Teacher - Student Relationship and Problem of Absenteeism among Students

Abstract

Teacher - Student Relationship and Problem of Absenteeism among Students

¹ Shweta Tripathi

¹ Guest Faculty, University of Allahabad

     Since decades our government is talking and planning of uplifting our education system to the top of the world ranking but the reality is that our education system is still struggling with the basic problems such as organisational facilities, classroom problems and the problems relating to the students background and their individual adjustments to the school climate. Our academicians are trying to deal with some very complex problems of our education system but the irony is that we have till now not dealt with some very ‘seeming simple problems’ which in reality are not so simple, one of which is the attendance problem of the students. Real India resides in the villages; students here go to the government schools not to the high profile private schools. We can say that government schools are the heart of Indian schooling system and represent it. So the problems faced by these schools are the real problems of Indian schooling system. Through interviews and literatures, it has been reported that attendance problem is the main problem faced by the teachers here.

       Student attendance, socioeconomic status, parent involvement, curriculum and testing climate are some of the factors effecting learning (Gottfried, 2009, King, 2000, Ramai et al, 2007). The main goal of any education system is to make a student socially well adjusted and self reliant. One of the main components of any education system is student-teacher relationship. Relationships are defined as “strong, frequent, and diverse interdependence that lasts over a considerable period of time” (Kelley et al., 1983.). The teacher-student relationship has been identified as a significant influence on overall school and behavioural adjustment (Baker, Terry, Bridger, & Winsor, 1997).   Liu (1997) attests to the importance of the student-teacher relationship stating, “The close emotional bond between teachers and students led students to recognize the school as a home away from home”. So the role of a teacher in students’ life is very broad and not limited to the teaching of subject matters. Rollins (1995) found that positive teacher-student relationships, "warm, close, communicative,”. If the teachers are supportive and friendly to the students, the climate of the school is congenial and the students like coming to school and this helps in solving the attendance problem of students to a great extent. This paper deals with attendance factor of pupils in school and the impact of teacher-student relationship on absenteeism of students.

Key words - student-teacher relationship, attendance, pupils, teacher etc.