Friday, December 01, 2006
Absenteeism in class IV
There are 46 students enrolled in class IV in the Chandranagar Government Primary School. I usually count only around 35. 1 of them I have never seen (Sumitra) and one guy Satish has come only for 2 classes. Others are regularly absent one day or another. The reasons I hear is most that they had gone to their village (ooruge hogidde). The second reason is illness (fever and stomach ache). The first reason is more predominant. Also, it is not as if there was an emergency at the village, it was just some festival or another. I guess the parents feel the school is not that important and the children can afford to miss classes. They don't make sure that the children catch up with the lost lessons either. So there is additional burden on the teacher to make sure that these children catch up. Is it possible when I am already dealing with 35 students? The education bureaucracy wants the teachers to ensure that all children come to school. They even expect the head person to go around the streets in that area to drag the children to school. I feel that is a very wrong approach. For every hour the teacher is outside of the school herding the few children who are not in school there are a large number of students who are already in the school missing the lessons. I think the teachers responsibility is to make the learning environment in the school attractive and interesting. Whether the students come to the school are not should be left to their parents. If the parents are not interested then why should anyone else? The whole obsession with 'drop-outs' makes us spend less energy on the students (and their parents) who are actually interested in schooling. Why should they suffer?
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2 comments:
'Absenteeism' is an attitude that these kids will carry forward as sanctimoniously as if it were a precious legacy.
I have observed for these last three three years that I am having to manage hired help that it is always either a festival or a gathering. They simply can't be bothered with the pesky obligations of showing up for work just because they are getting paid for it!
But when you scrape the surface you realize that they invest more time and energy in 'family' (or folks who are watching their back) than they do in education or a career, and I doubt if that'd ever change.
I wonder whether it is because the benefits are not clearly tangible. I mean, if it was guaranteed that everyone who passed class X would get a good job (and the gurantee was by observing senior students who did get jobs), and the connection between passing class X and going to school regularly was clear, then maybe they would feel differently. I realize I am simplifying the problem, but my main point is parents are as rational as any other human being. They are not just being careless by going to their village for festivals. They get something there (entertainment, emotional support, I am guess here), while what they get from school is unclear. If they are not doing something there is probably a good sound reason for it.
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