This has been an issue to reckon with among Parents, Teachers and Students as to whether taking class attendance should be optional for university students. Many have reviewed this from their different views yet there seems to be no resolve around it and the question still lingers on with many diversified opinions being taken by different parties about it.

William Emmanuel Yu, a Teacher at the Ateneo de Manila argued that she doesn't bother checking attendance even though her University encourages it. Her reasons being:
1. They are not children anymore. They can decide for themselves. The earlier they start making life choices and owning up to it the better.
2. They (or their parents) are the ones paying for their tuition. So if they don't want to maximize their investment then it is their loss.
3. If they are disinterested or disruptive then better to keep them off my class and spare others from the distraction.
4. If they already know the material and can pass all the requisite exams and submissions then they deserve to spend their time on something else and not waste it on my lecturing something they already know.

James Gay argued that "If your aim is to get all of the students to learn the material and pass the exam then make attendance compulsory. If your aim is to prepare them for the real world and to make them grow up and take responsibility for themselves, don't make attendance compulsory".

Shikhar Agarwal in his argument stated:
- I certainly do not like text-book-only style of teaching and learning that is being done in universities. As a matter of fact, I hate this.
- I also understand that students have varied interests - drama, dance, sports and so on. And hence universities should not impose "education" on them.

I have no problem with optional attendance if the students use the time, that they get from missing classes, constructively in pursuit of their hobbies and interests. For e.g, a student may coach for tennis, may spend time with his band group, may practice coding instead of going to some class which he doesn't like (likeHukka) and so on. So, here I would say that the students are indeed mature enough.

But is this the reality?

In my experience, NO.

- Students spend a lot of time on social websites like Facebook, Twitter, Blackberry Messenger, etc. There is almost 100% time waste on these websites. I know its fun - my problem with this is it's either at the cost of missing classes or missing pursuing hobbies. Please note, for me Facebook-ing is not considered to be a hobby.
- Students spend a lot of time watching movies - Hostels LAN have probably all the movies under sun - of all types. They watch these till early morning, and then sleep during the class hours.
- LAN Gaming is also popular - Counter Strike, Dota, etc. Again this goes on all night.
- Hangover from (drunk) parties - There are so many occasions - birthdays, job placements, hostel winning in an inter-hostel competition, your party winning in intra-hostel politics and so on. These again go all night.

I have absolutely no problem with these - I have done almost everything, and these memories, during my undergraduate, form the best part of my life till now. The point I am trying to make is that the assumption being made by most of the answers is false - the students, IMHO, are not mature enough, and they should not be given an option of not attending classes. I fully agree with Betsy Megas when she says that the students should not be penalized if they are keeping up and missing occasionally.

Also if you say that "if the students are wasting their time, its their problem and they will suffer later", then I am not convinced - its the society's responsibility to see that the future generation makes good use of the time - train them to be more responsible, and then waive off the attendance.

I have no problem with optional attendance - but the students should be mature enough to use this policy constructively, and not to misuse it, which is more often than not, the case.

Over to you now reading this, what is your view on this issue, make class attendance optional for university studies or make it compulsory?

Culled from / Read more at https://eportal.ng/post/should-class-attendance-be-optional-for-university-students/

land 4 sell