Sydney Boys’ High School principal issues warning against students skipping school to study

Sydney students are going to extreme lengths to get a foot ahead in this year’s HSC exams with reports some are skipping school to cram in more study time at home.

Sydney students are going to extreme lengths to get a foot ahead in this year’s HSC exams with reports some are skipping school to cram in more study time at home.

Sydney Boys High School principal Kim Jaggar has written to parents urging students to turn up to school – saying the “unethical” behaviour of skipping school to study at home is causing a culture of “unfair advantage”.

The warning comes as senior students across the state prepare to sit HSC exams in seven weeks’ time.

Mr Jagger said the practice of students missing school to study at home should be “strongly discouraged”.

“I am writing to parents to urge them to exhort their sons, particularly in Year 12 around examination time, to refrain from the practices – namely giving ID cards to others and asking them to scan in for them or obtaining doctors’ certificates for minor ailments in order to stay home and study,” he wrote.

Sydney Boys High in Moore Park.

“No one should deliberately try to obtain an advantage in study time above his peers who come to school every day, attend all their lessons and engage in multiple sport and co-curricular activities.

“Such unethical behaviour should be discouraged strongly and I ask parents to support the school to curtail it. Neither integrity, nor respect for fairness, is being demonstrated by such actions.”

Latest figures by the NSW Department of Education figures show the attendance rate in the state’s public schools was 85.7 per cent in 2022 – a decrease from the 90.2 per cent average in 2019.

Both figures fall short of the department’s target of a 95 per cent attendance rate across the public school system.

David Hope, president of the Northern Sydney District P & C Association, said students skipping school to study at home was commonplace across the public school system.

But Mr Hope had mixed thoughts about whether the practice should be discouraged by principals.

David Hope, president of Northern Sydney District P & C Association.

“Different kids have different ways of approaching the HSC and the school system shouldn’t tell students they’re not allowed to do as well as they can in their exams,” he said.

“By this time of year, most HSC students have done their formal learning and there’s only so much you can learn from sitting in a classroom with all the distractions that brings.

“It should be about choice.”

University of Sydney mathematics education professor Kim Beswick said the practice was indicative of the emphasis placed by schools on exam marks.

“For many parents and schools education has become too much about ATAR and NAPLAN and boiling down education to a single number,” she said.

UNSW Professor Kim Beswick.

“The emphasis of testing just skews the whole system which isn’t good for the overall education of kids. We have to think carefully about what we want students to be rather than feeding into the idea that we just want kids that are good at passing exams or getting marks to get into a selective school.”

A Department of Education spokeswoman said it was important for students attend school in the lead up to their exams.

“The students are almost at the finish line, and they need to remain focused and attend lessons during this crucial part of their learning,” she said.

“Attending school is a key foundation in students’ academic success and all students are expected to attend school every day.” 

The NSW Government has also launched an “Every Day Matters” campaign to help bring the number of students in classrooms back to pre-Covid levels.

“It’s our job to ensure we get kids back into classrooms where they belong, learning and reaching their full potential,” Premier Chris Minns said.