Attendance Problem in TAFE NSW Meadowbank College †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Attendance Problem in TAFE NSW Meadowbank College. Answer: Introduction TAFE NSW is a renowned vocational training and education provider institute in Australia training over 500,000 students in distance education, online or campus education as well as providing education at workplace. TAFE Commission Act 1990 had the role in establishing this independent statutory body and at present, this institution has several campuses distributed in various parts of Australia with around 130 campuses ten geographical area groups. Among these, the chosen campus of this institute is the TAFE NSW Meadowbank Campus campus that comes under the Northern Sydney Institute group of campuses (Nsi.tafensw.edu.au. 2017). The college offers Higher Education Degree Programs and certifying courses in vocational education and training (VET) that have high demands not only in Australia but also all over the world. The institutes of NSW are renowned for delivering quality training and provide degrees on an array of courses. Many people choose this Meadowbank Campus campus particularl y because it offers interesting and unique degree subjects and vocational training subject matters that will enhance their career opportunities. With real world environment and practical industry practices, the students learn effectively (Alia, Tamimi and Al-Allaf 2013). However, despite being one of the most reputed institutions in the country, in recent times the Meadowbank Campus of TAFE NSW suffered from severe attendance issue of the students. The college data shows that between 2012 and 2016, the attendance at not only in Meadowbank campus but also in all of the TAFE NSW campuses dropped considerably. This highly affected the institutions profitability and other administrative works; in fact, a leaked document in 2015 shockingly reveled that TAFE NSW had been planning to close 27 of its sites due to heavy financial losses. This particular functional issue bothering TAFE NSW Meadowbank Campus and TAFE NSW institutions in overall needs further evaluation (Bhatambrekar et al., 2013). Description of the Problem Having analyzed the problem from the core, it has been found out that the dropped attendance problem had its root in suddenly hiked fees in the institutions. Since the Meadowbank campus mostly offers vocational courses and not many mainstream degree courses, it became difficult for many students to continue with the courses at such a high fees rate. This problem grew severe with time so much, so that it drew governments immediate attention. On 16 June 2016, the NSW Government announced strict instructions to the TAFE institutions to scrape all the existing EBS4 systems of managing students. In fact, in the last year, to control the steadily declining attendance rate among students the fees structure was frozen as per the fees of 2015 level. In addition, the Skills Minister of NSW government Mr. John Barilaro instructed the institution to develop immediately a completely new system for the peak enrolment period in 2018. This is because the prevalent EBS4 rollout had been causing TAFE NSW institutions major troubles in the process of enrolments as well as it was proved inefficient to track the financial data of the students and produce testamurs. Due to the rising decline in the student attendance rate, the TAFE NSW institutions had to reduce its other financial costs (Bowen and Bok 2016). Analysis of the Problem The attendance issue of the Meadowbank Campus campus as well as the TAFE NSW institutions has been a grave matter of concern to the authorities. The further analysis of the problem has revealed some major points about it. The primary cause of this may be that students pursue the vocational courses as a part time activity to get further opportunity in their careers. However, it is not possible to pay high fees for a part time vocational course or even for distance courses (Lane 2014). Apart from the fees structure issue, the declining attendance might have other aspects also too. The second issue is regarding the psychology of the students that has been mentioned in different other researches on the same problem matter. The tendency of absenteeism is principally because some students do not attach much importance to the attendance guidelines of the college and rather believe that since they are paying for the course, they should be the deciding ones whether to attend classes. Students even have tried to attach some logic behind them not being present in the lectures. According to the students survey done in various TAFE NSW institute campuses including the Meadowbank Campus, the students have indicated that they would prefer sit down to study on their own rather wasting time in the classes. This brings out another crucial issue for the college attendance matter i.e. the less interesting quality of the lectures where the students get bored. The classroom absenteeis m caused by this thinking process of the students is sure to perturb the college authorities. Apart from these, the lectures clarity and quality, conflicting the schedules of the classes with the students other engagements of more priority and to some extent the professors lack of ability to engage the students also become a factor in the low attendance issue (Hirsch 2013). Since many of the students studying in TAFE NSW colleges are already employed and study vocational courses to enhance their career graph furthermore, it can also be possible that due to the workload in their job field they are not being able to attend classes regularly. Besides, the students may also think that classroom attendance will not affect their academic performance and hence, high grades have no apparent link with high attendance. However, the student records of Meadowbank Campus shows that the students who have been absented from the initial lectures had difficulties in grasping the topics later and as a result generated poor results in the assignments. On the other hand, in the degree courses the reason of absenteeism, as thought by the educationists and scholars being numerous distractions of college life and since, there are not too many residential colleges under TAFE NSW to help the fresher students minimize the diversion factors (WHORLEY and Montgomery 2016). Another issue behind the rising absenteeism in the Meadowbank Campus, as opined by many of the professors, is their unjustified higher grades received in the high schools. According to them, a considerable percent of freshmen have grades of A in their high school results whereas the fact is they studied much less. Hence, these high school students with poor habits of study feel that attending classes is not that necessary when they have already had high grades with minimal study efforts. Besides, it has been seen that the Meadowbank Campus lacks in active engagement between teachers and students. It is a fact that students are likely to accomplish poorly in their academic performances if their reason of class attendance becomes socialize only. Students in this college lack in participation in their own education and other academic activities. It is important for them to understand that if class attendance cannot guarantee success, it can certainly increase the probability of their success (Mehan 2015). In addition, the irregularity among teachers also, to some extent has caused students disinterest in the classes. The professors, however, have different reasons for their irregularity in coming to the classes. They may have seminars or other prior engagements; it is also a fact that many professors themselves are involved in their research programs and these causes result in professors arriving late in the classes or at times skipping entirely. This may also be potentially a reason behind students growing disinclination towards attending classes in Meadowbank Campus (Mertler 2015). Apart from all these, the problem of absenteeism is prevalent almost all the colleges across the world and psychologists have significantly pointed out that in some cases there have been no valid reason behind students growing habit of absenteeism. This, according to the psychological terms, is termed as truancy or excessive unexcused nonattendance. Delinquency has also been associated with this rule-breaking behavior on students part and few psychologists have even termed it as severe conduct disorders (Windmeyer, Humphrey and Barker 2013). Probably, all those aforementioned and critically analyzed reasons have accumulated the serious problem of student absenteeism in the Meadowbank Campus as well as few other colleges under TAFE NSW institution. Suggested Solutions and Arguments The NSW government considered the increasingly dropping attendance rate in the colleges of TAFE NSW a consequence of sudden fee hike. In order to prevent the tendency of absenteeism, the authority of TAFE NSW decided to freeze their fees at 2015 level. Although this fee deduction was done to encourage students to attend classes like before, this initiative is probably not enough to make the students return to the usual class attendance. In this case, some other serious issues must have to be considered (Mason and Walton 2017) In the first place, the issues with vocational training and its issues are to be considered. The colleges need to understand the problems that the students experience while doing vocational education training or VET and then either remain absent from classes for a long period or drop out of the courses. This is simply not because of the hiked fees but certainly, there are several other reasons behind this. The people doing VET courses often become unable to manage course and other commitments, while some others remain absent from the rest the classes other than the part of the syllabus that they need. The primary reason behind the absenteeism in the distant education courses is the syllabus pressure that the students cannot balance with the pressure of the workplace. In addition, the class timings or assessments may clash with their work schedule and the job being their priority, they miss out assignments and even drop out of the courses. To resolve these, the Meadowbank Campus as we ll as other TAFE NSW colleges must set the study curriculum according to the students preference of time. This is to say that the college must give the students ample time to submit their assignments and the class timings should be flexible so that they can avail the lectures at their own convenience. Besides this, the VET course curriculum in Meadowbank Campus as well as all other TAFE NSW colleges is grounded on conventional curriculum theories and practices. Therefore, the curriculum lacks interesting and innovative features that may hold the attention and interest of the students. The possible solutions for this may be to introduce a range of interventions in the vocational training courses and in the distance education programs to encourage the students to continue with the education program and thereby achieving their objectives of training (Romero, Romero and Ventura 2015). Except for the attempts of college, the government can also have a significant role in retaining high attendance in the colleges. The TAFE foundation of colleges rely greatly on government funding and hence, if the Australian Government grounds the funding criteria on retention rates rather than the enrolment figures the endeavors on the colleges part are bound to increase. However, the TAFE NSW institution has vehemently opposed to linking government contribution to retention rates; they have objected with the logic that this linking would cheer the private education organizations to flock students through high priced courses. The authorities of TAFE NSW have claimed that the retention rate in their organization is much higher than the other colleges (Shapiro and Gross 2013). On the other hand, the best way to make the students continue with the course is to make them understand the benefits of the courses that they are pursuing. Most of the students pursue vocational education training because of the rising demand in the workplace for skill development and productivity. Besides, for the unemployed people the vocational training courses increase the career opportunities for them. This should categorically need to be held to them so that they realize the importance of the courses and attend the classes. As far as the fee structure in Meadowbank Campus and all other TAFE NSW colleges are concerned, the authorities are right in freezing the increasing fee level of the organization as many disadvantaged students also avail the vocational courses. It is a fact that the high fees have been an important reason behind many students dropping out in the midway. Revision in the fee structure will definitely be of help for the students and especially for the underprivileged aboriginal students who aim to have a mainstream career with the help of these vocational training programs (Chostelido, Griva and Tsakiridou 2017). Among many other solutions to these problem, one effective way out to reduce the nonattendance trend is introducing useful interventions. However, TAFE institutions apply some of the standard interventions in the course curriculum like conventional guidance, support to the learners and counseling when in need but the consistently dropping rates of attendance reveals the need of something more. Some students, on the other hand, have different problems other than the ones that have been discussed. Many students have been found to be struggling with lack of family support, addiction problems to alcohol and drugs as well as financial fears. In these cases, the college, in the first place must identify the student who is at risk of exclusion and then apply effective intervention on them. Following the model of some foreign colleges, the TAFE NSW institution should enhance its expertise in developing and elaborating new educational, pedagogical and didactical approaches, especially for the underprivileged and disadvantaged students. The interventions should be targeted at those having difficulties in the learning process or addiction problems or that those suffering from psychological or discrimination issue in the campus. The Meadowbank Campus as well as other TAFE NSW institutions needs to diagnose and research on these problems and then provide training accordingly. Overall, the colleges need to attempt an integration of those students who are at the risk of leaving out. Moreover, the students are to be ensured about the career opportunities as soon as they finish the courses and for this, the institute has to make sufficient arrangement for placement. This insurance will sustain the student retention in the colleges of TAFE institute (Syeed et al., 2017). Since the professors can interact directly with the students, they can contribute the most to make them retain in the classes. In the first place, the professors must try to present exciting and informative study materials to the students so that they remain engaged and interested in classes. The classroom environment also should be exciting as well as appealing that would provide the value-added knowledge to them, and this responsibility lies only in the hands of the professors. Now, the value-added knowledge, though may vary from student to student, should be something other than what students can gain by reading textbooks and other study guides themselves. In some colleges other than TAFE NSW ones, there have been attempts of assigning high grades to students attendance rates were moderate to very good. Now, this cannot be an effective solution for reducing absenteeism. Rather the professors should try arranging quizzes on the study topics and taking attendance regularly in the cl asses to keep hold of the students interest. It may be better if the professors can personally invest in each student and thus, going beyond the conventional duties and role of a professor they can make the students reciprocate by attending classes regularly. Prior to all these, the students must be made cognizant of the advantages of being present in class (Soria, Fransen and Nackerud 2013). Regarding the issue of absenteeism, the introduction of attendance feedback can also be an effective measure to improve the rates of class attendance. The suggestion is that to handover the students, feedback documenting their monthly attendance in the classes comparing with the average attendance rate of other students in the same period. This attendance feedback is likely to improve the situation creating a sense of healthy competition. Conclusion Therefore, it can be seen that TAFE NSW Meadowbank Campus along with all other campuses is struggling with low attendance problem and is in urgent requirement to keep hold of the enrolled students by any means. This has been a serious issue even more as TAFE NSW is one of the most reputed organizations in Australia providing vocational education training or VET. Being the institute of much repute, TAFE NSW faces serious challenges with the students dropping out and remaining absent from the classes for a longer period. With the suggestions referred in the report, the institution can amend its existing teaching techniques and concentrate on the required changes on the administrative level. The report concludes that the problem of non-attendance that the institution has thought to stem from fee hike has deeper roots. 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