Ash Wednesday school abstinence

According to the Ministry of Education, students’ average attendance at the secondary level was 18.28 percent this year compared with 22.8 percent last year. At the primary level it was 26.3 percent as against 31 percent last year. At the same time, the average attendance of secondary school teachers was 77.6 percent and 81.2 percent for primary schools.

“We must be concerned and we have to arrest the situation one way or the other,” said Minister of Education Anthony Garcia on Wednesday. “Of course all our students are under the jurisdiction of their parents and the question must be asked: why do the parents find it necessary to allow so many of their children to remain at home today? Is it because they fear that the teachers would not be in attendance? That fear is unfounded.” Must it really come to a situation where a minister has to beg parents to send their children to school? Attendance on Ash Wednesday should be routine. When Carnival is over work continues.

We have clearly not been able to arrest this problem so a deeper look at possible solutions needs to happen. Perhaps the time has come to ask whether it will make a difference if the school term is adjusted to give children vacation time.

As pointed out by several stakeholders, the lost time could be made up at another point in the calendar.

There are valid reasons for making an adjustment.

The challenge posed by Carnival is not only in its aftermath. It is not only the week after Carnival Monday and Tuesday that presents challenges, but also the week leading up to the festival. Schools engage in preparations for the Children’s Carnival and they have their own Carnival-related events and jump-ups.

It is also true that parents play mas and may be distracted. While teachers are generally said to not be absent from classes on Ash Wednesday, a minority clearly do turn up absent. (We have not been given the daily absenteeism rate for teachers by the ministry to be able to compare attendance on Ash Wednesday with the normal level.) That said, we agree there is a need to instill discipline in students.

Carnival Monday and Carnival Tuesday are technically not public holidays. This is where culture and societal priorities come into play.

If as a society we value Carnival as a cultural product (ignoring for a moment the flailing standards of recent years), then there is good reason to allow students the space to explore Carnival.

By placing Carnival within a vacation period, a more concerted effort could be made to get children involved in all of the various art forms – mas, pan, calypso, soca. This could involve special camps and workshops being set up to act as “tasters” for interested students. Also, by giving children more free time they will be better able to appreciate the wealth of activities Carnival involves, such as Canboulay and blue devils in Paramin.

The reality of the situation is that after the celebrations, the entire society is affected. It may simply be that the problem is most glaring at schools.

However, studies should also be done to ascertain how Carnival affects the private and public sectors as well. Many departments and businesses suffer from high levels of absenteeism.

Whatever is done, it must be done with careful examination of all the pros and cons. But it is clear there is a need to reposition the festival in such a way as to maximise its sustainability in the long run and to minimise the adverse effect on productivity.