Ms D Carter (Cope) to ask the Minister of Basic Education:
Whether her department had carried out an analysis of absenteeism of educators to determine on which days they were more likely not to report for work; if not, when will such an analysis be undertaken; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
According to research on educator leave commissioned by the Department of Basic Education in 2009 (Report published in 2010) which analysed recorded leave data on PERSAL and data collected through visits to a sample of schools, the pattern of leave taking is that educators are absent more frequently on Mondays and Fridays.
Just over three quarters of all leave instances recorded on the PERSAL system were of one or two days in duration not requiring a medical certificate. From the findings of this particular study it is estimated that 25 percent of absence is due to sick leave being taken, which is the highest of all absences.
Source: Department of Education
