KARACHI: Attendance rules for colleges fail to work
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, May 25: Finally, the Sindh government’s much emphasized 75 per cent mandatory attendance for students in educational institutions, particularly in colleges, has fizzled out.
The Intermediate examinations are nearing to an end, but no significant impact could be witnessed so far. At no stage, it appeared that the long-ignored attendance rules were going to be implemented in letter and spirit, with any objective to revive and enforce a true academic environment at colleges.
Who failed to give the much-needed fillip to the implementations? Perhaps, it’s not any hundred-million-dollar question.
The Sindh Education Department, educational boards, college principals and teachers, students and their parents should have a deep examination of the affairs, identify the faults and suggest remedial measures, as the government once again has indicated for implementing the compulsory attendance rules next year.
According to the BIE rules, 75 per cent attendance is a prerequisite for a candidate to appear in the HSC annual examinations. The attendance of candidates for the BIE examinations shall be counted from the beginning of the academic session up to the 14th day preceding the commencement of the examinations or the close of the session, which ever may be earlier.
The heads of institutions are required to certify, among other things, that a student has attended 75 per cent of the lectures and 75 per cent of periods assigned to practical works in each of the subject in which the student desires to be examined.
After many years, this was for the first time that with the commencement of the first-year classes, the Sindh government started issuing statements, stressing strict observance of attendance rules in colleges. However, like in the past, this year too, the educational boards as well as the Sindh Education Department have not been able to get the attendance criterion complied with by students or teachers.
It was in January 2002 that college principals started holding negotiations with the BIE on the issue and up to some extent it was agreed that some leniency should be shown regarding the enforcement of the attendance rules.
Rigidity in this regard could create problems for college principals who were required to certify and give attendance position of every student while recommending their examination forms to the Board of Intermediate Education.
It was the BIE Karachi which came up with certain degrees of firmness on the issue of attendance. Unlike other boards in the province, it gave to understand that it was all out to implement the attendance rules and was also ready to withhold admit cards of the defaulting students, if needed.
It was believed that if the attendance rules were implemented as claimed by the government and the board, then the examination forms of hardly 30 per cent of the students enrolled with the educational board in the city could be found fit in all respects.
That’s why a grant of an extraordinary condonation by college principals and chairman of the board was also sought at one stage to get the number of affected reduced and the government finally lowered the attendance to 50 per cent.
The yardstick for an overall 50 per cent attendance during an academic year was finally adopted this year, with the approval of the Sindh cabinet. However, teachers in their internal meetings with principals or with the board authorities had been maintaining that many of the students would be unable to take the examinations, if the rules were implemented.
Many of the boy students in arts and commerce groups and almost all those in the evening shift colleges, who generally relied on examination guides before the commencement of examinations, could be declared unfit for appearing in the annual examinations of the board this year, it was feared.
The students were of the view that teaching at colleges was not up to the mark and that was why they preferred to attend the coaching centres instead of taking classes at colleges. Non- availability of subject specialists, lack of laboratory facilities, libraries and other factors also contributed to the low attendance.
Teachers, on the other hand, blamed that it were the politically-motivated students who more than often caused damages to the teaching process at colleges. They maintained that they were not able to perform adequately since there were political, social and other institutional pressures on them for bypassing the rules and do some thing favourable for the defaulting candidates.
Unfortunately, among such apprehensions, the Sindh Education Department and authorities in the city government also failed to extend their practical support to the cause. A majority of the institutions failed to comply with the government’s decision of preparing and submitting monthly attendance reports to the educational board on time.
In fact, the whole plan proved a hotchpotch at the end as things were not taken up scientifically. The board failed to calculate the attendance of each candidate in advance and issued admit cards to all the candidates whose examination forms it had received. At the eleventh hour, it asked the college principals to act at their own and stop admit cards of students who, according to their records, were short of attendance.
Many of the college principals have their reservations on the BIE rules. They say that if the rules were followed strictly it would be difficult not only for a majority of students to appear in examinations, but it would also require a serious exercise from college principals, who generally did not bother about attendance or lacked a system for recording attendance and work that out subject-wise.
Those who believed in a proper system and academic discipline in educational institutions concluded that the failure was all due to a lack of interest on the part of college teachers and principals. The principals do not want to entangle themselves very much in the issue as they feel that it would make them unwanted both for the students and the teachers and create other administrative problems.
Teachers have their own criteria. They do not see any sincerity from the top and remark that attendance rules were aimed to gain extra-mileage by the hierarchy, otherwise there were many basic things to be undertaken prior to the implementations of the rules.
Parents say that in fact it were the teachers who could contribute significantly to any improvement in the attendance of students. They would have to give more time to colleges, supposedly their first commitment.
The growing number of coaching centres and a booming business by them has created enough room to believe that teachers were instrumental in diverting the students to these centres from colleges. They are not up to the mark at colleges but are sound at the coaching centres, which unfold the problem of ‘no teaching’ at colleges and teachers’ “non-seriousness” towards professional responsibilities.
Others say that it were the students who needed to be guided and influenced by their parents. If they come to colleges, teachers are bound to attend them, which would ultimately benefit both the students and the teachers.
A maximum attendance of students would also compel the teachers to prepare for their everyday lectures properly, keep them updating on the latest developments and quantum of knowledge as well. It’s a difficult task, but finally would pay to the individuals and the country as well.
