Tardy students

Student life can be so hectic at times. Assignments, examinations, in-class activities, as well as homework; these are all features of a student’s life. But in today’s context, the most important thing for students is to be in class on time. Tardiness is among the biggest concerns of the education sector in Fiji. If a student is late, he or she misses out on what is being taught in class.  Now teachers are taking matters in their own hands, by dismissing students from class if they are late. 

Teachers have the right to keep students out of class if they arrive late to school. This is according to the Ministry of Education after Fijivillage raised the issue that some students who arrive even 5 minutes late to school, are given detention or told to stay outside the classroom by teachers which leads to them missing out on the lessons taught. 

Students often give their reasons for coming late, as ‘I missed my bus’ or ‘travelling from far’. Some of them are genuine, while others have in fact been goofing around town, and deliberately reaching school late. I was sometimes late to high school because I travelled from Baulevu, in the interior of Nausori, to a reputable school in Suva. It was extremely embarrassing, especially when all the students would look up when the teacher (whoever would be taking the morning class) would look at my late arrival form, and say (sarcastically) “Oh this is why you are late today? How about you make an arrangement with the school to provide you boarding so that you are at least in time for classes?”.

Most of the teachers would not want to understand why the student is late, but would focus on the statement, that the student is late, and has missed a very important piece of my class, and therefore will have to be in detention. Many would quietly endure doing the classroom duties in the afternoon, but there is always that burden, that humiliation the student feels when the teacher tries to pin him/ her down for coming late and making a scene in front of everyone. 

Yet, there are those students who are deliberate truants. They simply do it for the ‘fun’ of it. Going to billiard shops, net- cafes, or the movies. In that case, when students are late, they do deserve to be told off by teachers, and given punishment. But when it comes to genuine cases, teachers mark the students and note their names in the ‘black book’. 

Tardiness is not something one promotes, but punishment depends on the situation. Occasional tardiness does call for some sort of punishment, because there comes a time when students truly do need to get their priorities right. After all, a school is an institution of order and discipline and students need to be abide by its rules. But it is not right for teachers to hand out punishment which requires them to do manual labour such as cutting the grass in school, or cleaning up when the duties were to be done by someone else. Rather, they should be handing out tasks that relate to academia, and would help students improve, in their classes, and make them willing to attend classes. If a teacher is indeed concerned about the student, he or she would be willing to understand the student’s situations and help with the problem of tardiness.