Why students need to attend school ?

Lal FONSEKA

Last week we concentrated on children of our country. We said children are the future ambassadors of the country. This week we will concentrate on the subject of why children should attend schools regularly.

The job market is highly competitive. Your chance as a student of landing a dream job and a beautiful car without at least an advanced level qualification is low. Not only that, but school is where you learn how to conduct yourself and interact appropriately with peers. The learning that occurs when you regularly attend schools stays throughout life.

Whatever said and done, there is no future for the children who do not gain proper education. The world is now open only to those who excel in their education and not for the ordinary people.

A couple of decades ago, students who got through the Ordinary Level (O/L) examination had high places in the society. But as on today, even if you get through the Advanced Level (A/L) examination, it is very hard to find a suitable employment in the job market. Certain organizations now a day do recruit people with A/ L qualification for the posts of Machine operator. As a result, children should realize that attending school regularly and obtaining effective education (knowledge, attitude and skills) are very vital if they need to have a better future.

In a research done by Department of Census and Statistics in 2008/09, out of an estimated total of 4,338,709 children in the age group five -17 years in Sri Lanka, 4,076,731 (94.0 %) were estimated to be attending school. It should however be noted that as the children advance in age and especially in the age group of 15 to 17 the incidence of school attendance is comparatively low at 82.4 %. The proportion of children not attending school in this age group is 17.6 %.

This is to be expected as a large number of students, in the age group 15-17 years, terminate their formal school education either temporarily or permanently after they take up their GCE (O/L) examination. However, those who stay away from formal school education after taking up their GCE (O/L) may resume their formal education once they pass the GCE (O/L) with grades sufficient to make them eligible to attend GCE (A/L) classes in school.

Further it could be noted that the proportion of girls attending school is marginally higher than that of the boys. This is not a good sign for a developing country like Sri Lanka.

Another point to think

Though it may seem obvious, you as children need to know how to read and write, compute simple mathematics, understand history and have general knowledge of world events, economics, social concerns and problem solving.

Without these basic skills and abilities getting even the simplest job would be as was told before difficult. You would have a difficult time in managing your day to day life without math skills (sometimes simple arithmetic), and an adult who is not able to read or write is vulnerable.

Without going to school, a person would depend on other people through his entire life just to get through daily activities, like paying bills, travelling to various unknown places, managing household problems and developing children. Without having proper education, adhering to traffic rules will also be a problem which is the very reason why our country has a very high rate of traffic accidents daily.

A few months ago, a payment-hawker now being converted to a successful small scale entrepreneur requested a consultancy services from me to go beyond the present level of his business.

He now runs three-storey retail out-let. He genuinely told me that he was able to attend his school only up to seventh standard and as a result, he is unable to proceed with business continuity. It was a pathetic story.

I helped him to get over from certain hurdles in the business improvement. Still he is faced up with a lot of difficulties due to lack of basic education. You may not agree with me in this situation as you must have come across quite a few successful businessmen in our country who have climbed up to high levels in their businesses. But in my view, even they would have gone further up if they really had basic education under their belt.

Social skills

Another area you will gain by attending school is social skills. Even without your knowledge, you learn appropriate social behaviour in school. You can learn good manners and role-play on how to react in certain situations.

You will learn how to interact with people different than you, effectively participate in groups and take direction from others. Please be noted that students’ pride, self-esteem and confidence will be tested in a school setting, which is a safe place because your teachers and circle of adults will be there to help you to deal with it. If you first experience feelings of rejection or inadequacy as an adult, there may be no one around to coach you through it.

I remember in one of the leading schools in Colombo realizing the students who were about to leave on a study mission to a different country were given a practical session on table manners and also the method of using cutlery correctly. You will also learn to stand up for yourself, show empathy and appreciate different personalities. All of this will benefit you as an adult in the real world.

Structure

Students who go to school have their days structured for them. They are kept busy and engaged in a positive and safe environment. However, school is also where students learn responsible independence and how to fill their downtime with constructive activities rather than disruptive or dangerous ones like getting involved in Facebook and computer chatting. If he or she chooses to not do homework, he or she may have to face consequences at a later date. To be effective in education, he or she has got to make his or her structured programme for the studies and for the other activities.

Students network of peers and teachers

Many students who attend school surround themselves with peers, teachers and other adults who support them, help them and appreciate them. This network often helps when a child goes through confusing times, personal issues and discontent. It is also there to celebrate achievements, recognize good qualities and praise a child for doing well. A child’s network also acts as a safety net, catching a child when he stumbles in his behaviour or judgment.

Even though, in terms of Sri Lanka’s Employment of Women/ Young persons and Children’s Act, a ‘child’ is defined as a person below the age of 14 years, for the purpose of this article all persons in the age group between five to 17 years are considered children. About 94% of the total child population attends schools; regular attendance at school is appeared to be very low.

It is obvious that education of child is very important for any country whether it is developed or developing and it is a major factor that affects the current and future social and economic status of a given society. Hence it is important to observe and analyze the current schooling status of children in Sri Lankan society. Regular attendance at school gives you the best possible start in life and prepares you for the future. Going to school should be interesting. Not only will you learn subjects but you will also learn new skills, including social skills plus most importantly the knowledge plus attitudes. The skills, attitudes and knowledge that you learn at school will help you now and in later life as you start work. Good attendance shows potential employers that you are reliable.

Students need to continue on in their education for many more reasons: relationships, love for learning, awareness for our globalized world, self-discipline and hopes for a better future. I believe now you as students realize the importance of attending school regularly.

For parents

But quite unfortunately, our children for some reason do not wish to attend school. If not for the pressure being imposed by the parents, almost all the children will skip school. A fair number of students in the age group between 14 to 16 years, we have observed do keep away from school and sometimes they do this even without the knowledge of their parents. This act of students is famously known as “school cutting.” Sometimes, these school-cutting students could be seen in the cinema halls where you have morning shows.

As it is mentioned in the article referring to the statistics prepared by the Ministry of Census and Statistics, though 94 % of the total student population is reported to be attending school, a fair amount of children claim that they hate school, and they may ask or beg not to go. This is a very big problem.

It may be due to the fact that your child is having difficulty making friends, is having problems with other students, or has a learning challenge. Finally it may be due to the ill-treatment or harassment getting from the teachers. Talking with your child and working closely with the school can help reduce a child’s dislike. Students may not always enjoy going to class, but as problems are dealt with, it may seem a less threatening place. Remember also that a child is not likely to respect a school or his or her teachers unless you pay them due respect as well.

Children may dislike school for very valid reasons. Otherwise, they will not opt to keep away from school. Research has revealed that these can be broken down into three categories: social ostracism, learning challenges and difficulty functioning in the environment, as with children with hyperactivity. All of these reasons should be taken seriously, and investigated. The first thing a parent must do is to find out what is causing problems at school. Talk to children first, and let them explain any problems. When children cannot give you enough information, talk to the child’s teachers, as many have a lot of ideas about what may be causing difficulties.

It is required by law that children of a compulsory school age get a full time education.

Almost every morning before school, a student at the age of 12 years whom I know well used to scream, cry and do anything possible to stay home. “He will whine on and on, ‘I don’t feel well. I hate my teacher. School is boring,” Every day he comes out with some excuses as was pointed out above and his parents were really worried unknowingly what to do to correct this sad situation. The mother said that he used to like school initially, and she does not know what happened, but during the last few months, she said further that it became a battle just to get him out the door.

If you are a parent, it is almost inevitable that you are going to be faced with your child not wanting to go to school at some point. The most important thing is that you identify the problem correctly. Is it workload, peer pressure or your child’s individual way of coping? It is vital for parents to look at your child’s situation closely: does he require more sleep or is there a social problem? Or is this a child who lacks sufficient problem-solving skills to help him solve the problem of getting out of bed when he does not want to? Sometimes children are afraid of being bullied and actually, avoiding school is one of the first signs that your child is being bullied, so be sure to investigate that possibility.

And there are other children who just do not want to respond to structure and who have a hard time with authority. Not going to school becomes another avenue of acting out for them. In all of these cases, it is important for you to understand that the child’s refusal to go to school is his way of solving a problem that is real to him.

As we see over and over again with some children, the way they solve problems gets them into more trouble. That is why it is very important that you help your child develop problem-solving skills on his or her own, so that when problems arise on any level over anything, your child will be able to think of a way to figure it out successfully.

Parents need to tell their children that it is their responsibility to go to school. Parents need to say, “You have to go to school even if you are bored. That is your responsibility. It is not about your mood, it is your responsibility. If you want it to be less boring, find some more interesting things to do there to balance it out.”

It is about Motivation and Consequences (Just like it is with Adults).

The truth is, millions of people get up and go to work every day in the entire globe. One way of seeing it is that these people have solved the problem of going to work successfully. The reason they have solved their problem is because they have developed a system of problem-solving skills that help them function successfully in the real world.

Good behaviour

In researches, it was revealed that when one looks at adult problem-solving skills, two things stand out: motivation and consequences. The motivation is why they have to go to work. No choice they are forced to go to work since they have to feed their family, they have to feed themselves. Some people work harder to buy a nicer car, nicer clothes, to go out on picnics.

These are motivations. The consequences are if they do not get up early and go to work, they lose their job. Over time, they lose many jobs and they wind up in trouble socially and economically. In my case, I do daily get up at 4am and as a result, I have been attending to work much before others come to work which may the reason as to how I have been able to work for the same organization for twenty years un-interruptedly.

The same motivation and consequences apply to your child when he does not want to go to school, and you need to teach that to him now. As the parent, you have a two-part goal: to get that child go to school and to help or him or her identify and solve the problem associated with him or her not wanting to go to school.