Truancy And Academic Performance Of Secondary School Students In Biology

Truancy And Academic Performance Of Secondary School Students In Biology
Truancy And Academic Performance Of Secondary School Students In Biology

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to investigate Truancy and Academic Performance of Secondary School Students in Biology in Ibeno local government area. Two research questions were formulated to guide the study. The population of the study consists of all the secondary school students in Ibeno Local Government Area. The sample random sampling technique was used in the study, a maximum of 50 students were randomly selected from each of the four secondary schools that were selected which is made of 200 students. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire which consists of 20 questions. The resulting data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The findings revealed that home upbringing, peer group factors, socio economic back ground of the students, and poor academic performance of the students are the contributory factors to truancy in our secondary schools. It was therefore recommended that, school authorities should reinforce in their mode of enforcing school rules and regulations as this will go a long way to reduce student’s misbehaviors in schools.   

Truancy And Academic Performance Of Secondary School Students In Biology

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

 

1.1   Background to the Study

The school is a social unit established by members of the society as a formal agency of education in which the young (students) attend to learn about themselves, other people as well as the language, custom, attitude and the way of doing things. Staying school is the first step to a good education in order to achieve academic excellence, that is why the students are mandated to attend school daily, but due to some factors, most students absent themselves from formal school activities, hence engaging in truancy.

In the conception of Stoll (2002), truancy refers to a situation whereby a student is absent from school for no legitimate reason.  He went further to say that many students do skip either a single lesson or even a full day of school at least once during their academic life.

According to Huzinga & Thornberry (2000), truancy is defined as having an unexcused absence from school for one or more part of the days for a least three school days during five day school week Salford (2008), defined truancy as the act when a student, who is believed to have been at school, fail to attend school classes without the permission or awareness of the parents on the school authority concerned. Truancy is an international unauthorized absence from school activities. A student who engages in the act is therefore referred to as a truant. This implies that every child is expected to be in school and must b present in school and class attendance regularly unless when a child is duly permitted to be absent in respect to health reasons or otherwise stated.

However, student who engage in truancy might have found life in classroom dull boring and uninteresting. Also, they must have found greater pleasure and interest in activities outside the school and classroom environment. Such students usually leave their homes giving everybody the impression that they have gone to school, but stopped on the way side to participate in what they like to enjoy most. This they do until it is time for school dismissal and the return home. Some others are caught playing around the street within other truants, engaging in gambling and loitering around the school premises. This is because some truants get scared of some unfriendly treatment for teachers, unpleasant encounters during classroom work, unnecessary harassment and embarrassment by the senior students, these leads to loss of interest in academics in the classroom by the students.

Furthermore, truancy, leads to poor academic achievement at the end of the school periods, school term and school year. Truancy is a threat to academic achievement of student. It is believed to reduce the quality of education the students receives. It reduces the standard of academic achievement of a child. It leads to the fall of educational standard in school. It increases the rate of examination malpractice and poor examination result of both internal and external examinations. Truancy is also a factor that contributes to idleness, joblessness, unemployment, and underemployment of most adult today, just because they engage in the act of truancy during their school days.

Nevertheless, the aim of this work is to investigate the actual acts, causes and the effect of truancy in secondary school students. 

Truancy And Academic Performance Of Secondary School Students In Biology

1.2   Statement of the Problem

Indiscipline among students is a perennial problem. One common discipline problem found globally is truancy. Davies and Lee (2006) found that school students are inclined not to go to school or choose not to attend certain classes during the school hours. Indeed, what is of concern is that the spread of the truancy problem has given rise to various moral and social problems among student.

This cannot be treated lightly, because in-study has shown that truancy nearly topics the list of act of misbehavior among students. This problem of absenteeism is regardless of gender, race, and religion. The act of truancy among students occurs when there is an attitude problem among students towards schooling to seek knowledge. The issue is students who stay away from school without permission will not only be left behind in learning process but worse still they will probably end up in drug abuse, gangsterism, alcohol consumption, free set, gambling and loitering. Certainly playing truants is a discipline problem and where these truants go to and what they do during the time of their absence from school are related concern. The study will therefore attempt to find out the effects of truancy on students academic achievements in secondary schools.

Originally posted on October 27, 2021 @ 7:36 pm

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Peter Hezekiah Lawson (Sir Pee). The CEO of onlineproject.com.ng. A reputable researcher, Web Developer, ICT Instructor and a publisher of many research works in Education.