Address Absences

Education Minister urges parents to ensure children go to school

 

Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ronald Jones has expressed concern that some children are “hiding away” from the classroom and their parents are not ensuring that they get to school.
 
He raised the issue as he said his Ministry is not letting the matter slide. He was speaking during the recently held closing ceremony for the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College’s, Teachers’ Introductory Programme, which saw in excess of 70 persons completing the four weeks of training.
 
“… That should not be happening where taxpayers’ dollars are invested in the transformation of those children. And therefore the parent who allows that is a parent who should be spoken to. I am not jailing anybody, because they need speaking to, they need encouragement as well,” he said.
 
Expanding on the issue with the media after the event, the Minister maintained that truancy is not widespread, but he said, there are some children who have been staying away from the classroom for weeks on end at both the level of the primary and secondary schools. His comments came as he indicated that schools are to report absences of children to the Ministry every two weeks. He added that while these absences often start as a result of illness, they sometimes continue even after the child has recovered and can pose a serious challenge for the student, especially if they are a slow learner, to catch up on their work.
 
“In some communities in Barbados you would have some children come to school the first two, three weeks and they might not come back into the classroom for the next four weeks and that is because they don’t have enough attention paid to them. Once we pick that up in the Ministry, through our Attendance Support Services Unit, they go to find them,” he said.
 
Jones also noted that they face the challenge of some students as they near the age of 15 and 16, feeling apprehensive about attending school and disappearing from school for a few days “to break the cycle”. While he did not have the statistics to hand, the Minister said the overall percentage of the students engaging in this behaviour is relatively small.
 
Acknowledging that some children do not like school, the long-time educator said that while they will encourage such students to see the benefits of schools, the Ministry also recognises the need to find areas they would pay more attention to and allow them to go in those directions.  He made the point as he disclosed that there have been a few instances where children as they approach the age of 15 or 16, have expressed a desire to attend skills training. He said those cases were examined and accommodated where possible.
 
“Compulsory school is up to 16, but we look at it critically and say yes, this might better serve the purpose now than to delay and lead to further frustration,” he explained. (JRT)

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