The Ministry of Education’s efforts to improve student and teacher attendance have paid off.

Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts, Mahendra Reddy confirmed this saying that the rate of teacher and student absenteeism from school on a daily basis had reduced.

Mr Reddy told participants of the Education Forum in Labasa yesterday: “We have noted that there were continual teacher and student absenteeism. However, the rate has reduced this year.

“According to last year’s statistics, on an average, 10 per cent of students were absent from schools in a day. On an average, 16 per cent of teachers were absent in a day.

“With the provision of bus fare scheme, advocacy and awareness on education, we have substantially reduced student absenteeism from 10 to six per cent,” Mr Reddy said.

“Teachers’ absenteeism has reduced to 12 percent. We have already started collecting statistics daily.

“Just over one month of collection of data daily (what time the teacher comes and which teacher is absent), we have seen lot of changes.

“We are continuing with the evaluation on the daily attendance of students.

“These are some measures that we have adopted ensuring that our children do get quality education.”

Edited by Ranoba Baoa

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