More often than not, truancy is the first sign of trouble, the first indicator that a young person is giving up and losing his/her way. When young people start skipping schools, they are telling their parents, school officials and the community at large that they are in trouble and need help, if they are to keep moving forward in life
TRUANCY
The term truancy has been conceptualized by different authors in different ways. Truancy is defined as a “deliberate absence from school without parental knowledge. Also truancy is “when a student’s stays away without permission, anyone who absent himself from work or duty without good reasons, the knowledge of the authority”. The above definitions are in agreement that truancy occurs when a student absents himself from school without due permission either from parents or from the related authorities.
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On its popular meaning, truancy can be seen as a: deliberate absence from school on the part of the pupil without the knowledge and consent of parents; absence of the pupil from the school for which no reasonable or acceptable excuse is given, this latter concept broadens the definition considerably and makes it synonymous with unexcused absence. Finally truancy can be defined as a delinquent act which occurs when “a child often stays away from the school without good reasons”. These definitions indicated certain elements of truancy that must be stressed and in order to have a proper understanding of the concept.
CAUSES OF TRUANCY
When young people start skipping school, they create major concern for college educators as well as for the community at large. There is no single specific known cause for truancy and the difference between cases is usually greater than the similarities, however, there are general observations that can be fairly stated about truancy and there are a number of causes why learners absent themselves from school and the following are some them.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Academic performance is an issue that deeply concerns students, parents, teachers and authorities not only in our country, but also in many other Latin American countries and continents. The complexity of the academic performance starts from its conceptualization. Sometimes it is known as school readiness, academic achievement and school performance, but generally the difference in concepts is only explained by semantics as they are used as synonyms. Conventionally, it has been agreed that academic performance should be used in university populations and school performance in regular and alternative basic education populations. We will point out just a few because there is a diversity of definitions. Several authors agree that academic performance is the result of learning, prompted by the teaching activity by the teacher and produced by the student. Academic performance is “the product given by the students and it is usually expressed through school grades”. Academic performance as a measure of the indicative and responsive abilities that express, in an estimated way, what a person has learned as a result of a process of education or training. Academic performance involves meeting goals, achievements and objectives set in the program or course that a student attends. These are expressed through grades which are the result of an assessment that involves passing or not certain tests, subjects or courses. Academic performance also can be seen as the level of knowledge shown in an area or subject compared to the norm, and it is generally measured using the grade point average.
The purpose of the school or academic performance is to achieve an educational goal, learning. In this regard there are several components of the complex unit called performance. They are learning processes promoted by the school that involve the transformation of a given state, into a new state, and they are achieved with the integrity in a different unit with cognitive and structural elements. Performance varies according to circumstances, organic and environmental conditions that determine skills and experiences. The academic performance involves factors such as the intellectual level, personality, motivation, skills, interests, study habits, self-esteem or the teacher-student relationship. When a gap between the academic performance and the student’s expected performance occurs, it refers to a diverging performance. An unsatisfactory academic performance is the one that is below the expected performance. Sometimes it can be related to teaching methods
TRUANCY AND UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE
The college is responsible for providing instruction and informing parents when their child is absent. The state prescribes attendance, but enforcing attendance is the responsibility of parents and learners. Compulsory schooling can be equated with state truancy. Every truancy statute imposes criminal penalties on the parents or guardians who do not see that a learner for whom they are responsible receives the amount of education required by the state law for required age ranges. In early enforcement, if a parent or master did not teach a learner whatever the law required, the learner was taken away from the parents or guardians and apprenticed to someone who would carry out the law. Attendance officers are hired to enforce the law. Sometimes, they have been known as visiting lecturers, attendance lecturers and truant officers and more recently as learner advocates. In many states, laws have invested attendance officers with the powers of police officers, thereby enabling them to make arrests in enforcing attendance laws. If the learner continues to be absent, and then is subject to provisions of the children’s court, the child then is subject to provisions of the children’s court and code, which requires that the state provides assistance and takes whatever action in each incident.
CONCLUSION
Truancy is one of the major antisocial discipline problems among secondary school students in Nigeria. Various behaviour 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. Herzberg’s motivation hygiene theory postulates that motivators’ factors account for student positive self concept and will reduce truant behaviour among students. Students that are motivated by their teachers, or parents developed strong passion for school and are likely to perform well in school. The reinforcement theory considers the use of positive or negative reinforces to motivate or create an environment of motivating in other to increase student interest in school and decrease truancy. The devastating effects of truancy in our secondary school cannot be underestimated because it is multidimensional and multifaceted, disciplinary problem in school. It been seen from the reviewed literature how family socio-economic background, peer group influence, student self concept, and teacher’s personality affect the academic performance.