Late-coming

Dec 03, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

On any school day, you can find literally scores of school children ambling leisurely to school after 9 am, the time at which school commences.
These children are late and they could care less, judging from their lack of haste to get to school.
These children seem unperturbed by the fact that they are late. Some of them are eating as they are making their way to school, indicating that they did not have breakfast at home or are supplementing what they had with a few purchases.
Even though, it is past the time when school commences, the children could not be bothered. Getting to school on time is clearly not one of their priorities.
This is happening all across the country. And it is happening every day.
The government has a plan to ensure that every child is in school. But it seems to have missed the importance of ensuring that every child attends school in time.
It is truly amazing that the educational authorities have not realized how serious a problem late-coming has become. And it is obvious that in many school, monitoring late-coming is extremely lax.
Back in the old days, the school day commenced at 8am.
But as public transportation became a problem, the time for schools to commence changed to 9 am. In this way, it was felt, that the limited number of vehicles on the roadways could deal with the demand of workers to get to work and then still have time to transport children to school.
This plan, however, backfired because parents usually would proceed to reach their workplaces at 8am, leaving the children to get to school for 9 am. Without the watchful eye of their parents to ensure that they were ready in time for school, many children simply took their own sweet time to prepare for and get to school.
The Ministry of Education may seriously wish to consider, now that we have excess public transportation on our roadways, a system of reverting to an 8am commencement of the school day.
This will allow parents to accompany their children to school and still get to work at 8am, the normal starting time for most offices.
Having to leave children at home, while the parents hurries to get to work on time, is a factor, which is contributing to late coming.
Some children genuinely have transportation problems. But others are simply lax and do not care one way or the other.
Many of them are not interested in school. Some of them feel that they are adult men and women and that school is for children and that they do not fall into this category.
Another contributory factor is late-sleeping. Some children are getting out of their beds at 8 am for the 9 am start of school. They are bound to be late.
Television is a prime culprit that contributes to children waking later than usual. Parents have to control the time that their kids get into bed because this helps determine how good a night’s sleep, they receive and how energetic they will be to face the new day. Some children also have to do chores in the mornings and this can force them to be late.
Some parents have a rule that there should be no television during weekdays. But most often, it is the parents who breach their own rules and have the television on when their children should be studying.
Other factors which have been known to contribute to late coming have to do with children’s relations with teachers. Children who do not like a particular teacher or has not done his or her homework for that teacher and is fearful of the consequences may deliberately be late so as to miss that teacher’s class.
When you see the number of children strolling to school late each day, you have to question just what action the schools are taking to reduce late coming and to what extent do they appreciate how this can contribute to underperformance.
Back in the day, if you were late, your name was recorded at the school gate. Some schools still have this system. If you were late for more than two occasions in a week, you automatically were placed in detention.
Interventions are needed to help address the chronic problem of late coming to school. It is not just sufficient to simply punish those who are late. It is necessary to investigate all the causes of late coming to determine to what extent late coming can be avoided.
The Ministry of Education is taking action on truancy. But a bigger problem, late coming, is staring them in the face and they are staring it back.

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