Royal Gazette .

The good news? School attendance improved in the year 2000 compared to 1999.

In the primary schools, the improvement has been relatively narrow, rising 0.4 percent to 97.5 percent. But 97 percent attendance is good to begin with, so this is welcome. Of course, parents have a good deal to do with making sure their children make it to school on time.

As students get older, they become more responsible for getting themselves to school. That is inevitable and it is not surprising that the attendance rates decline as the students get older. In 1999 attendance in middle schools was 95.5 percent, and in the senior schools (Berkeley and CedarBridge) a poor 87.5 percent.

The good news is that the truancy officers and schools were able to improve attendance in 2000.

Middle school attendance rose to 96.8 percent and attendance in the senior schools jumped to 91.4 percent.

Some of the credit for that improvement rightly belongs to truancy coordinator Leonard (Shinah) Simons and his team, but CedarBridge principal Kalmar Richards and her staff also deserve credit for implementing new attendance programmes last year after battling severe truancy problems in the first year of the school.

The bad news is that there are still more than nine percent of senior school students who are regularly skipping school, and yesterday's story also indicated that many more students -- from primary schoolers to senior students -- are chronically late.

It is probable that truancy rates will continue to decline next year, albeit at a slower rate as the truancy officers get to grips with "hard core'' truants.

Nonetheless, the schools have a role to play here too. Truancy officers may well be able to ensure that 98 or 99 percent of students attend school every day. But if the students do not want to learn -- or cannot be shown that is in their best interests to learn and to enjoy being at school, then it will all be for naught. You cannot force a child in a classroom to learn any more than you can force a horse brought to water to drink.

Indeed, it could be argued that some of the students forced to be at the school will be a disruptive influence in the classroom, preventing those who actually wish to learn from doing so.

The answers to that -- and this is far easier said than done -- is to give those children dragged kicking and screaming into school a reason to stay.

That means finding out why the students do not want to be there and showing them how they can benefit from staying in school. This is a job that teachers, parents and peers all need to join in order to be successful.

But somehow, those children must be shown the wonderful opportunities that an educated person has before them and what a limited world the poorly educated and ignorant face.