Is compulsory attendance really needed in college?
As if straining college going students with 80% of compulsory attendance and blacklisting if not wasn’t enough, Mumbai colleges have taken it a notch higher and are about to introduce a biometric system that would keep a good track of the attendance record of students.
The old method that included calling out roll numbers and taking them down on paper has been found to have loopholes for errors as students went for proxy methods. The colleges in Mumbai are about to introduce Radio Frequency Identity Card (RFID) that would be convenient and accurate. The question arises if all these were really necessary and whether attending classes is really that important in colleges.
Yes:1. It does affect grades: An hour or a half or a lecture could be helpful no matter how much we try to oppose it. It could teach you the basics of what you need to get started on. You start getting that insight into the subject that you need to be preparing yourself for. Missing on all those lectures and starting the course all by yourself one fine day will only make you anxious as you realize that you understand absolutely nothing of it.
2. Better than getting into bad company: At the start of college life, students are usually full of life and they think that they are all grown up with new freedom. That freedom could easily be misused. They feel that they have ample time and could end up wasting most (sometimes all) of the precious time indulging in useless and sometime harmful activities.
3. Being responsible: Your parents have worked hard to get you into college. You are about to start taking decisions in your life that are going to decide where your future is going to end you. It is extremely important that you start by being responsible and attend lectures to keep in track with the study pattern and the important notes that are delivered out in the process.
4. It is part of your life: A couple of years and life is about to be different. There will no longer be classes and teachers to guide you along. This is the part of life that comes with the package of being in college and you must learn to live it rather than complaining of the fascist nature of the whole system of compulsory attendance. Like it or not, you are going to miss this part of your life later.
No:1. The bird is really to fly out of the nest: By the time students pass out high school, they are grown up and responsible enough to understand what they require from life. If they need to attend the lectures, they will by all means and if they do not, there is no point in pushing them to do so. Let them decide for themselves.
2. Attending lectures stops making sense: You are not going to become knowledgeable by attending those lectures anyways. You need to study on your own in this level of life. Geniuses can still score excellent when they hardly attend a single lecture. If lecture were to help in scoring well, it is clear that students will automatically start paying attention to it and they do when needed.
3. Some of them need to work: Unnecessary excuse as this may sound to the professors yet it is true that not all students are born with that silver spoon that could pay for the college and other expenses. General survey records show that students coming from poor and lower middle class families are on the look for part time or even full time jobs right when they start college.
4. It is a waste of time: Let’s not go complaining on our education system but we all know how helpful those lectures and notes are in practicality. There is a reason why students do not want to attend those lectures and the college authorities and no the reason is not always to catch the latest movie playing at theatres. If it was going to help the students secure better grades, surely students wouldn’t be paying extra for private tuitions.
With freedom comes responsibility, the liability of using it to the best and not wasting yourself away in the name of enjoying the halcyon days of youth. Compulsory attendance only ensures that some of those who could easily stray away from the path get to stay in their safe limits and try and comprehend the importance of education and making efforts to keep up the grades.
The new move by Mumbai colleges to keep accurate record to attendance is implausible and could go ahead to make students more responsible and studious.
