Should Class Attendance Be Optional to University Students?

Nowadays, universities are open place for all people. More and more educational chances have been created for those who want to acquire knowledge from colleges and universities. While registering for a college course seems to be no longer complicated, there still remains an obstacle that has been triggered so much controversy in academic environment: mandatory attendance policy. This policy, which is imposed by some schools or some professors, requires that college student must attend class regularly enough or their exam papers will be extracted some attendance points (that usually count for about 15 or 20 percent of the total grade evaluation). In my opinion, this policy is useless and burdensome to many people involved. University students should be free in choosing which classes to attend.

Mandatory attendance policy does not really enhance students' school performance as it's usually expected. Some teachers and schools believe students would study better if they come to class regularly. They argue that all lessons in text books should be explained, discussions should be held with full class. If students do not come to class, they would study nothing or make no progress. Some even think of students as lazy creatures who play truant to do everything they like but homework or assigned reading, so they take roll-call to ensure that all students come to class and work with them. What i can say is that attending class regularly does not mean you will have better understanding or performance. Some students sometimes miss class but they still study well. That's because there are some lessons they can study by themselves at home without spending too much time as those who study in class. On the other hand, so...

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...s rarely notify to students when there's some change in schedule. We students just get up early, go to class and are told that now we have no class as usual. That's so trivial but that annoys many people. If we do not have a strict policy, then no more getting up early, no more hustle and bustle on bus and no more waste time like this. Furthermore, teachers may have more free time if students just stay at home and do homework. They just sit at the table with a Internet-connected computer and communicate with their students via email or such thing. Then they will have more time for scientific research - is it more productive? Vietnam now has very few scientists - many of whom just rush in teaching and be trapped with heave work-load. If we relieve the policy, then we will have more part-time scientists-that are teachers.

That's the end of my presentation.