et al. argue that contract teachers in Peru and Indonesia have higher rates of absenteeism because they spend more time exploring alternative employment. Researchers’ ‟observation is that an employee who has good terms of payment and service will have low absenteeism rate. 

Chaudhary et al [1], established that senior teachers tend to be more absent than low ranking counterparts.  Thus the head teachers are absent from school more frequently than regular teachers because they must attend other administrative duties outside the school such as meetings organized by the Ministry of Education officials, workshops and seminar among others. In addition, temporary and contract teachers are often more present than permanent teachers because they fear losing their job. According to Alcarizar et al teachers trained in pedagogy are more professionally qualified and motivated than those teachers who studied other subjects and therefore they have low absence rate.  This explains why teachers from recognized Teacher Training Colleges are considered more for teacher employment. Rockoff et al found that school employees whose performance is poor are rated as being absent more often than the average counterparts.  Thus, teachers who lack professional competence have higher absenteeism rate than the others.  Many school administrators concur that teachers who are non-performers are frequently absent from school because most likely they lack professional competence. 

According to the code of regulation for teachers in Kenya, a teacher is entitled to various leaves among them compassionate leave. Obeng-Denteh et al [4], argues that generous school leave policy can cause higher rate of absence among the teachers in developing countries. Researcher’s observation on teacher’s absenteeism is that like any other employee, when there is death of a family member or colleague a teacher will seek permission to attend the burial ceremony. If a teacher has a sick or hospitalized dependent, permission was obtained to attend the same.  This explains why compassionate leave is one of the leading causes of teacher absenteeism. Naturally, when a teacher has a family conflict, which may lead to court cases, or fight, which may cause physical injury, such a teacher, was absent from school so as to create time to resolve the conflict.  In addition, religious meetings, ceremonies and customary functions conducted during a weekday are likely to make teachers absent from school when they attend the functions as part of their constitutional rights. 

School factors are institutional characteristics and working conditions that in different ways influence teachers‟ absenteeism. They include: Lack of group accepted norms, poor leadership style of the head teacher, lack of effective supervision and monitoring policies by the school administration and Ministry of Education, the status of the school whether private or public, poor school infrastructure and equipment, lack of in-service training programs among other motivation policies, high pupil-teacher ratio and assignment of other school administrative duties. 

Kremer, et al. argues that private school teachers have absence rate of a third lower than their public school counter-parts in the same location.  Researcher’s observation is that teachers in private schools are well paid and therefore well motivated to work more than their counterparts in public schools. According to Chaudhary et al. [1], average schools with best infrastructure and equipment had far much lower absence rate than those with worst infrastructure even after controlling other factors.  The multi-country survey has indicated that schools with good quality infrastructure and adequate teaching and learning equipment have smaller absence rate since the teachers are more motivated. 

Aaronson et al [5], observed that teachers training can lead to teachers‟ absenteeism when teachers are removed from class for a period without a substitution.  In many schools in-service training for various subjects are usually conducted during the working hours, thereby keeping the concerned teachers out of class.  Teachers who have received recent in-service training have low absence rate than those who have not, thus training and in-service training reduces teachers‟ absenteeism. According to Rockoff et al. teachers in schools with high pupil-teacher ratio will often be more absent because of the high work load leading to overworking of the teachers.  In this case, teachers will absent themselves to avoid this excess work. 

In Chile teacher attendance rate increased when teachers were offered bonus ranging from 5-7% of their annual salary. In a school where teachers are not given material incentives and have no promotion policies, teachers are demotivated and the rate of absenteeism is high. According to Glewwe and Kremer [1], when teachers are assigned other duties outside the school for example taking students for games, drama, music, science congress, teachers are kept out of classrooms thereby increasing absenteeism rate unlike those other teachers who are not assigned such duties. 

The current study attempted to find out how the school factors influence teacher absenteeism in primary schools in North Pokot Sub-County. The above-mentioned effects may not be the only effects influencing teacher absenteeism in North Pokot sub-county, hence the need for this study. 

The nature of working conditions at a school, such as the culture of the school, its physical condition, and responsibilities or expectations assigned to teachers, can influence absence rates. Five factors involving working conditions that relate to teacher absenteeism are: School culture, where poor attendance by some teachers had a ripple effect on others at their school. For example, in Ghana the absenteeism of teachers in a school district affected the motivation of fellow teachers, who were left to take on additional planning and instruction [6]. 

School facilities and infrastructure in six countries including Bangladesh, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Peru, and Uganda - primary schools and health facilities with poorer infrastructure (based on an index that included “the availability of a toilet, covered classrooms, non-dirt floors, electricity and a school library”) had higher absenteeism rates [1]. In India teachers were less likely to be absent at schools that were inspected regularly.  This was also the case in Indonesia, where teachers at schools with inadequate facilities (such as lack of electricity or working toilets) were more likely than teachers at schools with adequate conditions to be absent [7].

Environmental factors are community based characteristics that in different ways contribute to teachers‟ absenteeism.  Some examples include the location of the school, residence of the teacher, remoteness of the school, level of poverty of the community, assignment of non-teaching tasks to the teachers, education level of the parents, political influence and weather conditions. In Ecuador, it was observed that teachers working in rural areas were less absent than their urban counterparts who are deterred by the good infrastructure in urban centers. According to multi-country survey World Bank [4], many governments pay teachers a bonus, addition housing or transport allowance for locating in less desirable schools.  In Kenya, this is called hardship allowance and is paid to the teachers teaching in hardship areas, such as arid and semi-arid regions.  This study will try to establish whether this hardship allowance has effect on teacher absenteeism in North Pokot Sub-County. 

Teachers who live far from the school have higher absence rate than those who live near the school.  This is because such teachers find themselves late whenever they face any challenge in managing time. According to Chaudhary et al [8], teachers are more absent on Fridays and Mondays when they go early to start long weekend and when they are late due to weekend activities.  In addition, teachers from remote areas have increased absenteeism rate because they cannot reach the school on time due to poor transport and again they travel far too urban centers where they can access services such as banking and sometimes they extend weekends and holidays. According to Abeles [9], teachers from communities, which are poor, have high rate of absenteeism because the community lacks supervision and monitoring ability of the teachers.  On the other hand, common practice is that poor communities have no vibrant activities to reduce the teacher absenteeism. 

In South Africa, the government pulled teachers out of school to carry out duties such as voter registration, election oversight and public health campaigns. Many organizations find teachers knowledgeable, available and committed in performing public tasks in the community. For this reason, many organizations will deploy teachers when there are such tasks making them stay out of classrooms. Alcazar, et al. observes that teachers having a local origin have lower absenteeism rate than those from other communities.  According to Hubbell [10], indigenous teachers tend to be more absent than the non-indigenous teachers.  This is because the indigenous teachers being near home have many personal activities that require their attention from time to time compared to non-indigenous teachers who are far from their home. 

In Nicaragua, lack of control over the schools was due to low education of the parents, which was responsible for high teacher absenteeism rate in rural areas.  This is because the illiterate parents lack knowledge of the need for education for the children unlike their counterparts who are educated, hence know the value of education, and supervise teachers to be in school on time.  In Latin America, rural primary school teachers were found to be less frequently absent due to activities related to union participation.  A teacher who is a union member is absent more often than teachers who are not members of any union because they are protected by the union constitution and again some days are used for union meetings.  According to Rogers, et al.  [11], in Ecuador, teachers strike in 2003, lasted for six weeks influencing teachers’ absenteeism for the same period.  Wars and other civil disorders can cause teacher absenteeism.  In Kenya, schools in the areas affected by 2007/2008 post-election violence were closed because of teachers‟ absenteeism since many had run away for their safety.  In addition, insecurity in the northeastern region areas of Kenya made teachers to boycott reporting to work for the first term in 2015 

Bad weather conditions such as floods can disrupt travel and communication systems thereby delaying the teachers from reaching the school on time.  During heavy rains, muddy roads and flooded rivers can make teachers to be absent from school.  The current study will attempt to find out how the environmental factors influence teacher absenteeism in public primary schools in North Pokot Sub-County, which may be unique to the sub county.  The above mentioned effects are not universal to all areas in Kenya thus this study will attempt to find out how environmental factors influence teacher absenteeism in North Pokot Sub-County. 

Socioeconomic, health, and environmental conditions have all been cited as overall reasons for high teacher absence rates.  The location of schools and communities in relation to health care facilities and other basic necessities, such as clean water, affect a teacher’s ability to show up and teach, [12].  These issues are especially apparent in rural areas. In Nigeria teachers in urban schools had slightly lower absentee rates than teachers in rural schools, which were attributed to more regular school supervision and higher visibility of inspectors in urban locations. 

In India teacher absenteeism was higher in the rural, less developed regions than in the most developed areas.  Schools were sometimes staffed by a single teacher, and they closed completely when that teacher did not come to work [1,11]. Across multiple countries small schools (especially those in rural settings in emergent nations) are mostly at risk for high teacher absence.  Reasons for this phenomenon include that small schools in remote communities struggle to attract qualified and dedicated teachers; that rural schools tend to have poorer infrastructure, which deters attendance; and that traveling away from remote areas (for example, to visit a doctor or attend in-service training) requires long journeys and more missed days of school [13-14].  Social and cultural norms, including expectations for female teachers’ specific social and cultural expectations and traditions in the Pacific Region may also relate to high absenteeism. 

For example, traditional feasts and funerals can feature as an important part of village life, and attendance obligations can override professional ones.  An individual teacher’s status among family and village relationships may also determine whether teacher absenteeism is overlooked within a public school system [15]. Gendered patterns of absenteeism can also be understood as an indication of broader societal expectations of women.  In Bangladesh, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Peru, Tanzania, and Uganda female workers tend to be absent more often because their professional responsibilities as teachers are sometimes at odds with the domestic and caregiver duties they are expected to perform in the home [12,1].

The study adopted descriptive survey research design in identifying the sample size of 264 participants. Basically descriptive survey was effective because it collected or assembled data from a large sample at low cost as well as taking little time, equally this design was useful in that it is a means through which views, opinions, altitudes and suggestions of people are taken care of fully to improve education process. Questionnaire and interview schedules were employed in data collection. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data and presented in form of frequency distribution tables. The results of the study are beneficial to the ministry of education who may use the findings to identify the environmental, schools and teachers’ personal factors that cause teachers’ absenteeism hence providing quality education.

The findings from the analysis indicate that teacher absenteeism has a measurable impact on pupils’ academic performance across various dimensions. The results related to pupils’ academic performance showed moderate agreement among participants, with mean scores ranging from 3.012 to 3.431. Notably, regular supervision had the highest mean (M=3.431, SD=1.096), suggesting that it is perceived as the most effective mechanism influenced by addressing teacher absenteeism. Similarly, a strong and committed staff (M=3.321) and improved training and monitoring programs (M=3.012) were positively associated with efforts to assess and mitigate absenteeism. Further analysis of the correlations demonstrated statistically significant relationships between teachers’ personal, school, and environmental factors and pupils' academic performance. Personal factors such as age, gender, health, and qualification all showed moderate positive correlations with academic performance indicators, with qualification exhibiting the highest correlation (r=.453, p<.05). School-related factors including leadership, supervision, staff welfare, and quality assurance were also positively associated with improved academic outcomes. Among these, regular supervision (r=.353, p<.05) and quality assurance practices (r=.412, p<.05) stood out. Lastly, environmental factors such as good infrastructure, school locality, and political neutrality were strongly linked to academic performance, with working in harmony showing the strongest correlation (r=.466, p<.05). Overall, all three categories of factors—personal, school, and environmental—were statistically significant predictors of improved pupil outcomes, reinforcing the multifaceted nature of the issue.

These results underscore the critical role of teacher-related   variables   in    shaping   learning outcomes. They 

Table 1: Pupils Academic Performance

Table 2: Teachers’ Teachers’ Personal Factors

Table 3: Correlation between Teachers’ Teachers’ Personal Factors and Pupils’ Academic Performance Variables

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

Table 4: Correlation between Personal Factor and Pupils’ Academic Performance Factor

Table 5: Teachers’ School Factors

Table 6: Correlation between Teachers’ School Factors and Pupils’ Academic Performance Variables

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

Table 7: Correlation between Teachers’ School Factor and Pupils’ Academic Performance Factor

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

Table 8: Teachers’ Environment Factors

Table 9: Correlation between Teachers’ Environment Factors and Pupils’ Academic Performance Variables

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

Table 10: Correlation between Teachers’ Environment Factor and Pupils’ Academic Performance

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

provide evidence that addressing personal well-being, professional environment, and broader institutional contexts can reduce absenteeism and positively influence students' academic success. The statistically significant correlations support targeted interventions in teacher management and school governance policies to foster better academic performance among pupils.

The analysis results reveals that teachers’ personal factors, school factors and environment factors positively and significantly influence pupils’ academic performance. The analysis results in objective one revealed that teachers’ personal factors positively and significantly influence pupils’ academic performance contributing 20.5% variability to pupils’ academic performance when other factors are held constant. The analysis results in objective two reveal that school factors positively and significantly influence pupils’ academic performance contributing 13.8% variability to pupils’ academic performance when other factors are held constant. The analysis results in objective three reveal that environment factors positively and significantly influence pupils’ academic performance contributing 11.7% variability to pupils’ academic performance when other factors are held constant.

Recommendations

The sub-county should embrace teachers’ personal factors since age, gender, health and qualification enhances pupils’ academic performance. The sub-county should also embrace school factors since staff welfare, leadership, supervision and quality assurance improves pupils’ academic performance. Finally, the sub-county should embrace environment factors since infrastructure, political interference, school locality and working harmony improves pupils’ academic performance.

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