The influence of class attendance on the throughput rates of students at a FET college in South Africa

Student engagement with academics in a classroom environment is one of the oldest and well-known pedagogical strategies while having quality teachers in the classroom is but one indicator of possible student success. In Further Education and Training colleges in South Africa, an 80% classroom attendance is usually required for students to qualify to write their final national examination at the end of the term. The main purpose of this paper is to assess the influence of classroom attendance on the throughput rates of students in a National Certificate offered at a Further Education and Training college in South Africa. The research, on which this study is based, incorporates an ex-post facto study involving a non-experimental correlation design using quantitative data. Results indicate a significant attrition rate of 72%. Senior students in Level 4 seemed to attend more class (average attendance is 55% with 63% passing) as compared to first-year engineering students in Level 2 (average attendance is 48% with 44% passing). Results further show that the throughput rates for Mathematics never exceeded 11%, while students performed very well in Workshop Practice and Electrical Workmanship (peak throughput rate of 100% for Level 3). A key recommendation is to alert management of the non-compliance with the 80% classroom attendance policy, which needs to be revised or re-enforced, so that awareness, transparency and accountability may be promoted.