The Terrible Truth about Truants

The number of children playing truant and being excluded from school has reached crisis point. More than a million youngsters skip lessons each year and over 100,000 are temporarily excluded. Of those pupils excluded, 83 per cent are boys. Half are aged 14 or 15.

The Government wants to reduce the levels of truancy and permanent exclusion by a third. These problems are blighting the lives of an increasing number of youngsters who could escape poverty through education. And the rising tide of disaffection is fuelling juvenile crime.

We want to focus on prevention although there will always be cases where pupils have to be excluded for the good of other children and to allow teachers to be able to teach. Those who play truant and are excluded are more likely to become teenage parents, unemployed, homeless, or to end up in prison. Society pays the price.

There are many reasons why children drop out: family problems, low parental expectations, or long-term unemployment at home. Teachers, too, sometimes assume that some youngsters can never achieve because of their background.

Exclusion and truancy are not insoluble. We have to prevent disruptive behaviour and share the best practice for dealing with it.

Local education authorities will be set targets to reduce levels of truancy and exclusions. We will encourage more imaginative approaches with the resources to do the job. We are already targeting £22 million this year.

Dull lessons blamed for truancy Boring lessons, unsupportive teachers and restrictive school regimes are to blame for soaring levels of truancy according to the evidence of children who regularly bunk off from the class.

Evidence from the panels showed truants appreciated the value of education, but felt school has failed them. “Many pupils reported… that initial and occasional truanting started as a result of ‘boring lessons, where copying from a book or a board … was common.”

The pupil who has returned to school to get his GCEs said: “It is unbelievable. It just bores you.”

Another said: “If the teachers had respect for the students, I suppose … there would be respect back. But they don’t give respect.”

A third added: “They should know how to be able to deal with individuals … You just sit at the back of the classroom like a complete prat not doing anything, and the teachers do nothing about it. They just have a go at you and that’s it. You might have problems or something and they don’t know that”.

The truants thought good teachers were young (25-35), relaxed and not intimidated by young people. They used innovative methods with lots of class participation and a spirit of mutual respect.

One teacher was praised for allowing pupils to talk to each other for 10 minutes at the start of class so that they would then give full attention to the lesson. Another played music of the pupils’ choice to create a relaxed atmosphere.

The truants saw schools as ‘controlling, regimented environments’. Many wanted to wear their own clothes; one pupil said his uniform ‘looks like I’m going to a funeral’.

The panels said it was hard to return after truancy. “I felt all the teachers were extremely sarcastic and I didn’t feel any of them wanted to help me… I was just so far behind and I didn’t have any confidence,” a student said.

There is an overriding need to improve teaching methods, to make learning more participatory, relaxed, fun and innovative.

(From “The Guardian”)

Task 2.2 Read the article “The Terrible Truth about Truants” again and note down the reasons for truancy and the consequences truancy results in. Suggest solutions to this problem. Fill in the graph in task 1.

Task 2.3. Team up with a few students and discuss the reasons for truancy and its consequences. Also find possible solutions to the problem.

While you discuss, use the following expressions:

- One of the major reasons for...

- Another reason for...

- One more reason why...

- It leads to...

- It results in...

- As a consequence...

- As a result...

- On account of this...

- In order to solve the problem S should/must...

- To solve the problem it is necessary (required/advisable) that S should (do)...

Who do you think is called a drop-out?

Read the article “How Drop-outs See Themselves” and you will find out.