An educationist, Dr Modupe Oziyi, has advised schools to ask teachers to take compulsory attendance of students at the beginning and end of each subject in schools to check truancy.
Oziyi,a retired director in the Lagos State Ministry of Education told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos that truancy was a serious issue and must be checked in schools.
She said it was wrong for students to leave home for school only to be found roaming the streets during learning hours.
According to her, students who play truant lack confidence in their learning abilities and ignorantly prefer to keep away from school to the detriment of their future.
Oziyi, who is also an education consultant, said truancy was improper and had serious consequences ,adding truants were more likely to fall behind academically , end up as school drop-outs and even take to crime.
“It is an issue that calls for serious and continuous approach.
“Therefore, schools management must implore teachers to take mandatory attendance of students before and confirm their names after classes.
“The list should be extensively used by the school authorities to find out number of students that are in the habit of leaving home and not getting to school or skipping classes.
“Unannounced tests should be given to the students and scores must be captured in overall exam results to awake their consciousness of coming to school and attending classes.
“The danger of it all is that, before you know it ,they are already involved in forms of criminal acts and become a thorn to their parents and society,” she said.
She said efforts should be made to invite and notify parents or guardian of the identified students as they might not be aware of the truancy act of their wards.
“This is where Guardian and Counselling Unit of the school comes in, there could be some unknown or hidden factors responsible for such attitude which they can open up during questioning,” she said.
She, however, called on members of teaching staff to make themselves approachable, endeavour to make school or schooling more friendly, adventurous, informative and school activities interesting and motivating for students.
Oziyi also pointed out that the Lagos State Ministry of Education had been doing a lot to improve learning at all levels of school across the state.
The education consultant added that the ministry had been encouraging students to identify and develop their areas of interest.
“The Comprehensive Schools have been setup across the six districts.
“A fit-for-purpose education system, parallel to the current education system which provides suitable career-ready skill set to students with different profile of intelligence or intellectual competence.
“The Comprehensive Schools have provided an option for students who are not able to cope in pure academic subjects to try their hands in the fit-for-purpose education under same platform,” she said. (NAN)
