Truancy No Longer Big School Problem

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28630, 5 July 1958, Page 11

Truancy No Longer Big School Problem

The truant officer has gone from the education service in New Zealand and non-attendance of pupils is no longer a wide* * spread problem; but the cases that remain often pose tricky social questions for those whose responsibility it is to ensure that “free. secular, and compulsory” schooling is accepted up to the age of 15 years. Once, the truant officer was known and feared by erring pupils and their parents alike. There was summary action and persistent penalising to ensure that children went to school. The change in approach over recent decades is aimed to find out and correct the causes of trouble. Interviews about frequent absence are part of the work of experienced visiting teachers. The main reason why truancy has virtually disappeared is pupils’ love of school and spontaneous interest in all its activities —as much as parents’ recognition that their children have everything to gain.

The main sources of the truancy which remains are: (1) parents who simply do not know what their children are doing or where they are; (2) some who protest that it is not worthwhile equipping for school a child nearing 15 who will be leaving in a few months anyway. Deception

There are still some children who wilfully deceive their parents and stay away* from school to attend some event which interests them more. If the school is not in the habit of requiring regular homework, it may be hard to detect such isolated instances. That is why schools expect a “note from parents” to explain absence. But today there are a good Dumber of parents who fail to send a note even in cases of genuine illness, have no contact

with the school, and thrust all responsibility on the teachers. It is this type of parent who may resent any inquiry from the school.

The headmaster, therefore, has the difficult decision whether to reply on the appeal of school to ensure attendance or to initiate his own inquiries. With the majority of parents, who are known to teachers through regular attendance at parent-teacher association functions, it is easy to discuss any suspected case of juvenile default. Where the parents never visit the school, a ticklish situation arises. The headmaster must decide whether it is a case for local investigation or whether it should be referred to the visiting teachers.

Aim to Help The Canterbury Education Board has emphasised that such an inquiry by any of its staff is undertaken to help rather than to criticise. There have been cases where a nervous child leaves home with the intention of going to school but stays on the streets because other pupils have “picked on him.” because he has been upset by some remark of the teacher, or because he is not prepared to face some test. Neither the parents nor the teacher have known of these fears. There may be domestic situations at home which have upset the child so that he does not feel fit to face school. There are other cases where parental control seems not to exist.

In any of these situations it has been found that the understanding of visiting teachers, their assurance to parents that they are not alone in such difficulties, and their experience in finding solutions usually results in a happier home and a happier child. The Canterbury Education Board receives perhaps four complaints in some weeks. Most are settled bv visiting teachers and occasionally there are grounds for prosecution of parents. But in a total roll of more than 50.000 children in the board’s district, these cases are very few.