Absent
Absent
Absent
A RESEARCH PAPER
PPRESENTED TO
THE FACULTY OF
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE COURSE
METHODS OF RESEARCH
PRESENTED BY
ARNA G. BALABAGAN
JANUARY 2020
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
One of the most frustrating situations to most educators and classroom teachers is
when they try so hard to provide the education that students need but these students are
always absent. Teachers prepare lesson plans, colorful instructional materials and all
other things that will help the students learn conducively but sadly, some of the students
are always either tardy or absent. In present times, there is a difficulty in achieving
materials are, there are students who are likely to miss out on the day’s activities-
willingly or unwillingly. Absenteeism also affects the teacher’s ability to present classes
in a sequential and organized way. This can have an effect on the progress of all the
students in class. Moreover, the teacher will have a limited time to be in contact with
students with difficulty in their lessons because most of them may be absent.
According to Cassey 2003, going to school regularly is crucial and important for a
student’s education and social skills. Students who are frequently absent are a
disadvantage both socially and academically. They miss out on critical stages of social
interaction and development with peers, and at the same time limiting their academic
progress. This may result in low self-esteem, social isolation, and dissatisfaction that
teachers and parents but also to society in general. Unaccepted absences have a negative
effect on peer relationships, which can cause further absences. According to Malcolm,
Wilson, Davidson and Kirk (2003) teachers identified the effects of absenteeism on
children as: academic under-achievement. Difficulty in making friends which could lead
to boredom and loss of confidence. Prolonged absence can have deleterious effects for
the child in later life. Students who are absent from school are at the greatest risk of
Absenteeism is one of the most top problems of the Third year Bachelor in
Elementary Education of Sultan Kudarat Educational Institute not knowing the different
factors behind this problem, that’s why, the researcher come up to this title.
Generally, the main purpose of this study is to have an idea on the causes and
effects of habitual absences of the third year Bachelor in Elementary Education of Sultan
Kudarat Educational Institute, School Year 2019 – 2020.
The result of the findings of this study will benefit the following individuals in their own
respective fields:
To the students
When a person will know the effects of his actions and decisions he or she has done, he
or she will look for ways to lessen the damage done. This study is aimed at raising
awareness of the impact of chronic absenteeism to the lives of the students who commit
such acts by directing the students to do better than what they already are doing. To
students who are chronic absentees, they will be given a new opportunity to go back to
To the Teachers
Being a teacher means that one must assume the role of the second parent to the students
he or she is in contact with students. However, students who commit chronic absenteeism
are one of the stressors to teachers. This study will be helpful to teachers who encounter
the phenomenon of absenteeism among students. The teacher will be able to devise
absenteeism. This study may also become a guide to teachers as they can implement or
The School Administration is the primary people affected upon knowing the effects of
absenteeism. Their concerns can then be discussed with the student body and so as the
student body sharing their troubles to the administration. Through a conference the
situations.
To the Parents
The parents are the have its significant role in the success of his children. Upon knowing
the effect of the habitual absences of the students he/she will make a disciplinary action
It would have a significant role to the future researcher because they could use this
research as their guide to formulate a strategies to address the habitual absences of the
students. The result of this study will be their basis on how to formulate that certain
technique.
This study is limited only in identifying the different factors affecting the habitual
Kudarat Educational Institute school year 2019 – 2020, and identifying the lowest and the
Definition of Terms
Those are the following terms used in this study. These terms need to be defined to
intentional failure to attend school. While every student may miss some school activities
now and then, absence becomes a problem when the student is away from school for
many days.
Cause - a person or thing that acts, happens, or exists in such a way that some specific
Exposure to the sun had the effect of toughening his skin. power to produce
In this chapter, show the related literature that may help the reader to better
understanding of the study such as: Consequences of Absenteeism, and Factors affecting
the absenteeism. And other related studies that are relevance in this research.
Consequences of Absenteeism:
There are both personal and societal costs of dropping out. The loss of taxes, loss
of production and the cost of assistance provided to dropouts make the problem of high
school non-completion an issue for every taxpayer. Each year's class of dropouts will cost
the country over $200 billion (Hale, 2014) or more than Php 92 Trillion Pesos during
their lifetimes in lost earnings and unrealized tax revenue. Dropouts comprise nearly half
of the heads of households on welfare and an even higher percentage of the prison
population. The average annual cost of maintaining a prisoner is at least three times
higher than the annual monetary fund expended to educate a school-age child
(Greenberger, E. and Steinberg, L. (2003)). This cost does not take into consideration the
costs of adjudicating the crimes that sent these dropouts to prison and the monetary and
income as a high school graduate by the time prime working age is reached, while the
likelihood of living in poverty is nearly three times higher for high school dropouts than
for those who finished high school. The following students are at risk of dropping out due
Students with poor academic performance are the single strongest predictor of
dropping out of school. This is also interlinked with too many absences from class.
Andrea Canter, a School Head of the Minneapolis Schools (2014) said that poor grades,
low test scores and poor performance task ratings may increase student frustration and
reduce motivation to stay in school and strive for higher education. Additionally,
retention in the same grade level is highly related to dropping out of school due to too
many days of absenteeism. Moreover, some research indicates that retained students are
three times more likely to dropout that those who are non-retained students.
who drop out are more likely to have a history of serious behavioral problems that those
who complete high school, and this history may be traces back from their primary grade
levels wherein teachers do not address these behavioral problems, instead, the teachers
promote the elementary pupils from their elementary grade levels to “pass on the burden”
to the secondary level teachers. A case in point is what is happening in the Public Schools
in the Philippines wherein, the teachers may not have targeted or corrected the behavioral
problems of their students in the fear that these students, when retained will be their
who stay in school. Attendance problems can be an early indicator that the student is
disengaging from the schooling process Gausted, Joan (1991). According to Canter
(2014), daily school attendance reflects both student motivation and parental support.
In a study made by Malik, Ladhani and Bhamani (2003) in Karachi India, they
examined continual student tardiness within an urban middle school in Karachi. The
primary aim of the study was to improve the punctuality of identified middle school
students by providing them with rewards and incentive on the observation of each
decrease in their tardiness. In addition to their findings, they have developed a new
intervention program which focuses on facilitating and transforming the behavior of the
parents and teachers towards student tardiness in the school. Malik, Ladhani and
an intervention which lasted for six weeks. The strategy they devised is a “motivation-
based” encouragement to learners who frequently miss out on their classes and commit
too many absences for the whole school year. After the weeks of intervention the post test
was carried out using the similar measures. The data included observations in two phases;
attendance register. The results revealed a significant change in the students’ tardiness in
the school post intervention. The findings of the said study highlight the importance of a
students.
In a study conducted by Suhid, Asmawati, Aroff, Abdul Rahman Md. Ph. D. and
Kamal, Norlaina, (2012), one of the members of the Faculty of Educational Studies in
Universiti Putra Malaysia, who studied about “Factors Causing Student Absenteeism
According to Peers, there are many factors involved in motivating students to attend
school. Students who are not motivated, hence, will usually decide not to be present in
school. Based on several researches conducted, the rate of absenteeism among students
increases annually in the Universiti Putra Malaysia. As a result, this problem more or less
adversely affected the school’s reputation. Thus, their study was conducted to identify
factors that cause students to play truant. A set of questionnaire was used to collect the
information needed. The quantitative data was analyzed using Statistics Package for the
Social Sciences (SPSS) to obtain descriptive statistics indices. The research findings were
duly discussed.
indiscipline, according to the findings of the study of Suhid, Asmawati, Aroff, Abdul
Rahman Md. Ph. D. and Kamal, Norlaina, (2012). Indiscipline among students is a
perennial problem. One common discipline problem found globally is truancy. Davies
and Lee (2006) found that school children in the United Kingdom are inclined not to go
to school or choose not to attend certain classes during the school hours. Truancy also
occurs among Malaysian students, and according to Ee Ah Meng (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 in Malaysia it has been reported that truancy nearly tops the list of
acts of misbehavior among students. Indeed, Circular 6/1995 of the Ministry of Education
(MOE) Malaysia stated explicitly that truancy was, and stiil is, a behavior that violates
school rules. Various papers have reported cases of Malaysian school children involved
in truancy. 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. Based on the records of MOE, a total of 24,840
students in 2006 and 21,060 in 2007, were found to have committed truancy. Of the eight
types of discipline problems listed by MOE, truancy was then ranked second highest after
‘lack of politeness’. Other discipline problems were actions that are criminal in nature,
time wasting, personal neatness, delinquency, vandalism and obscenity. The issue is
students who stay away from school without permission will not only be left behind in
the learning process, but worse still they will probably end up in drug abuse, gangsterism,
alcohol consumption, free sex, gambling and loitering. Certainly, playing truant is a
discipline problem, and where do these truants go to and what they do during the time of
their absence from school are related concerns. There are many factors why children stay
away from school without permission. In Malaysia, these factors include influence of
peers (Mohd. Shubari, 2000; Suseladevy, 2004), fear of being bullied, fear of teachers,
dislike of certain subjects, thinking that they will fail (Thi, 1994; Supramaniam, 1986),
no encouragement from parents or family problems (Mohamad Yatim, 1999), and the
school factor (Hussein, 1993; Tan, 2006). All of these factors have resulted in students
having no motivation to learn, therefore they turn their attention to hang around at other
places or loitering. Research findings have also shown that students who do not support
and participate in any school programs or activities are those who are not interested to be
in school (She, 2002). This study has attempted to revisit and identify factors contributing
to the act of truancy. This study is probably quite unique in Malaysia as it did not focus
on students who skip school. Instead, this study explored the perceptions of students
regarding the reason their truant friends were not motivated to attend school or why they
Conceptual Framework
variables, the independent variables that pertains to the students of Sultan Kudarat
PARENTS PROBLEM
PEERS PROBLEM
HABITUAL ABSENCES
SOCIAL PROBLEM
TEACHERS
PROBLEM
FINANCIAL
PROBLEM
Research Design
The study will utilize the Descriptive Method as a design in this research to
identify the effect of habitual absences of the students in the following category which is
shown in the conceptual framework.
This study will consider the students in Sultan Kudarat Educational Institution.
Who are officially enrolled in the school year 2019 – 2020.
In selecting the respondent the researcher will use the Stratified sampling
technique before the researcher will use the simple random sampling technique to
distribute equally the number of respondent in each department. The researcher will also
apply the 10% as a margin of error in selecting the sample size.
The data gathering instrument that will going to utilize in this study is the Survey
Survey Questionnaires
Dear Respondent,
Please answer the questionnaire truthfully. Read the questionnaire carefully and
follow the instructions in answering the questionnaires. Thank you very much for your
cooperation with the researcher. Rest assured that the data in this questionnaire will not
be divulged as every answer and your identity are considered highly confidential.
Yours truly,
Arna G. Balabagan
Researcher
Direction: Rate the following statement by checking it. The interpretation of each scale is
given below:
The data gathering procedure of the study is represented by the flow chart that is shown
below:
The researcher will formulate a Schedule plan on when to conduct the study
The researcher will identify the place on where to conduct the study
Statistical Treatment
The researcher will conduct the study
The statistical tool that will going to use in this study is the Mean Percentage to
measure the lowest and the highest factors affecting the habitual absences of students,
X =
∑ x × 100
N
Where:
X–the mean percentage
∑ x – summation of x
N – the total sample size