Teacher Absenteeism: Malaysia’s biggest education problem

No one wants to tackle the issue

One of the government school system’s least acknowledged issues, teacher truancy or absenteeism has been highlighted in a recent court case in Kota Kinabalu.

Three former secondary students from SMK Taun Gusi in Kota Belud, Sabah won a civil case in the High Court against the school’s former headmaster Suid Hanapi, the director-general of education, minister of education, and federal government.

The case involved their former teacher, Mohd. Jainal Jamran, who was assigned to teach English for 3 hours per week, but was absent from class for seven months from January to October 2017.

In addition to absenteeism, issues of general corruption and nepotism within the school system was exposed during the trial. There was an attempt to cover up Jainal’s truancy by backdating his class attendance books, by a former education director, distantly related to Jainal. The case also publicly exposed the use of death threats against one of Jainal’s fellow teachers Nurhaizah Ejab, who also had her car tyres slashed in retaliation against her whistleblowing.

One of the amazing issues arising from this case was that the Ministry of Education so stringently defended this case.

Landmark case

This landmark case opens up one of the major problems within the secondary school system, and attempts to cover it up. Undoubtedly, teacher absenteeism from classes in both primary and secondary schools is far more widespread than what most outsiders believe. Teacher absenteeism could be a major factor in the underperformance of many students, particularly in poor rural areas across Malaysia.   

Extent of the problem

Teacher absenteeism cases in Malaysia have not been reported for over 14 years. According to the NGO Tiada Guru in Sabah, an OECD report back in 2009 indicated that 19.5 percent of Malaysian school principals had reported teacher absenteeism.

As mentioned in the introduction, much of the problem remains unreported due to deliberate cover ups among staff, falsifying records, and nepotism. There is a culture of fear that prevents school students reporting teacher absenteeism, due to the massive power-distance relationships between students and teachers in Malaysia. Perhaps the most telling statistic is that between 2010-2017, 55.4 percent of disciplinary cases heard by the Ministry of Education, involved teacher absence from duty.

What are the major consequences?

Teacher absenteeism is just as much a problem in schools, as are curriculum, pedagogy, and class size issues.

This puts students who must perform well in exams to gain a tertiary qualification at a great disadvantage, According, to the NGO Tiada Guru, this problem tends to happen more in poor rural settings, than in urban environments.  Teacher absenteeism contributes to the continuing cycle of poverty.

Lower exam passes directly affects income. A diploma holder earns 1.4 times as someone with only SPM, while a degree holder earns 2.3 times more. Literacy rates remain much lower in rural areas, than urban areas.

Teacher absenteeism is therefore more than an education issue, it perpetuates the incidence of poverty in rural familes.

Teacher absenteeism also contributes to student truancy. When there is no supervisory teacher in class, students will wonder away or not turn up to class at all. Many students come from homes where the parents work and want their children to assist with home duties, or family enterprises. Unlucky ones may go astray outside of class, and become involved in using narcotics due to boredom.

There is a massive youth drug dependency problem in rural Malaysia a today. Teacher absenteeism must be eliminated so it doesn’t contribute to the problem.

A poor refection upon the teaching profession

Teacher absenteeism is a symptom of dissatisfaction within elements of the teaching profession. Many have low motivation levels. Others were just not suitable for the profession, while others use the time dishonestly to undertake other income earning activities.

Teacher motivation is an issue the MOE must look closely at.

Nothing been done about the problem

Teacher absenteeism has been kept a secret at school level, away from the MOE to protect reputations. The school management culture is one of cover up, where any staff problems will be kept ‘inhouse’, outside the ministry disciplinary system. Unfortunately, much more than teacher absenteeism is also covered up. This includes theft, rape, and molestation.

According to the former deputy chief (prevention) Shamshun Mohd Jamil of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), only 0.01 percent of the nation’s civil servants are brave enough to report corrupt practices to authorities. With the stories of intimidation that came out of the trial at the Sessions Court in Kota Kinabalu, this is very understandable.

Teacher absenteeism is a major impediment on education standards. Disciplinary rules are not being enforced to prevent this. The solution is there but not utilized.

This issue deeply affects the standard of school education in Malaysia and must be tackled head on. One absent teacher affects up to 50 students.

This issue should be solved before any other reforms are even thought about.

Originally published in FMT 12th September 2023.

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