Students use chat apps for mass bunking

Abu Dhabi - Many students used the social media to urge their classmates not to report to school beginning this week.

Teachers at public and private schools have reported mass absence of students at their schools before the forthcoming National Day holidays.
Teachers said that several students decided together to not attend classes before the National Day holidays, which fall this week.
They asserted that many of the students used the social media and widely used chat applications like Facebook and WhatsApp to urge their classmates not to report to school beginning this week.
For its part, the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) told local Arabic daily Al Emarat Al Youm that the plan it laid down to curtail the absence rate of students in schools, which is being in force, stresses that parents, teachers and administrative staff at schools have to take responsibility of making sure that students are committed to attending school.
The Adec demanded schools to put into place a code of conduct for students in order to handle any problem the latter might face, which could affect their progress and performance.
Teachers uncovered also a continuing student absence phenomenon before and after official public and national holidays as well as exams. They said the total number of first trimester day is 117 days, out of which 53 days are school off days, religious and national holidays and exams.
Owing to students mass absence before Eid Al Adha holidays, and before the National Day holidays, over 50 per cent of the first trimester has become non-study days.
reporters@khaleejtimes.com