TRUANCY and absenteeism are major issues faced by Education Ministry officials last year, says West divisional education officer Joseva Gavidi.
While speaking at the Vuda district meeting in Viseisei, he said the behaviour of children had drastically changed over the past few years.
“Over the last two or three years we have seen a lot of cases of students missing classes or cases of truancy,” he said.
“We have also noticed the change in behaviour of our children.
“A lot of them are not listening to teachers and their attitude is becoming more difficult to address, especially for an individual teacher who has to look after more than 20 or 30 students every day.”
He said absenteeism and truancy were common problems and becoming more prevalent each year.
Mr Gavidi said a teacher’s role had also been restricted by rules that have stopped them from disciplining disruptive and disobedient students.
“A teacher’s role is to teach and help the child progress in the classroom.
“They can no longer discipline a student because they could lose their job over it.
“What the ministry needs is co-operation from the parents.”
He said parents played the most important role in teaching a child values and discipline.
“Teachers will change classrooms, students will change schools and even friends. The people that will still be there in their lives are the parents. We need the parents to discipline their children and talk to them about truancy, missing classes and absenteeism.”
Vuda District School headteacher Osea Dau said attendance at the school had dropped considerably during the third term last year.
“We found a lot of the students were roaming through the village (Viseisei) during school hours,” he said.
“What concerned us the most was that there were no excuses for their absenteeism. Parents did not give us any reason for their failing to attend school.”
