Fighting absenteeism, B-school shows the way

Want to bunk classes to watch a new movie? Think twice. In normal circumstances, students may lose a
class. But the Nitte-based Justice K.S. Hegde Institute of Management has turned this predictable
inclination as a learning tool as well as an attendance monitoring system.

Leave trading system

Call it a penalty for not attending the class or an innovative method to learn and earn, the leave trading
system (LTS) of the institute allows students to trade their leaves providing them an opportunity to learn
the theory of pricing and trading of securities and assets in the market and at the same time bringing
down cases of absenteeism among students.

Prof Radhakrishna Sharma, Associate Professor at the institute, who came out with such an idea, told
Business Line that this method is used to control absenteeism and to teach theory practically.

Improvement in attendance

Stating that it can do wonders in educational institutions, he said: “It has made dramatic improvements in
performance at our institute and achieved its objectives.”

The system works as follows: Students will be issued 20 coupons a semester. If a student is absent for a
class, he/she will have to give a coupon to the faculty whose class he/she misses.

The students are free to trade the coupons within their class at a price to-be-decided by the market forces
of demand and supply.

It automatically controls the attendance of students on a self-regulation basis. If the students start
absenting more, then the price of the coupon shoots up. The price, which started at Rs 10 a coupon at the
institute, has reached Rs 65 now, he said.

After introducing LTS a-month-and-half ago, the level of attendance has increased by 15 per cent, he
said.

Prof Sharma said the LTS helps them understand factors influencing the securities, how a person takes
cues from the market and the price discovery in the market. The law of demand and supply can be
practically learnt in this system, he said.

Those who are prompt in attending classes make money by trading coupons, while the absentees attract
attention of their parents by spending money to buy coupons.

Monitoring attendance

Stating that punishments such as imposing fine on students for remaining absent or calling their parents
to the college are not a pleasant experience to students, Prof Sharma said.

LTS practically monitors attendance at the institute.

Students who are away on health grounds or those deputed by the institute for some competitions or
events are exempted from the coupon system, he added.