The ministry has recently come forward with quite a controversial request to schools. They were asked to give the ministry a roadmap to see what was being done in class. ?The idea was to see how we could encourage pupils to come to school throughout the whole year,? commented the spokesperson for the ministry of Education, Pradeep Goburdhone.

Secondary school pupils are busy with their revision for third term exams. Oral exams have already started while written ones will start very soon. However, many of these pupils had already started not coming to school for several weeks now. Although it is nothing new that those sitting for their Higher School Certificate (HSC) or even their School Certificate (SC) do not attend school regularly, what is new however is that the ministry is working on recommendations to change that situation. ?These recommendations will be ready any moment now,? according to the ministry of Education.

The problem appears to be that teachers tend to finish their syllabus during the first and second terms and that children do not find it necessary to come to school during the last term. ?We need to find a way of convincing pupils that they still have something to learn at school,? he added.

Those at the head of private schools seem to be in favour of a more severe stand. ?So far, we have tried to call upon pupils themselves and explained to them that they should be at school throughout the whole year or we call parents. However, it appears that there is some sort of connivance between pupils and their parents,? deplored the rector of Islamic College and member of the Federation of Private Schools, Bashir Taleb. Obviously enough, phone calls and appeals are not enough to change the situation.

It seems that schools have been caught up in a vicious circle. Some children manage to convince their parents that it is not worth going to school and that they would be better off staying at home to study. As parents do not make any effort to get more information, class numbers are often reduced by half. The other half then uses it as an excuse with their parents stating that no one comes to school. ?And it is true as well that some teachers join pupils by not doing anything serious. As a result, it becomes truly silly to go to school,? explained Bashir Taleb.

The director of the Bureau of Catholic Education (BEC), Gilberte Chung, also complains that, ?the virus has reached the private colleges and Catholic colleges as well?. Although the BEC has tried to control it to some extent through its code of discipline and dissuasive measures, it has not managed to completely stem the phenomenon. ?Pupils still tend to think that they would better use this time to do revision work at home even though we tell them that those who are absent are the losers,? she added.

This is why the BEC made a proposal some time back to the Private Secondary Schools Authority (PSSA) to see how they could review the schedule so that pupils sitting for important exams did not have to come to school five days out of five. But it appears the PSSA did not give this proposal any follow-up. So, the BEC director just hopes that the recommendations made by the committee ?are taken very seriously because we can?t go on like this?.

For Bashir Taleb, the only way of solving the problem is to implement a regulatory framework. ?Everyone may be unhappy about that but at least everyone will be bound to abide by the regulations?. Wouldn?t it be simpler and more constructive to simply make sure teachers do something interesting in class including revision work that would help pupils? ?I saw some schools implementing a serious programme of revision and sending it to parents. Even then, there was still a high rate of absenteeism,? he replied.

It seems that schools have been caught up in a vicious circle. Some children manage to convince their parents that they would be better off studying at home.

Because another scourge of our education sector is looming ahead and contributes to that same absenteeism: private tuition. According to some sources in the education sector, some teachers of state colleges give private tuition during school hours. So, pupils prefer to go and take their private tuition with renowned teachers rather than ?wasting their time in the classroom?.

<B>Inclined to concentrate during private tuition</B>

But more generally, pupils are ?more inclined to concentrate during private tuition than in the classroom so learning becomes more effective. It is also true that tuition lasts for about two hours non-stop while school periods last only forty minutes which is not enough to get into the subject,? said Bashir Taleb.

For all these reasons, the Federation of Private Schools is more in favour of regulating absenteeism. ?In fact, there is already a regulatory framework for HSC candidates but it has never been applied.The law demands that the presence rate should be above 85 % to sit for the exams. This should be applied to every student,? said the rector of Islamic College.

However, this also raises a technical problem. ?Pupils pay the Mauritius Examinations Syndicate (MES) by April and we have no way of preventing them from sitting for the exams as they are already enrolled,? he stated. But the Federation has already thought about a solution: ?They could be allowed to sit but only as private candidates. Then, we wouldn?t have to deliver them a leaving certificate in which we often have to lie because such things can?t be said in a leaving certificate. They would then have to take their own responsibilities when they go to look for a job?.

Everyone seems to have his or her own idea about how to reduce the high rate of absenteeism at school during pre-exam periods. However, they all agree on the fact that ?things have to change?.