Though students understand
well that truancy means violations of the rules, and that this will lead to a
knowledge gap, they still try to escape from lessons, because they cannot find
joys at learning and cannot find support from families.

Why don’t students want to go to
school?

The students are on the way to school

“I am
feeling too tired of feeling. I cannot obtain any knowledge from lessons,” said
Do Thi Ngoc, from TD High School. The noteworthy thing is that Ngoc was a good
student who always got high marks from examinations. Her learning capacity has
been degrading since she was an 11^th grader.

Ngoc began
playing truant and joined the groups of friends who spent most of their times
at bars and inns, instead of at school, after she received a slap on the face
right at the market, witnessed by many people; because the mother thought that
Ngoc stole money.

After the
incident, Ngoc has been put under the strict control of the mother. She has
been asked to stay at home all the time after the school hours. When Ngoc’s
friends came to her house, they were not welcomed by Ngoc’s parents.

Hating parents,
Ngoc decided that she needs to “take revenge”. She told the parents that she
needed to go to tutoring classes and join teamworks. However, in fact, Ngoc
spent time to go out with friends. Now Ngoc has been recognized as the most
famous “playgirl” of the school.

“I cannot
stuff my head with any knowledge now. I just want to go out,” Ngoc said.

Nguyen Minh
Quang, a student of TC School, who is also well known among students for the
“truancy achievements”, said he feels a hard pressure from lessons.

“I have to
learn all day, from the morning to afternoon and evening. Meanwhile, teachers
are too strict. If I cannot learn my lessons, they would punish me,” Quang
said. “I feel too tired of studying and I’d rather to play truant”.

Nguyen
Hoang Lan, a student of CL secondary school, also thinks this way. Lan once had
to repeat a class as a punishment when he joined a fight with other friends.
However, Lan does not feel happy when he returns to school.

“Teachers
would question me if anything occurs in the school,” he said. “My parents scold
me all day long at home, while I cannot catch up with friends at school. So I
have decided to give up school”.

Educators
have pointed out that students should not be the only people to be blamed for
their truancy. Not all students, who regularly play truant, are naughty
students with bad learning capacity. Many students are good at learning, but
they still play truant because they feel discontented with families’ members
and dislike teachers.

Huynh Diep
Thien Hoang, a 12^th grader of TT High School related that he has
some friends who always play truant. “They are very good at many school
subjects. Their only problem, I think, is that they are too active. They said
the teachers are too boring,” Hoang said. “I think the teachers always focus on
teaching and do not spend time to ask students what they think and what they
need”.

Nguyen Minh
Hoang, a 12^th grader of NCT
High School, also said
that at his school, there is a group of friends, who always play truant. “Most
of them come from well-off families. As their parents are too concentrating on
doing business, they do not have time to take care for their children,” Hoang
said.

Schools need to blame themselves

Most of
school leaders admitted that schools need to take responsibility of student’s
truancy. Nguyen Dinh Thinh, Headmaster of Hoang Hoa Tham High School in the Binh
Thanh District, said it is necessary to find out why students get tired of
studying, so that schools can draw up suitable measures to help students.

Nguyen Thi
Yen Trinh, Headmaster of Tran Khai Nguyen High Schol, said she has found out
that many students, who regularly play truant, come from the families where
parents are in judicial separation or have divorced.

“I have
instructed teachers to give private lessons to the students who cannot
understand the lessons after the school hours. Besides, we are organizing “live
skill lessons” which aim to help students restore their self-confidence,” she
said.

Source: SGTT