Attendance in Schools, Essay Example

Despite cultural differences, the formal education system has been quite similar around the world. In almost every country, when we think of schools we think of mandatory attendance at least five times per week, assignments, and tests/exams at the minimum. In addition, the structure of our formal education system has survived almost unchallenged for over a century and this may be the first time, we are hearing calls for radical change to how our children are educated including the mandatory attendance system. This change in social attitudes towards the education system might have been triggered by a sense of urgency as the academic standards around the world have been catching up with the U.S. The system of mandatory attendance in colleges should be abolished because times have changed and education system will benefit more by focusing on the end results as opposed to the means.

If attendance is not mandatory, it will motivate teachers to find ways to increase voluntary attendance and engage students with the course material (MacPhee). The initial purpose of mandatory attendance might have been to make sure that students are exposed to all of the material covered in the class. While mandatory attendance may ensure students attend most of the classes, it cannot force students to pay attention or engage with the course material. Most of us may have observed that only a small majority of the students really pay attention in the course while others are more focused on tackling their boredom. Similarly, most of us also have stories of favorite teachers or really interesting classes and how we would look forward to it every week. Mandatory attendance takes the incentive away from the teachers to figure out ways to engage students and if attendance is made voluntary, teachers will be challenged to figure out ways to make learning fun and productive at the same time.

Attendance should also be voluntary because students should be judged on the basis of their performance on assignments and exams. All people are not same when it comes to their learning style and individual capabilities. Some students can learn better by studying on their own and they learn course material quicker than their counterparts. There used to be a time when employees would get promoted on the basis of rules such as number of years with a company but now more and more employers are basing such decisions on the basis of actual performance (Baker) rather than compliance with rules. Colleges prepare students for real world and it makes sense that they evaluate them on the basis of course performance and not attendance record.

One of the reasons often cited for mandatory class attendance is to encourage students to participate in the class. Students can be forced to come to class to earn points towards grade but attendance does little to encourage them to participate in course discussions. In fact, they may actually be hurting the learning environment of the class through distracting activities (Rockler-Gladen) such as using Facebook or chatting on cell phones. Students who truly engage in class discussions may actually benefit from the absence of class fellows that just come to earn points and pass time.

Attendance should also be voluntary because the characteristics of college students are quite different from those in high schools. First of all, college students attend college by choice. Secondly, students often greatly differ from each other in terms of personal circumstances. Some students may both be working and attending college and others may have their own families to take care of. Thus, it is not common for extraordinary circumstances to arise that make it difficult to attend classes on certain occasions and mandatory attendance system penalizes such students unjustly.

The purpose of college is to prepare students to take responsibility for their lives. If students miss classes and their grades suffer, they may be more motivated to take responsibility and learn from mistakes than if they are forced to attend classes and see little value in such a policy. A report by American Educational Research Association found that while attendance has strong relationship to class grades and GPA, mandatory attendance seems to have little impact on average grades. It may be that students who attend classes regularly are already responsible and motivated to excel. Attendance usually accounts for up to 15 percent of the total grade, thus, those with low motivation levels may not be getting a little positive impact due to better performance on assignments and tests but due to points secured as a result of attendance.

It is clear that college education is different from high school education and so are the characteristics and personal circumstances of the students. Mandatory attendance system puts more focus on rules than the results and in some cases, actually harms the learning quality of the class. Moreover, mandatory attendance also takes away the incentive to make courses interesting and motivate students to engage. Voluntary attendance will not only increase accountability for the teachers but will also help students learn the benefits of personal responsibility and discipline.

References

Baker, Stephen. Treating college students like school children. 12 March 2007. <Suite101>.

MacPhee, Larry. College is for Everyone, So Attendance is Mandatory! 14 May 2010. <NaueLearning>.

Rockler-Gladen, Naomi. Mandatory Attendance Policies. 15 May 2008. <Suite101>.