Educational Research

Abstract

Purpose: The study investigated the influence of family and school types on truancy behaviour of secondary school students in Ogbomosho, Nigeria.

Methodology: Descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study. The population consisted of all the secondary school students in Ogbomosho; the sample was made up of 300 respondents from both the public and private schools in Ogbomosho. Samples were selected from four public and two private schools. Simple and stratified random sampling techniques were used to select the schools and students that participated in the study. A self-designed instrument was used to collect information on the influence of family and school types on truancy behaviour of secondary school students. Two hypotheses were generated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. T-test was the statistical tool employed to test the two hypotheses in the study.

Findings: The result indicated that family types had influence on truancy behaviour among secondary school students in Ogbomosho. It showed that students’ from separated families were more influenced with truancy behaviour than those from intact families. The result also showed that school types influenced truancy behaviour among secondary school students.

Recommendations: It was recommended that parents, guardians and the government should be more concerned about the need for provision of adequate infrastructural facilities and qualified and well enumerated teachers to enhance effective and efficient teaching and learning in all schools so as to discourage truancy. Parents should be more committed to the education of their children hence they should be supportive so as to discourage truancy behaviour among them.

Keywords

Truancy, Behaviour, Family, School types, Influence

INTRODUCTION

Truancy among students both in the primary and secondary schools has now become a serious problem that schools, parents and society tend to contend with regularly. It is now very common to see some students roaming around towns and villages during the school hours. Some students will leave their schools during regular classes to go and be engaging in plays and other things not related to academic pursuit, while other students are in the school and involve in serious academic studies. Truancy is regarded as a social offence which is the absence from school without permission of parents, guardians or the school authority for a period of two (2) days in a week and eight (8) days in a month (Sara et al., 2016) (Baba et al., 2016). (Mbagwu et al., 2018) described truancy as irregularity in school attendance, this is the attitude of students who do not attend school as regular as their parents and school authorities may require of them (Suleman et al., 2017). (Ramberg et al., 2019) opined that truancy is when students distance themselves from school. Truancy is regarded as a regular unexcused absence from classes or mandatory schooling (Gyimah et al., 2017).

Truancy has been seen as medium through which delinquent behaviours, juvenile crime and many social vices could be promoted and encouraged among adolescents. (Nwosu 2007) stated that 75% of the prisoners in the United State of America were at one time or the other being involved in truancy and the percentage of juvenile offenders that started as truants is increasing. (Sara et al., 2014) asserted that the high rate of truancy has negative implication to manpower development in any nation. (Sara et al., 2016) and (Baba et al., 2016) were of the opinion that if truants are left unchecked, their attitude could lead to other more terrible vices like petty theft, burglary, smoking, drug abuse and addiction, teenage pregnancy and academic underachievement. (Musa et al., 2014) asserted that truancy among teenagers has contributed to poor examination performance and denial of future quality jobs. While (Afande et al., 2015) opined that truancy could be costly to teenagers, which might result in reduced earning capacities.

The type of family that a student comes from could affect truancy behaviour, especially if such parents are not available or responsible to carter for their children. There are single parent family structure where only one parent takes the responsibility of raising a child or children this could be due to the absence of the other partner in the family (Eremie et al., 2020). It is noted that children from single parent family may have lower level of control than children from intact household. Single parenting tends to affect children’s mentally, emotionally as well as psychologically (Singh et al., 2014). There has been indication that children that are from homes with only one parent whereby there is marital relationship disruption by divorce or separation are more likely to display a range of behaviour problems which includes delinquency than children in two parent family. It is also noted that children from families with lower levels of cultural and social capital tend to be more vulnerable to truancy than children from high status families (McNeal et al., 1999). (Claes et al., 2009) asserted that a lack of involvement from parents, social problem, neglect or abuse could contribute to the frequency of truancy. Students from low social economic background or those who do not have time for their children are associated with poor interest in school activities and their behaviours are often anti-school such as absenteeism, truancy, breaking school rules and regulations, sexual violation, drug abuse, poor academic achievement, rioting, protesting in every slight and minor school problem (Woofolk et al., 1993).

It is observed that children that are raised by two parent family structure tend to be more stable emotionally and they suffer less emotional problems, thus they are less anxious in the pursuit of their academic work. Although, this might not be true all the time, because there are some children in single parent family structure that still attend school regularly, perform better academically than children from two parent family structure (Ajila et al., 2007) (Olutola et al., 2007) (Ham et al., 2004) discovered that student from non-intact family structures were absent from school at the rate of 78% more than those from intact home. (Egochuku et al., 2014) and (Oliha et al., 2014) researched into the effect of single-parenthood on truancy behaviour of secondary school students in Edo State. The students were limited to the investigation of single parents and intact families, neglecting step-parents who are not the biological parents of the step-children. The result indicated that the interaction between truancy behaviour of students from single parent homes is significantly different from each other. This implied that there is difference between the truancy behaviour of students from single parent homes and those from intact parent homes which could also be stated as the type of home has significant influence on truancy behaviour of students.

(Onongha et al., 2020) also carried out a research on family types and truancy behaviour among secondary school students in Oriade Local Government Area of Osun State, Nigeria. The result indicated that involvement in truancy behaviour among students from different family types does not vary as they tend to have similar involvement in truancy. (Animasahun et al., 2015) and (Aremu et al., 2015) found that families irrespective of the types play an intricate role in delinquency. (Okwakpam et al., 2012) and (Okwakpam et al., 2012) found that 98% of respondents agreed that student’s family background causes a student to exhibit truancy. In like manner (Gosain et al., 2013) also found that family environment is the most influential factors in enhancing truancy among students.

The school types also play significant role in affecting truancy behaviour among secondary school students. The school type comprises of the physical structure, infrastructural development in the school, the school location, the teachers and the kind of instructional development materials available. It also includes the efficiency and commitment of teachers to their students in terms of teaching and learning procedures. (Prabha et al., 2017) and (Maheswari et al., 2017) carried out a study and found out that 85.7%of truant students expressed dislike for their school, they gave reason of not having of sufficient spacious classrooms, while 91.4% of the respondents stated that the environment and physical buildings are good enough. It was found out that student were of the opinion that if their parents would take them away from public schools where they were to private schools, that they would stop playing truants. (Audu et al.,2017), (Pur et al., 2017) and (Wasinda et al., 2017) conducted a study among boarding and day students of public schools, the result revealed there was no significant difference in truancy level of the students. The rate of truancy found among students in public school is as low as 30%.

(Habib et al., 2003) was able to identify the difference between truancy among secondary school students by school types in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study and samples of 654 (330boarding students and 324 day students) truant students were purposively selected from the population. Pro forma was used as instrument for data collection; the data collected was analysed using t-test of independent samples. The findings of the study revealed that there was significant difference between boarding truancy and day truancy among secondary school students in Kaduna State in favour of day students. Based on the findings the researcher concluded that day secondary school students are more prone to challenges that can keep them away from schools than boarding secondary school students. (Sara et al., 2016) and (Baba et al., 2016) found that truancy in Jigawa State secondary schools in Nigeria is wide spread. There was an indication that most of the secondary schools in Jigawa State were associated with unfavourable learning environment which tend to aid truancy behaviour among students. (Mbagwu et al., 2021) researched into impact of school types and students’ class on school truancy among female teenagers in Aba, Abia State, Nigeria. The result revealed a significant difference in school truancy between the public and private school students. This revealed that truancy behaviour of public school female students was more than that of private school female students in Aba, Abia State. It is against this back drop that this research study is concerned about the impact of family and school types on truancy among secondary school students in Ogbomosho, Nigeria.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Truancy behaviour has become a serious problem among secondary school students, so much that many of them tend to skip school without any serious excuse or permission. Regular attendance in school is no longer common with most students. Several reasons have been associated with why students engage themselves in truancy. The question that one should be ready to answer maybe that whatever the reasons that people deduced to why they absent themselves from school is not tenable to the repercussion of failing to attend school regularly. The adverse effect of truancy includes, academic failure and underachievement, incompetence in whatever such student are involved in, teenage pregnancy, drug addiction and involvement in other terrible vices which may hinder them from achieving greatness in life. Many students who are truants in school often end up not being able to contribute meaningfully to the development of their society, thus they often become burden to their communities. Thus, truancy is a serious threat to the overall development of the present youths, it is therefore, necessary to give the issue a serious consideration. This is the reason why this researcher tried to survey into this area so as to help to reduce the incidence of truancy among secondary school students in Ogbomosho, Nigeria. Therefore, the researcher is interested in studying about the influence of the family and school types on truancy behaviour among secondary school students.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

Two research hypotheses were raised and tested at 0.05 level of significance

1. There is no significant influence of family types on truancy behaviour among secondary school students in Ogbomosho

2. There is no significant influence of school types on truancy behaviour among secondary school students in Ogbomosho

METHODOLOGY

Descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study. This design was to assess the influence of family and school types on truancy behaviour among secondary school students in Ogbomosho. The population for the study consisted of all secondary school students in Ogbomosho township, while the sample were selected from six secondary schools out the twenty public schools and two private schools were randomly selected from about ten recognized private schools. Four public schools were randomly selected using simple random sampling and stratified random techniques. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the schools, while stratified random sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Fifty students were selected on the basis of age and class level. Thus, both the junior and senior secondary schools were included in the sample; a total of 300 respondents was used as sample for the study. A selfdeveloped questionnaire was utilized to collect information on issues relating to truancy as it concerns the family and school types of students in Ogbomosho. The questionnaire consisted of two sections I and II. The first section contained information on students’ personal data such as age, gender school and family types. The second section II contains twenty items which deals with the issue of truancy. The students are to relate to each of the items on four-point Liker type of rating scale of-Very Much True of Me-4 points, Generally True of Me-3 points, Rarely True of Me-2 points and Never True of Me-I point. Inferential statistics was used to analyse the two null hypotheses that was tested at 0.05 level of significance.

Face and content validities were used to establish the validity of the instrument used. The initial draft of the questionnaire was given to experts in Test and Measurement and Professional Counsellors in Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria for necessary corrections. Their suggestions were incorporated to improve the quality of the final draft. The reliability was established using test retest method of reliability by administering the questionnaire twice at the intervals of two weeks on the same set of students in schools that were not part of the originally targeted sample respondents. The two sets of scores from the two administration of the questionnaire were correlated using Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The result of r coefficient obtained was 0.80, which was judged high enough for this research study.

RESULTS

Hypothesis 1: There is no significant influence of family types on truancy behaviour among secondary school students in Ogbomosho.

In other to test this hypothesis, data obtained on students’ family types and truancy behaviour section of the questionnaire were analysed and subjected to t-test statistics. Result is shown on Table 1.

From the Table 1. The t-calculated value is 4.476 and p value is .000, since the p value is less than 0.05, the hypothesis earlier stated that there is no significant influence of family types on truancy behaviour among secondary school students in Ogbomosho is hereby rejected at 0.05 level of significance. Students from separated homes were more involved in truancy behaviour than students staying with their two parents.

Hypothesis 2: There is no significant influence of school types on truancy behaviour among secondary school students in Ogbomosho.

In other to test this hypothesis, data obtained on students’ school types and truancy behaviour section of the questionnaire were analysed and subjected to t-test statistics. Result is as shown in Table 2.

From Table 2, the t-calculated value is 6.723 and p value is .000, since p value is less than 0.05, the hypothesis earlier stated that there is no significant influence of school types on truancy behaviour among secondary school students in Ogbomosho is hereby rejected at 0.05 level of significance. Public school students were more predisposed to truancy than private school students.

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

The result from the findings on the impact of truancy behaviour on family and school types among secondary school students in Ogbomoso indicated that family types tend to influence truancy behaviour. The result indicated that students from separated families tend to be adversely affected by truancy behaviour than students from intact families that have their two parent nurturing them together. This is supported by the assertion of (Ham et al., 2004) that students from non-intact family structures were often absent from school at the rate of 78 % more than those students from intact homes. (Egochukwu et al., 2014) and (Oliha et al., 2014) researched on single-parenthood on truancy behaviour among secondary school students in Edo State. They found a significant interaction between truancy behaviour of students from single parent homes this result is in line with the findings from this current research. The result from the findings of these researches as corroborated with this findings, (Okwakpam et al., 2012) and (Okwamkpam et al., 2012) found that 98% of the respondents agreed that students’ family background could cause them to exhibit truancy among students. The result of the findings was probably like this because the family that students came from could have great impact in molding their lives. Charity they often say begins at home so a child‘s character and total make-up is first developed at home. Thus, if there is problem at home that is if the two parent are not available to bring up and nurture the child, it could result in creating great problems to such children though some children may able to get through such challenges but some may not be able to cope with such. This probably why those students from separated homes had issue with truancy behaviour.

The second hypothesis that deals with school types and truancy behaviour also indicated that truancy was more common with students that attend public schools than those who attend private schools. This is in consonance with the findings of (Maheswari et al., 2017)that 85.7% of truant students expressed dislike for their schools, they complained that they do not have sufficient spacious classrooms while 91.4% of the respondents stated that the physical building and environment are not good enough. The students were of the opinion that if their parents would take them away from public schools where they were to private schools, that they will stop being truants. (Sara et al., 2016) and (Baba et al., 2016) found that truancy behaviour is wide spread in Jigawa State public secondary schools in Nigeria. The schools are associated with unfavourable learning environment which tend to aid truancy behaviour among the students. (Mbagwu et al., 2021) findings showed that significant difference existed between truancy among female teenagers in both public and private schools in Aba, Abia State, Nigeria this also corroborated with the result of this research. The result is like this probably because most private schools often make their school environment to be attractive and conducive for teaching and learning. Whereas, most public schools are often not in good and conducive environment for learning. The fact that school fees are charged on termly basis, often make many private schools strive to give values for the money that they charge their students. Any attempt to fail to provide quality service, conductive learning environment and qualified personnel with adequate teaching skills, may reduce the population of such private schools. Thus, often time the private schools are more conducive for teaching and learning than most public schools that lack necessary learning materials and relevant infrastructures. This could be the reason why truancy is more common in public schools than the private schools.

CONCLUSION

Based on the findings, it was concluded that:

Difference existed between truancy behaviour of secondary school students from intact families and those from separated homes.

The result also indicated that significant difference existed in favour of those students from private schools against those from public schools in the display of truancy behaviour.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The parents should be more committed and dedicated to the raising of their children, they should be intentional in giving their children the best of education and training because these children are the future and glory of their families and the nation. This will discourage the incidence of truancy among the school students.

Government should be more committed to the provision of adequate infrastructures needed in the public schools in the country. This may serve as means of motivating and encouraging the students to be ready and willing to go to school regularly and promptly. This will help to reduce the level of truancy. Personnel that are qualified and well trained should always be provided for students in the public schools, those in the private schools must equally not be neglected.

Adequate supervision and monitoring should be embarked on, regularly by the officials from the ministry of education at both the Federal, State and Local Government levels to enhance effectiveness and efficiency of the teaching and learning process in schools, so as to reduce the incidence of truancy among secondary school students.

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