This report provides a comprehensive overview of a pilot project conducted between July 2017 and July 2018 by the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture (MoEAC) of Namibia in collaboration with the Association for the Development of Education i Africa (ADEA). The project aimed to address the challenges of teacher and learner absenteeism in Namibian schools by implementing an ICT-based system, School-Link, to monitor attendance in near real-time.

The pilot, conducted in 103 schools, involved training over 200 education personnel on the use of the School-Link system. This system enabled the daily capture of attendance data, which was updated weekly, providing critical insights into absenteeism by reason, gender, and region. The project revealed that attendance data was not being adequately maintained or analyzed, leading to a lack of feedback at the policy-making level.

Key findings indicated that teacher absenteeism was often due to illness, lack of supervision, and personal matters, while learner absenteeism was influenced by factors such as menstruation, pregnancy, illness, and lack of parental support. The report recommends establishing comprehensive policies and frameworks to address these issues, including the development of a detailed Teachers & Learners Attendance Procedure Manual to mitigate the causes of absenteeism.