The Opunake Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1895. SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.

Opunake Times, Volume II, Issue 59, 25 January 1895, Page 2

The Opunake Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1895. SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.

At the last meeting of the Opunake School Committee a return was submitted giving the names of a number of children who were grossly irregular in attendance, and it was resolved to take action to compel their attendance under the compulsory clauses of the Education Act. It is a wonder that parents could be found so regardless of the welfare of their children as to permit them to lose the opportunity of obtaining what education is available, through non-attendance. If they bad to pay directly every quarter for their tuition they would most likely be very exact in seeing that they had what they would then consider as value for their money by taking all they could out of the teachers. Under the present system where they pay just the same whether their children attend or not, a great many appear to be utterly regardless of their children's welfare. If neglect of these parents only produced a loss to their own children it would be partly their own affair, but it is not so. The fact of not attending affects all other pupils in the same classes. The syllabus provides for a certain standard, and the system necessitates their being taught in classes ; therefore wheu children absent themselves they form a break in the routine work, and the other children who attend regularly are kept back waiting for those who have been absent to be coached up. This necessitates an amount of repetition in the work which is so much comparatively waste time to those' who are rcgu'ai in attendance. It has the effect of keeping the standard of education in the school low, and the percentage of passes bad. In the former case the other children suffer, and in the latter the teachers naturally get the blame. Very moderate teaching power with regular attendance will produce very much better results than the very best teacher with irregular attendance. The Education Act has been amended so that the old method of computing attendance by the quarter is done away with. Under it those who attended one half the time the school was open during a quarter were exempt from any penalty, so that if they sent their children regularly during the first half of the quarter and kept them at home altogether during the second part they were free, or they could send them every other week and miss a week. Under the amended Act they must attend so many times each week during which the school is open, and there are severe penalties provided for noncompliance. It is not necessary to have any truant officer to chase the children round, but if the child is not marked as present at the school on the school roll summary conviction follows. The whole onus of obtaining exemption is thrown on the parents or guardians, and if this has not been duly obtained conviction must follow. Parents had better therefore b: stir themselves when the school opens on Monday next, so as to avoid the inconvenience and expense which will follow their neglect of compliance with the regulations.