24 _Teacher delays._ It is not sufficient to show up at school, teachers must also teach. About 15.4% of Moroccan teachers were observed to delay entering their class by about 8 minutes. If this delay is consistent across classes, it constitutes 2.4% of the time broadly lost or 4.91 days of the 204 in the Moroccan school calendar. In Pernambuco, observers also found 12% of the teachers (5% in the 40-school sample) outside the classes during class time (half were chatting). Tunisia and Ghana did not explore whether teachers were inside classrooms.

_Present but not teaching..._ The Moroccan enumerators observed that 15.4% of teachers were late by 7.8 minutes in entering the class. If this delay is consistent across classes, it constitutes 2.4% of the time broadly lost or 4.91 days of the 204. In Pernambuco, observers of the Pernambuco survey found 12% of the teachers (5% in the 40-school sample) outside the classes during class time (half were chatting). Other countries did not ask this question, which has generated in other countries concerns about teaching avoidance. However, a 2003 USAID study in Ghana found that on the day of school visit, 25% of the teachers were present but not teaching. After missing school for about 20% of the time, 9% of the time left is lost to student abandonment.<sup>105</sup> The study estimated 8.25 hours lost per week in the mainly rural and periurban communities of the sample.

_Assigned to a school but not teaching_ .... In several countries teachers may be assigned to schools where they do not teach, often as a political favor (Chapter 2). This survey did not ask the schools how many teachers were assigned to them vs. how many teachers were actually expected to show up every day. However, the Superintendency of Pernambuco found at the time of the survey large numbers of teachers with fewer assigned hours of classes. There were also teachers who were on various types of leave, others who had been seconded to schools of their liking, and some who had effectively abandoned the public schools. For example, the district of Barrentos showed that 175 of the 459 teachers (38%) missing, while Sertão de San Francisco had 40% of the teachers missing. In addition some “substitutes” were found who had been illegally contracted by teachers to teach in their stead. Principals were often cognizant of the problem and assented. In addition to the salary wastage, training becomes impossible since it is unclear who teaches in various schools. Teacher unions complain when actions are taken against absent teachers, and conflicts are frequent.

_Poor record-keeping and potential under-scheduling. A_ detailed examination was available only from a sample of 40 schools in Pernambuco. Enumerators found absences in 88% of the school registries. They also found that 74% of the teachers’ log books (livros de ponto) were either missing or were not filled out (Figure 3-2). One reason is the limited interest in these log books. Teachers reported that in 62% the registries are reviewed by the principal and 32% just by the secretary. Principals interviewed mentioned that they are not really responsible for teacher absenteeism, they just report it.

In the 26% of the registries that were filled, the number of student hours that should be taught was lower than expected, particularly in the Portuguese language classes where more than half the times the amount of time students should have studied was missing; of 105. EARC 2004.