CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

School is an institution for educating children (oxford Dictionary, 2015). It is also an agent of socialization as well as institution set up by the society in order to pass knowledge, skills, values, attitudes and other necessary qualities to the younger generations so that they become productive and leaders of tomorrow. Mahuta, (2007) was of view that a school is regarded as a centre of knowledge and it possesses the power to mould and shape the character of individuals in the society. Therefore, it is clear that school is a backbone and life wire of a society.

In our schools, teaching and learning take place effectively when there is proper attendance on the part of both staff and students. However, present day students do engage in absenting themselves from school without concrete and reasonable reasons which makes them truant.  Therefore, truancy becomes one of the problems seriously affecting teaching and learning, general performance and quality of our secondary school students as well as the quality of the education generally in developing nations like Nigeria. Even though teachers, school administrators, government and community are trying their best in order to tackle truancy, it still persists in our schools.

Nigerians refer to truancy as an act of indiscipline, psychologists and counsellors see truancy as the behavioural problem which can be solved if the causes are found and properly tackled. Truancy remains a major antisocial problem among secondary school students in Nigeria.

The concept and acts of indiscipline have received a lot of attention by researchers.  Peck (2007) opined that the various behavioural disorders like stealing, violence, drug abuse, examination malpractice, sexual abuse and truancy have so undermined effective teaching-learning processes that some teachers have become helpless and disorganized in their task of impacting knowledge to the learners. Truancy as it affects the school and life chances of students, stands as conspicuous and serious stumbling block against the achievement of success academically. Truancy contributes to idleness, joblessness, unemployment. In fact, it has been ranked as the seventh in the line of behavioural problems according to teachers (Tierney, and Snyder 2003).

Truancy is one of the major dishonesties or delinquent behaviours committed by students in contemporary Nigeria irrespective of school type, gender and location. Sara (2014) perceived truancy as a serious delinquent behaviour characterized by students that often leads to other deviant behaviours. Ukanyiroha (2003) defined truancy as running away from school or classes without the consent of school authorities. That is the habitual staying away of students from school/class without permission to avoids responsibilities such as assignments, test, examinations and other extra-curricular activities. Odoemelan (2004) also defined truancy as keeping away from school during school hours with neither the permission of the parents nor school authorities with a view to avoiding punishment, dodging specific functions and neglecting certain lawful school duties.

Robinson (2006) viewed truancy as the extroverts’ reaction to school problem however, introverts too play truancy especially at teenage age. Truants are irregular in attending school, a few may choose to come once or twice in a week or may show up in the morning and disappear later while some are persistently absent without any good or acceptable reason either by the parents or school authorities. Hopson (2006) described truants as vagabonds, wretched, lazy, idle persons who shirk or neglect responsibilities and plan to go contrary to the provisions of the school rules such as attending to movies, attending special events, prepare for nights, playing games during school hours but outside school, avoid wearing school uniform, failure to serve punishment, engaging in substance abuse and cultism. Other maladaptive or anti-social behaviours characterized by truants include hyperactivity, disruptive classroom behaviour, bullying, shyness, skipping classes, indiscipline in school, disregard for school authority, poor performance and ultimately becomes a school dropout.

While truancy is frequently defined as absence from school without prior knowledge of the parents, guardians and/or the school authority but self/personal initiation of the students concern, Baker (2007) expressed that the two dimensions of absenteeism which are missing full days of school and missing some classes should be observed. Baker further stressed that truants missed individual classes and full school days due to a number of integrated problems and that without adequate and proper timely intervention will escalate and metamorphose into serious societal problem overtime. Loober & Faington (2003) and Baker (2007) expressed that some truants have personal issues that make regular school attendance difficult such as chronic physical health problem, family socio-economic challenges like helping the younger siblings or contributing extra income for the up keep of the family. Others could be the social setting itself or academic needs that are not being met.

 A report compiled by the Los Angeles County Department of Education in 1999 as cited by Sara (2014) indicated that chronic absenteeism is the principal predictor of delinquency among youths. Furthermore, a California Deputy Assistant Attorney (2000) who handles cases of truancy stated that he has ‘never seen a gang member who was not a truant first’ because they fall along the same continuum of behaviours and the obvious end result is dropout of school. Kaupman (2001) added that approximately eighty percent of school dropouts were initially truants and the consequences are detrimental on the individual, parents/guardians and the wider society.

Truancy has to do with none or irregular attendance to school. There are different shades of truancy; some children are engaged in money making ventures like hawking thereby absenting themselves from school without permission from teachers or school authority. Students may run away from school or may leave their homes on the pretence of going to school while roaming the streets only to return home at the close of school among many others. According to Garry ( 2001), truancy is one of the behavioural problems in our secondary schools that need to be investigated. Extensive and more detailed research that would give full coverage and exposition to this problem need to be conducted urgently so as to prevent this menace from resulting into more serious or further problems in our educational system. This study therefore attempted to assess the causes of truancy among secondary school students in Kuje Area Council, Abuja.

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 children are inclined not to go to school or choose not to attend certain classes during the school hours. Truancy also occurs among Nigerian students, and according to Bello (2003), it has become a social moral issue.

Indeed, what is of concern is that the spread of the truancy problem has given rise to various moral and social problems among students. This cannot be treated lightly, because studies have shown that truancy nearly tops the list of acts of misbehavior among students.

Preliminary investigation by researcher in some secondary schools in kuje Area Council, Abuja showed that a lot of students found one excuse or the other to be involved in truancy. Some of the excuses were based on helping their parents to hawk goods in the market or roadside, inadequacy of fund to get instructional materials like books and other stationery and even failure to do assignment. The question now is what are really the causes of truancy among government secondary school students in Kuje Area Council, Abuja? This what the study would provide answer for.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study was to examine the causes of truancy among government secondary schools students in Kuje Area Council of FCT Abuja. Specifically the study intends to;

1.     Determine the causes of truancy originating from the students in Secondary Schools

2.     Proffer possible solutions to occurrence of truancy among students in secondary Schools.

3.     Find out the relationship between students truancy and their academic performance

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The study sought answers to the following questions:

1.     What are the causes of truancy among the Secondary Schools students?

2.     What are the possible solutions to curb truancy among Secondary Schools students?

3.     Is there any relationship between secondary school student’s truancy and their academic performance?

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

Ho: there is no significance relationship between secondary school student’s truancy and their academic performance

H1 there is no significance relationship between secondary school student’s truancy and their academic performance

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The youth of today are leaders of tomorrow as the adage stands. If they are not disciplined today, they cannot be expected to become responsible leaders of tomorrow. The study would be useful to the following;

School administrators; this study would examine the various causes and consequences of truancy and state the way of curbing them which would serve as a vital sustainment for effective school administration