8,903 arraignments over truancy

There have been 8,903 arraignments before local tribunals in connection with school absenteeism since January last year, statistics obtained from the local government ministry show.

The figure represents the number of students who were absent from school without a valid reason on more than three occasions in the space of a month.

The local council tribunal dealing with the highest number of truancy cases was Msida, with 2,510 arraignments, followed by Birkirkara, the ministry said.

Malta Union of Teachers president John Bencini said that the arraignment of parents or guardians did nothing to reduce the "worrying" figure of absenteeism.

Survey results issued last Monday by the National Statistics Office showed that the overall absence rate from schools between September 25, 2000, and March 31, 2001, stood at 10.5 days per pupil. That included both absenteeism and authorised absence such because of sickness.

During this period, 657,604 pupil days were lost to absenteeism, accounting for 8.9 per cent of the total pupil days. This was an increase of 5.2 per cent over the 1999/2000 scholastic year.

Mr Bencini said the blame for high absenteeism lay squarely with the educational system.

"We need to do something more drastic if we are to put our house in order," he said.

Mr Bencini estimated that 80 per cent of those who missed school did so simply because they were unmotivated or disliked the education system. The rest normally refused to go to school because of family-related problems.

He claimed that children were being forced to sit through a syllabus which was not suited to their personalities.

"Instead of adapting our schools to students, we are trying to force students to adapt to our schools. We need to provide students with the things they enjoy doing - like physical education and home economics.

"Just go to a workshop or to laboratories and you will see pupils behaving completely differently," he said.

The NSO statistics showed that Valletta had the highest primary school absence rate at 19.2 days/pupil; an increase of 22 per cent over last year for this locality.

Louisette Pace, head of Valletta's St Elmo primary school, defended her locality's abysmal track record, a problem which she said boiled down to nine or 10 students.

"For example, we have two brothers that have disappeared since the beginning of the scholastic year. Some parents simply don't have control over their children, while some students are going through hell because of their situation back home," Ms Pace said.

She said she believed that in such situations, students should be given full protection from their parents.

"We are really doing our utmost, to the extent that we have tried to adapt our lessons accordingly to attract more children to the school," she said.