Malpractices - Hongco - Absenteeism

BEING ABSENT: WILL? WON'T? WHY?

If a good student is someone who is never absent from class, can you call yourself a good student?

Being absent or ditching from class due to reasons unacceptable to the school is generally not considered cool by students. However, it is exactly what most students do. A few honest students readily admit that laziness is the root cause of most, if not all, of their absences. They are also quick to point fingers: “If teachers also get absent from class once in a while because they just don’t feel like teaching, why can’t we?”.

Criselle Puno, a 2nd year BSMC student of Ateneo de Zamboanga University, said that she is guilty of being absent from class due to laziness. She is not alone. A 3rd year BSN student who refused to give his name, also confessed that the reason he always misses his classes is because he just “doesn’t feel like sitting in a boring six-hour class”.

Francis Jay Llenado, Director of Student Affairs, has observed these tendencies. He points out that even though the College Student Handbook clearly outlines the consequences of being absent too often, the sad truth is that most students do not even bother reading it. In the handbook, the allowed number of hours for absences is five for a two-unit subject, seven for a
three-unit subject and 12 for a five-unit subject within a given semester.

A student who has exceeded the allowed number of hours for absences, unless excused, is dropped from the class. Llenado also explained that dropping a student is a teacher’s decision. When asked what he thinks is the reason why students commit unnecessary absences, he simply said that it is possible that these students are just using the allowed number of hours for absences as an opportunity to skip class and engage in other recreational activities.

Teachers also express their concerns regarding the students’ performance in class. Some of them are even good enough to still reconsider students to pass the course despite having multiple absences. A Religious Studies teacher said that as long as the student presents a letter signed by the parents, he will still reconsider the student to stay in his class. It is not anymore his job to question or doubt the letter’s authenticity which will just lead to the student’s embarrassment. He admitted that he had no idea why students love skipping classes.

Most of the times, parents are the last to know about absenteeism in their children. Roland
Dolotina, a father of a college student, shared how he kept on giving his son baon and expecting him to do well in school, only to find out later that his son was dropped from one of his major subjects because of excessive absences. He said he had no idea that his son absented himself so much from class. Dolotina concluded that whether the reason is valid or not, all students commit absences, and that ditching is “part of a student’s life”.