The Contributing Factors to Student Absenteeism/Truancy and the Effectiveness of Social Services and Interventions
One major issue that schools are currently facing and seeing little or no improvement with is effectively dealing with student absenteeism and truancy. Despite early interventions, programs are still failing to effectively motivate students to attend school. This research study examines the success of an implementation of a perfect attendance award within an elementary school to increase student attendance. An examination of student attendance from the 2006-2007 academic year and from the 20072008 academic year, suggested that the perfect attendance certificate distributed monthly to students with no absences for that month is a positive motivator for students to attend school every day. The data from the months of September, October and November in the 2006-2007 year had a mean score of 54.5 and the 2007-2008 year had a mean score of 59.5, which indicated from an Independent Samples Test that the data proves to be statistically significant, thus the certificates accounted for increased attendance rates. Follow up surveys also provide evidence that the attendance certificates are an overall positive motivator for students and help to increase student attendance at one elementary school. Recognizing student’s strengths of attending school every day is a powerful tool of empowerment, and reduces absenteeism.
Household perspectives on school attendance in rural Tibet
This study explores household perspectives on school access at the village level in rural Tibet. Data from two rural areas are compared. This paper argues that despite abolition of all school fees, the use of Tibetan as a medium of instruction, the provision of boarding schools, and other incentives, dropout rates in rural areas remain high. This is largely due to the opportunity costs associated with removing a child from the household labor force. Beyond acquiring basic literacy, rural households seem less willing to make the sacrifices involved without receiving direct economic return through access to non‐farm labor jobs after graduation. Nevertheless, there are other factors at work. Moreover, villages in different parts of Tibet are far from homogeneous with respect to the factors that affect school attendance.
Making a mark
Six years ago I completed my post as general surgical registrar in England and left for a remote rural hospital in Uganda. I took up a job as a general surgeon. The job description entailed tackling any surgical problem of any specialty which I felt able to cope with. The huge need and the lack of resources are overwhelming. I was the only surgeon in a district of 450 000 and in all the neighbouring districts of similar populations there were no surgeons. In neighbouring Congo the position was even worse.

> I wish that the urologist could have seen those happy women … I would have gladly passed on the chicken 

Most of the conditions which presented to my clinic were new to me. In Uganda there are few surgical specialists other than generalists outside the capital. I attempted to send some patients to Kampala—a boy with a bean in the trachea made it to the referral hospital but died while waiting for the doctors …