WRT:14-3-2011,the hindu
KISHAN KUMAR V. L.| The behaviour of students who come to classes just to get attendance is a self-defeating one that leads them away from the path to excellence. |
Mandatory: The concept of attendance in classrooms has been put in place with a good intention as it forces one to be part of the proceedings.
For most of the fulltime courses, attendance is a mandatory requirement. If one does not secure the required attendance he/ she does not get to attend the university exam and will be denied the degree. Attendance also has found a place in the scores given as part of continuous assessment.
Still almost every class has a group of students who come just to make sure that they are counted, and most of them vanish as soon as it is done. Many a time, the sooner they vanish the better it is for the rest of the class. These students are neither able to imbibe anything from the class nor do they allow others to grasp the essence of a lecture.
They cannot keep away from classes as they need to meet the university stipulated minimum attendance requirement which is in most cases 75 per cent of the total number of working periods.
Condonation or pardon might be granted for the attendance sin but it has strings attached to it. So these students come to class but cannot control their pent up frustration for long and their behaviour ends up as a disturbance for others.
Another issue with the attendance seekers is their habitual tendency to come late. If you look at the structure of most of the classroom sessions, the initial fifteen minutes is very important -- it is here that the speaker sets the base for the remaining part of the session. Once you miss this crucial part of the class, you will have difficulty catching up with the flow. This makes these late comers fidgety and they end up as a disturbance to the class.
If you happen to be one of those mere attendance seekers I would request you to take a critical look at your behaviour which can grow to a debilitating habit. One should understand that the concept of attendance has been put in place with a good intention. It forces one to be part of the proceedings. But whether it should benefit oneself or not is entirely with the student. For the college and the management you might end up as a bad statistic. But for the student it turns out to be a career tarnished – youth wasted – a bleak and hazy road ahead. One needs to understand the reason for this self-defeating behaviour. There could be various reasons. Students might not be interested in the course in the first place. Reason for the restlessness and ingrained frustration could be because of their inability to understand what is being dealt with in the class. It could be because of the lack of proper foundation and fundamentals. Such students might need support and hand holding to set the things right. No teacher would turn down the request for an extra help. But a teacher can never cater to a student who is regularly irregular. When a teacher comes to the class, she assumes that the students are reasonably aware of what has been covered in the previous sessions and tries to build on that base.
A good teacher will summarise the previously covered topics in the beginning and take it forward from there. But if the student happen to be one of those ‘visitors', then not even the best of the teachers can help them out in class.
Sometimes the reason for such behaviour on the part of student could be systemic in nature. It could even be the result of personal problems. A friendly intimate talk with a professional can help one get to the root of the problem. It would be good to keep in mind that ‘Nobody is really interested in anyone's career beyond a point'. Only you can help yourself.
