where children decide to leave school or play truant parents living in slums are in many cases unable either to monitor their attendance or to force them to go kabeer and mahmuds respondents had particular difficulty controlling the behaviour of older sons and one respondent did not realise his son had stopped attending until his admission was cancelled because both parents were working all day the heavy assessment orientation boredom physical punishment and occasionally fraught relationships between teachers and students could both worsen learning outcomes for students who stay in school and increase the risk that they will drop out before even taking their final examinations