For most students, college is somewhere between a stepping stone and the first taste of freedom.The reasons for not attending classes can range from, a genuine family emergency, a serious health issue, inability to wake up in the morning, a test in another class, time out for recovering from a bad breakup, an incomplete assignment, a beckoning novel, a sudden urge to sit by river-front or even a hangover from the night before or because of your hatred for the class with every ounce of your being.
The reason to attend the class can range from a fabulous professor, boredom at home, NEED to run away from you nagging parents, insane dedication and determination to copy the dictated notes, a genuine interest to attend lectures and feel intellectual or may be a crush in the class. Coming back to the issue, is attendance the most convenient thing you can do to succeed? And is the lack of attendance the single easiest thing you can do to fail? Or is attendance just another innovative whip in the hands of faculty to bring wayward students on track? I am not against attending classes or the attendance rules requiring students to attend a particular number of classes. I agree that a certain amount of discipline is required but what's the point of attending lectures of the courses which have only instrumental value? All you need to pass these courses are a couple of reference books and notes which have been and are being passed to us by the seniors year after year like some sacred legacy.In such a scenario caring about the course content or attending classes where the lecturer will dictate the same notes which he gave last year and last to last year and the year prior to that, well seem like wasted effort. Rather than making a grand show of attending classes of the courses which any student with an average IQ can handle on his or her own wouldn't it be better to attend various seminars, film festivals, workshops etc. instead which would help in the over-all personality development of the students and equip them with practical knowledge required to handle real life situations.Skills like original thinking, problem solving, critical ability, creativity, thinking out of the box, handling people etc and experience can't be taught by a lecturer reading out from his/her notes. What's the point of forcing some rules on students just so that the lecturer has a decent number dozing in his class that he can boast? Laying so much interest on attendance makes the entire system attendance centric rather than education centric thus defeating the entire purpose.Apart from being shameful, using attendance as a stick to rear students to college manifests the shortsightedness of the authorities.Let's face it; students will study when they want to study. If authorities really want the students to attend college, they need to look beyond attendance and should try to give the education system the much needed make over.P.S. : Like all other semesters, I am blacklisted for sad attendance and not eligible to give university exams.
