How did it happen that children who play truant are being bribed with money and prize draws to get them back into the classroom?
Going to school in this country isn’t an option, it’s a legal requirement and people who skive off are breaking the law. So why are they being rewarded for that?
But like it or not this ludicrous practice is already happening in schools in England and Wales, where absent kids are being cajoled back into the classroom with therapy dogs, £50 money vouchers and prize draws.
And those children who have been labelled “anxious avoiders” (it means they get worried about having to go to school) are being offered wellness sessions.
In fact, at Mary Immaculate High School on the outskirts of Cardiff, the Council is funding an actual wellness centre with is furnished with cosy lamps and fluffy rugs so that it doesn’t look like an actual school.
And last year Ellesmere Park High in Salford offered prizes and £50 vouchers for pupils who arrived on time rising to £80 on a Friday which is traditionally the worst day for attendance.
Have you ever heard anything quite so ridiculous? And who’s to say kids who turn up to collect the cash are actually learning anything? They might just be clocking in to get their prize and still not taking their school work seriously.
You may think you’ve slipped into an alternative universe reading this lunacy, especially when you read that those who don’t want to go to school because to makes them ”anxious” are being rewarded by getting to spend the day in lovely cosy wellness centres.
Nadia Yassien says her Centre in Cardiff is “a lovely open space which doesn’t look like school”. She adds: “But we know it’s working. Children aren’t going to learn if they hate the place.”
Is it any wonder kids feel able to bunk off whenever they feel like when there are gullible people like Ms Yassien in the system who think truanting kids should be financially rewarded just for turning up?
Yassien says more and more kids are turning up to her wellness centres, which is hardly surprising when they know they can spend the day in what looks like a cosy living room.
But none of that’s the point. The point is what are they learning when they’re lounging around all day on those lovely rugs. And if the answer is “not much”, then the scheme is a failure.
It should be pointed out here that thanks to the Labour Party running Wales for the past 25 years the education system has been sliding further and further down the toilet.
Record numbers of children have pitiful literacy and numeracy rates and last year Wales – whose education record is the worst of all the UK s countries – had its worst ever PISA results (the global assessment that tells us how well students are performing in maths, reading and science).
So, all the fancy, New Age schemes that are currently happening in Welsh schools aren’t working – not surprising when you hear the kind of nonsense they’re peddling and passing off as education. I’m sorry, but going to school in Britain is a legal requirement.
No ifs, no buts, no excuses. Which is why we shouldn’t be having to cajole kids back into the classroom with treats and prizes. Instead we should be hauling their idle parents – who clearly don’t give a damn about their kids’ futures – into court.
We cannot have a situation where children are rewarded for doing what the law requires them to do. They cannot be allowed to feel they have a choice about going to school, because they don’t.
Yes, the absenteeism since Covid has rocketed. Recent stats for England show 150,000 “severely absent” children missed 50% or more of the school sessions last year. Well that may have something to do with that fact that in England more than 14,000 teachers are off sick every day. Yep, you read that right.
That’s 66% of teachers who are off at any one time, which translates into 2.5M sick days a year. So it isn’t surprising that children don’t feel compelled to turn up at school when their teachers are swinging the lead too. Teachers are supposed to lead by example and this very definitely is a case of pupils following their teachers’ example.
Maybe teachers need to look to themselves here. When I was at school the lessons I loved were the ones where I was taught by teachers who loved what their did, loved the subject they were teaching and were able to convey that love to their pupils.
Maybe kids are bunking off because the people educating them just aren’t that good aren’t able to make lessons interesting.
But the fact is we’re not going to effect change in schools if we have to give cash bribes just to turnup. Because when you stop paying – they’ll stop turning up.
Anyway how the Hell can schools afford this? We’re forever hearing horror stories about how they can’t afford to buy books but suddenly they CAN afford to give kids cash prizes just for walking through the school gates.
Bottom line? Children have to WANT to go to school, they have to want to learn. And clearly that’s not happening. And all the prize draws in the world isn’t going to make it happen.
