Truancy – Is Your Child Clean?

Child truancy or a child’s unauthorized absence from compulsory schooling has become a major phenomenon in the recent times. Here’s themedguru trying to clear things up a bit for those still in the fog.

How often do we see a small child throwing a tantrum for not going to school? What if these tantrums do not reduce after days or even months at school? The child either throws a tantrum, or simply refuses to go to school.

As they grow up, the excuses become more serious, till they stop coming. Finally, the parents receive a communication from school about the increasing number of days their child is absent.

The Los Angeles School District report states, that 10 percent of its students are absent each day and only half of them return to school with valid excuses. In Pittsburgh, approximately 12 percent students are absent from school, and 70 percent of these absences are unexcused.

Why Students Truant?
Why does a child refuse to go to school? Many a times the school itself is to be blamed for this. The amount of pressure that our educational system puts on the young minds is immense. Many children also face bullying at school which makes them averse to the very idea of attending their classes.

Parents too are responsible for their child’s behavior. The tantrums and excuses need to be understood and dealt with in a sensitive manner. Due to lack of time, increasing number of parents do not share an emotional and psychological bond with the children. This makes the child distant and withdrawn.

Truants’ Future Behavior
Studies have shown that most truants end up as delinquents, alcoholics, drug addicts, pregnant and criminals. In Miami for example, more than 71 percent of the teenagers prosecuted for criminal records were truants. In San Diego, 44 percent of violent juvenile crimes are seen to occur between the school hours of 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m..

Preventive Measures
Various states have come up with laws and help groups for truants and their parents. In countries like Germany, parents are fined if their children do not attend school for more than 7-10 days in a year. The fines are heavy and at times parents are imprisoned for not ensuring their child’s regular attendance. Police officers or truancy officers, who find a child not in school during school hours, have the right to send the child to his school or to his parents.

Schools are coming up with their own solutions for this epidemic. Parents are involved in all activities the school undertakes to prevent truancy. The sanctions students face for truancy are being made firm. Truancy prevention programs and groups are being established in the schools. This helps students face and get over the problems at school.

Education of a child is not only the responsibility of the parents; it is also a responsibility of the school and the society. A child without education loses his ability to face the world and carve out a future for himself. A child truant needs help and understanding to resume a normal and healthy life.