Poor Ash Wednesday attendance at schools once again

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 this year as against 31 percent last year. Poor attendance after Carnival, Seecharan said, is a perennial problem.

This year the average attendance of secondary school teachers was 77.6 percent and 81.2 percent for primary school teachers.

Education Minister Anthony Garcia, who disclosed the statistics said, “We must be concerned and we have to arrest the situation one way or the other.” Garcia, Seecharan and Minister in the Ministry of Education Lovell Francis, who addressed the media yesterday on the issue of school attendance on Ash Wednesday at the Education Towers, Port of Spain, commended the teachers for their attendance, but expressed concern at the poor attendance of students.

They appealed to parents to send their children out to school today and tomorrow.

Francis expressed concern that students not attending schools when they should, was engaging in low productivity which is “a cultural phenomenon” that could be taught indirectly to children.

This situation is not acceptable, he said, “and it is not something that we want to translate to our children.” Noting that the issue of absenteeism after Carnival was longstanding, Seecharan said the Ministry in the past engaged stakeholders, teachers, principals and the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) to look at the issue.

“We need to bring back on the table, the issue of the week of Carnival, and whether in fact it may be more feasible for us to not have school during the Carnival week,” Seecharan said. The recommendation is that the school year will be extended by an additional week to maintain the 39 weeks required for the school year. It is one of the suggestions the Ministry will pursue and hold further discussions with the other stakeholders including the National Parent Teachers Association (NPTA) and TTUTA, he said.

“At the end of the day, notwithstanding what we do at the school, it is up to the parents to send their children to school.” In the past, he noted that schools modified their programmes to encourage students to attend classes after the long Carnival weekend but without much success. Somewhere at the back of the minds of parents and students, he said, is the feeling that if children do not go to school they would not miss anything.

The Ministry’s instructions to schools, he said, is that they proceed with teaching as a normal school day.

Former education minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh said that the recommendation of giving students the one week off during Carnival and taking the week back later in the year had been raised again during his tenure.

However, in discussions with stakeholders, he said, it had been shut down.

It is an idea that he will support, he said, because students should have 195 teaching days.

Due to national holidays, ten bank holidays given to teachers, principal’s holidays, denominational and other incidental holidays, he said students end up with less than 150 teaching days.

Students not turning up for classes after Carnival, he said, added to the problem.

Concerned over the fact that so many of our students chose to remain at home, Garcia said, “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.”