Education is the process which a society consciously transmits its knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another. The school as one of the agents of socialization was established to mould, build and shape the youths to become useful to themselves and the society. Such conscious and intentional efforts usually focus in part on character development, behavior modification and values, orientation, especially among youths of the nation. The school as centre of knowledge and it possesses the power to mould and shape the character of individuals in the society. However, distortion and aberrations in the character of students in poor school environment are being reflected in the pattern of students‟ classroom behavior. If not checked such behavior may constitute impediments to meaningful classroom learning, school growth and development. Prominent among such undesirable behavior is truancy among students in poor school environment. Absenteeism interrupts the learning process. The educational system is founded on the assumption that students will attend school
Direct and indirect costs of absenteeism are extremely high to the individuals, schools, families and communities. First of all, absenteeism in school negatively affects student learning experience and academic achievement. Absenteeism reduces the success because students miss their education time. This also results in loss of other students’ time since teachers must use additional time to compensate, which leads to lost teaching time for all students. This effect is observed significantly more in progressive interconnected courses such as courses that have to do with calculations. Students who miss certain classes have difficulty learning other subjects and are forced to expend more effort. When students fall behind in their learning, they lose interest and fail. In addition, students feel an increasing sense of alienation toward their classmates, teachers and their school. Also absent students can set a bad example and encourage absenteeism among other students.

See Some Undergraduate Research Topics And Project Materials

Absenteeism is not only an indicator of low academic achievement but also a strong indicator of diminished social and life success. Absenteeism makes it difficult to create a solid foundation in terms of discipline and sense of responsibility. Therefore, it leads to problems in work and discipline habits in future work life. This leads to potential consequences, such as unemployment or low income and inability to work at a regular job. Moreover, as absenteeism increases, students are inclined to experience psychological problems such as depression or behavioral disorders. They may also exhibit behavioral patterns such as becoming involved in violence inside and outside of the school, teenage pregnancy, quitting school and acquiring harmful habits. In other words, absenteeism for young people is considered as a predictor of academic failure and leads to many other risk factors. If no measures are taken, absenteeism may be the beginning of a process ranging from academic failure to dropping out of school.
SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT
A school environment is broadly characterized by its facilities, classrooms, school-based health supports, and disciplinary policies and practices. It sets the stage for the external factors that affect students. Basically, it refers to an educational approach, cultural context, or physical setting in which teaching and learning occurs.
A positive school environment is defined as a school having appropriate facilities, well-managed classrooms, available school-based health supports, and a clear, fair disciplinary policy. There are many hallmarks of the academic, disciplinary, and physical environments of schools with a positive climate.
TRUANCY
Truancy is any intentional, unjustified, unauthorized, or illegal absence from compulsory education. It is a deliberate absence by a student's own free will and usually does not refer to legitimate excused absences, such as ones related to medical conditions.
Truancy is running away from school or classes without the consent of parents or school authorities. That is habitual staying of student from school or classes without permission to avoid responsibilities such as assignments, test, examinations and other extra-curricular activities. Truancy is also keeping away from school during school hours with neither the permission of the parents or the school authorities’ in view to avoiding punishment, dogging specific functions and neglecting certain lawful school duties.
More so, illness, age, financial crises, social class, geographical area and institutional factors like teachers‟ attitude, ineffective administration, and high cost of education can also be responsible for truancy. Sometime most of the students go to school without taking food due to scarcity of food at home as they belong to poor families. Consequently, they miss classes as they need an opportunity to take care for themselves.
CAUSES OF TRUANCY
School and family environment are the most influential factors in generating truancy among students. Truancy obstructs effective learning and causes poor academic performance of truant students‟ continuous keeping away from school lead to serious unwanted consequences for both the truant and the communities which caused deformation in the society.
The causes of student absenteeism are complex and multi-faceted. The factors associated with absenteeism are classified into three fundamental areas: individual, family and schools
Individual Factors: Students' individual factors may negatively affect school attendance. Research indicates that absenteeism increases by seniority in high school and most frequently happens at age 15. Absentee students usually do not feel safe at school. They feel academically or socially inadequate. They find classes boring and their positive experiences related to school are less than those who attend school regularly. Thus, self-esteem, confidence, concentration, self-management and social skills of these students are low. They feel powerless in the school and think other students do not respect them other results include not wanting to get up in the morning, receiving strict punishment, sleeping late, not completing homework, being in a grade that is one above or one below the regular grade level, switching to another school in the middle or the beginning of the school year, feeling extreme test pressure, feeling constantly ill, and having siblings who are regularly absent. Participating in fun activities and socializing with their peers outside of school are also among the reasons. Interestingly, some students are absent since they find courses difficult and some others are absent because they find the courses monotonous and boring.
Family factors: Another major reason for absenteeism is "family factors". A student's parent has a significant impact on his attendance in school. the following are reasons for student absenteeism arising from the family: family's socio-economic level; family's need for student to work; parenting skills; psychological problems; support or neglect; alcohol or drug problems; criminal behavior the lack of consistency; divorce; inter-parent conflicts; family structure, such as a single parent; interest or control level for the student's behavior; parents have low education level; negative past school experiences; lack of participation in school or not understanding procedures; and not providing environment for the student to do homework. The level of respect the family has for education is seen as a role model for students.
The primary responsibility of parents is to ensure their children regularly attend school. Conditions at home have a significant impact on children’s attendance and on their promptness. Poor family control and lack of persistence is perhaps one of the most important factors behind school absenteeism.
School factors: A hostile school environment can also cause truancy. Students who lack friends or are being bullied are likely to skip school. This factor is especially applicable to students who look, act or dress differently. In addition, some kids may face peer pressure to skip class. Truancy is seen among students who lack confidence in their mental abilities or have learning disabilities. High truancy rates are seen in schools that have antagonistic relationships between staff and students and a poor attendance policy.
A school’s attitude and rules against absenteeism are factors that are contribute to the absenteeism problem. Schools’ procedures are inconsistent and do not produce meaningful results in reducing absenteeism. Students are not receiving clear messages from the school about the importance of attendance. Tolerant policies or lack of firm implementation for existing policies gives the wrong message to students and parents about the importance of attendance also indicated that inconsistency of policies, lack of meaningful results and poor school record keeping have a negative effect on students.
Although there are various reasons for absenteeism, one of the most important of these reasons is in not liking the school". If the school is cold, not secure or if there is a climate of tolerance for bullying, students will prefer not to be in school. In particular, conflicts with peers and teachers, exposure to bullying, and dislike of teachers are important causes of absenteeism. In a school environment where students do not feel a commitment to school, they would not want to attend, resulting in increased feelings of alienation. Commitment to the school is formed by the student’s perceptions about respect, love and values they receive in the school. In the school environment where there is a perceived value and an emotional commitment, there will be a sense of security. Therefore, in such a school environment, students' attendance and participation increases.
TYPES OF TRUANCY
There are three types of truancy which include: Habitual truancy, occasional truancy and casual truancy.
1. Habitual Truancy: This is type of truancy that occurs when a student (truant) constantly absent from school without the due knowledge or consent of his/her parents or the school authorities. Habitual truants are mainly those students who miss numerous full days of school academic activities. Their frequencies of absenteeism have become regular behavior or habit. It is important to note that students who are habitual truants have high chances of falling behind in school work, decline in their academic performance and even lose their attachment or positive attitudes towards school.
2. Occasional Truancy: This type of truancy occurs when a student does not constantly and continually absent himself from school. In this type of truancy, the student levels of absenteeism from school without the permission of parents or school authority is irregular. For example, a child whom the mother refuse going to school and was kept at home to help care for sibling and the child taken out of school for an out-of-season family holiday and so on are all instance of occasional truant.
3. Casual Truancy: This is the type of truancy which occurs when the students absence from school by chance. This type of truancy is not regular and constant but happens by chance. For example, students who remained lurking within sound of the school bell so that they could attend those lessons which interested them. A casual truant is student who keeps away from school and cuts up to 10 percent of the total number of working days during one academic session. A casual truant is an escapist to avoid unpleasant situation in the school, during school hours. He is amenable to suggestion and persuasion and hence most responsive. He is the marginal person to lapse into truancy if left alone and amenable to correction if properly handle.
SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT AND TRUANCY AMONG STUDENTS
School environment means the extent to which school settings promote student safety and student health, which may include topics such as the physical plant, the academic environment available, physical and mental health supports and services, and the fairness and adequacy of disciplinary procedures, as supported by relevant research and an assessment of validity. The school is expected to provide an atmosphere that is conducive for proper learning and teaching as well as serving as a place to be loved by the students. However, in some situations school assists in making students to engage in truancy. For example, in a situation where a school is having teachers who are harsh to students, where there is high level of bullying, inappropriate school environment, boredom, poor management, poor relations with teachers and in some cases irrelevance of the curriculum, then there must be high tendency of truancy among the students. Harsh teachers, negatively school experience such as bullying, boring and boredom classes, inappropriate school environment, indiscipline prevalent in the school, lack of interest and co-curricular activities are some of the factors influencing truancy among students that come from the school itself.
The school environment has to be appealing to the students when, it is not attractive to them the students will resist and resent. To make the school attractive, the very location of the school, its surroundings and classrooms where study takes place have to be good. The environment is expected to have quality and qualified teachers that are committed. In an environment where teachers are not serious about their job can encourage students to become truants. Students can become truants when teachers teach only to earn a livelihood and not taking their profession as a sacred duty with commitment and dedication in building, molding, and shaping the future of the children. When this situation prevails in the school, students can get an aversion to the school, its staff and environment and they can become truants.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the school environment has to be appealing to the students when, if it is not attractive to them the students will resist and resent. To make the school attractive, the very location of the school, its surroundings and classrooms where study takes place have to be good. The environment is expected to have quality and qualified teachers that are committed. However, the objectives of education is to provide students with academic and vocational skills as well as moral ethics National Policy on Education, Notwithstanding, maintaining school attendance has become a major concern of parents, teachers, counselors, school administrators, and Ministry of Education, this is because truancy has become more common over the years and has created serious problems in the educational system.

it depends on the individual.