First day of school… a little absent!

Fahd Al Derham: Reasons vary depending on travel, Umrah and illness

Khamis Al-Muhannadi: Social culture allows absence to continue

Dr.. Saleh Ibrahim: Parental Neglect and Traveling Abroad

Abdel Hadi El-Shenawy: The importance of controlling your biological clock

More than 380,000 male and female students are enrolled in more than 1,100 public and private schools and kindergartens. They enjoyed a mid-year break and yesterday, Monday, was the time for them to return to school, preceded a day earlier by members of the academic and administrative bodies.
Given that almost all schools have school staff, including administrators and teachers, present and have absenteeism policies in place, it is not uncommon for students to be absent on the first day of school after the holidays, and educators believe that the main reasons are student and family.
Al Arabiya yesterday conducted an on-site survey of the attendance of students in schools and found that some schools had low attendance on the first day of school after the mid-year holidays, with some schools having less than 30%, while in other schools, the rate was between 60% and 80%.
Al Arabiya met with a number of educators and school principals to seek their opinions on the phenomenon of absenteeism on the first day of school after the summer or mid-year break.

Parental Responsibilities
Bou Abdullah, a parent of two female students at a private school, initially accused the family of not encouraging their children to go to school and being negligent in the first few days of school. He affirmed that the State, through the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, uses all the material and human resources of its citizens and residents to provide quality educational services, which places a great responsibility on us, parents and students, and puts the ball in our court to fulfill our responsibilities in return.
Bu Abdullah admitted that he personally responded to the pressure of his two daughters, who decided yesterday not to go to school like most of their classmates, adding that today students communicate with each other through WhatsApp groups and make joint decisions such as missing classes, starting from the first day after the holidays, and even missing classes before the exams started with the excuse of the end of classes. He believes that assessment and testing policies may be one of the reasons for the phenomenon of student absences, and he called for a change in these policies so that assessments are linked to students’ academic performance in addition to performing activities and acquiring various skills throughout the academic year, and that assessments are not only linked to exam scores.

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Professor Fahd Al Derham, principal of Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al Mana Boys High School, said: The first day of the second semester in public schools saw a large number of students absent, indicating that despite the warnings, the rate of absenteeism in schools remains high. Parents said the reasons for students’ absences included travel, Umrah or illness, indicating that many of them are still abroad, noting that schools have begun to activate the full-time school timetable and have begun to explain the academic schedule according to the quarterly plan approved by the Ministry of Education, as of yesterday.
He called for the cooperation of parents in the coming period and urged the children to continue to go to school and make use of the coming period to study, as the role of parents was considered key to improving the academic performance of students, whether it was supervising or urging them to attend or follow their lessons and encouraging them to study and learn.

Community Culture
Mr. Khamis Al-Muhannadi, the principal of Umm Al Qura Boys Primary School, said that the attendance rate on the first day of the second term was about 60% of the total number of students in the school. He pointed out that it is necessary to communicate with parents in advance to confirm the normal attendance date and encourage students to commit to attendance.
Mohannadi attributed the absences from the first day of school to the negligence of parents and pointed out the need to change the social culture that allows absences to persist and recur by recognizing their importance. Both for the sake of academic performance and to enhance students’ sense of responsibility, he explained that the school communicates with parents in a number of ways. This is achieved through constant communication via text messages, regular meetings between the school administration and students’ parents, requesting parents to meet in special circumstances that require the presence of guardians, and developing social activities for parents’ participation.

Sub-reason
Dr. Saleh Ibrahim said some families were lax in their commitment to their children’s first day of school and did not pay enough attention to their children’s class time, especially at the beginning of the first or second semester, which indicated the existence of other secondary reasons for absence; including some families who have traveled abroad so far, because despite the assurances given by the Ministry of Education and school management, and the implementation of attendance and absence.
Mr. Abdel Hadi El-Shenawy, Deputy Director of Academic Affairs at Razi Preparatory School for Boys, said that as of yesterday, textbooks and curriculum had been delivered to the enrolled students, and the content of the curriculum had been explained to the enrolled students, noting that the attendance rate on the first day of the second semester was high, with a small number of students absent, and he pointed out that returning to normal school life requires parents to work hard to manage time for students, organize students’ sleep and wake-up times, and adjust their biological clocks. He pointed out that it is necessary to make proper use of the two semester breaks, be mentally prepared to return to school, and accept the information and lessons of teachers.