Education matters

Hands up who thought last Thursday was going to be a national holiday in Bahrain? The rumour mill started early on Tuesday morning when an ‘announcement’ was made on a local website that Bahrain would be celebrating the festival of Isra’a Wal Miraj with a one day public holiday. 

The online grapevine was alight with gossip of the potential holiday and once WhatsApp started buzzing, it didn’t stop.

Throughout Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, teachers, students and parents were discussing the ‘news’. When would the announcement come? Who would make the announcement? And, would it be extended to Sunday as well? 

There were some wise and sober doubters who revelled in their experience of Bahrain public holidays telling anyone who would listen that ‘we’ve never had it before so I can’t for the life of me imagine why we would be having it this year’ … but such negativity was ignored as the anticipation grew.

Wednesday morning turned into Wednesday afternoon and still no announcement of any kind had been made but WhatsApp kept buzzing and optimists kept their fingers crossed until Wednesday evening came and it became obvious that there wasn’t going to be an announcement and, in all honesty, there probably never was.

So Wednesday night mutterings turned into Thursday morning yawns as teachers and children prepared themselves for yet another day of school, however, across the kingdom it became apparent that, even though a holiday hadn’t been officially suggested, let alone sanctioned, it had been declared by WhatsApp so many parents allowed their children to stay at home anyway.

In what looked like a form of rebellion against the false news that conned them, the same parents who had so hopefully checked their phone every minute for an official announcement that would have declared a national holiday in celebration of an important Islamic festival in the build-up to Ramadan, they just took the day off anyway without a second thought.

So this begs the question, what was all the fuss about? 

Why care if a national holiday was going to be announced if you were going to take the day off regardless?

This level of tardiness and absenteeism seem to be a significant phenomenon in the kingdom and a phenomenon that is not challenged robustly enough. 

In many countries around the world, parents can be fined for taking holidays during term-time and systems of monitoring attendance are so watertight that alarm bells start ringing if students miss more than one day.

The impact of lateness and absenteeism are clear to see. 

Just being half-an-hour late for school twice a week adds up. One hour lost is multiplied to four hours by the end of the month and 12 hours by the end of the term, which is roughly two whole school days. 

Allowing children to feel that it is OK to miss a day or two of school sends out a dangerous message. 

Parents who bring children up in an atmosphere where it is deemed acceptable to miss school on a whim are entirely accountable for their child’s attitude to school and learning in the future and, really, who can blame a child for lacking in interest when it comes to their studies if the most significant role model in their lives couldn’t care less either?