Handing out awards to school children for perfect attendance is unfair on those who are absent for valid reasons, according to Breakfast Briefing presenter Shane Beatty.

Shane yesterday got a huge reaction after he posted online that children shouldn’t be rewarded for perfect attendance since it is “not a child’s fault if they get sick”.

On Lunchtime Live this afternoon, he explained what inspired the post.

“So yesterday on Facebook I was seeing two mothers, one whose child got 100% attendance for the last year, and then one who got a cert saying congratulations on perfect attendance for eight school years – and they were all celebrating,” he said.

“Everyone's going, ‘isn’t little Johnny and Mary fantastic?’

“I just had a reservation about it, because I wonder, are those children lucky rather than in some way dedicated to their schooling?

“Because obviously there are children who are sick – You know they get the flu, they get COVID, something like that and there are also children who have long term conditions.

“There are children who go through bereavements and they don't stand a chance of ever getting this 100% attendance record cert.

“So I just wondered if we are rewarding the right thing here because is it just that the child is fortunate that they've never had a sick day during the school term – and they're being celebrated for it.”

I don’t think schools should give out certs for 100% “perfect” attendance. There are many reasons for not being able to attend every single day of school. It’s not a child’s fault if they get sick.

— Shane Beatty ?️ (@ShaneBeattyNews) June 26, 2024

He said we deal with similar situations in the workplace – where people sometimes show up when they would be better off staying home recuperating.

“Are some people compromising other people’s health by going into work and going into school while sick just to say I made it in today?" he asked.

“You know, I mean the people who go, ‘I have a bit of a flu, but I'll go into work anyway’.

“Particularly, I'm surprised, I have to say, seeing these certs still going around now after COVID because we were all told during COVID, you know, if you're sick, stay away from school, stay away from work.

“You'd wonder, are some children going in with viruses and things like that, just so they can get the cert at the end of the year to say, aren't you great?”

Children in primary school. Image: Justin Leighton / Alamy

Shane said the reaction to his tweet has been split fairly evenly between those who support the awards and those who dislike them.

“Some people said that we should be rewarding excellence - and that it is a form of discipline and excellence going to school every day,” he said.

“One man tweeted me to say he got his cert 45 years ago for attendance and he's still cherishes it.

“But then, other parents were getting in touch saying that their child has various different conditions and it's just, they'll never be able to even aim to achieve getting that cert because of their own personal situation.”

The Breakfast Briefing presenter said it seems many schools stopped rewarding attendance in recent years – but many still hand out the award.

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