Why should I go to school each and every day?
A question of absence Published in The Hindu EDGE here . Thanks are due to the team there. Recently, a mother came to our school with her daughter. She conveyed that her family planned to attend a wedding at a distant place. As a result, her daughter would not attend school for 10 days. One of the colleagues urged the mother, on the need to shorten the duration of the trip, so as not to harm her daughter’s academics. To bring in the context, the school, catering to the lesser privileged, is located in a peri-urban space in north India. The daughter studies in class 5. Weddings and festivals are a clear priority over school attendance. Even in a school like ours, where we strive for, and pride on, a ‘happy environment’, days when the school’s attendance hovers around 60% - 65% are not uncommon. I thanked the mother for informing (not common of parents ) and wished the student a wonderful time at the wedding. The colleague was not amused. I wondered if it struck he