ABSENTEEISM AND TARDINESS AMONG GRADE-8 EMERALD STUDENTS

OF POLANGI NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE

SCHOOL YEAR 2018-2019

An Action Research

Prepared by:
Lucille A. Olmedo
 I.

INTRODUCTION

The rudiments of education dictates that for a student to

learn he or she must be present when the lesson is being taught
otherwise there would be no learning. The mere presence of a
student is a vital factor of learning. This leads us to the
current issues we face in our school today which is absenteeism
and tardiness. As the Filipino saying goes “absent siguro siya
nung tinuro yung leksyon”, it might be funny at first glance but
it is a direct manifestation of a flaw in the learning process.
It’s not only up to the teacher to impart knowledge but it must
be corroborated with the presence of a student. Hence, without
the teacher imparting knowledge and a student actually there to
receive such knowledge learning will not occur.

Learning is the essence of education, absenteeism and

tardiness are two factors that heavily affect the education of
the students. There might be legitimate reasons for this, hence,
this brings us to this action research which aims to determine
the factors and circumstances affecting the students. This paper
aims to determine why the students are always absent and tardy
in an effort to improve their learning through certain
interventions.

It is the aim of every school to lessen, if not eradicate,

absenteeism among its students. One way of addressing this
problem is to identify the causes of truancy. Once they are
singled out, understood, and analyzed, these issues may be
addressed with specific actions and measures. This will
eventually result in the better performance of the students,
teachers, and the school in general.
 II.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Absenteeism

According to Teasley (2004) absenteeism is a period of time

when a student does not attend school, and students who do not
attend school will generally fall behind compared to their
classmates in their academic success (Ford & Stephen, 1996).
They will have fewer opportunities to learn the materials that
will help them succeed.

Absenteeism, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary means

chronic absence. In the context of the school it is the habitual
or intentional failure from going to school. It cannot be denied
that every now and then, students may miss some school activities
and lessons. But it becomes a problem if the student will be
away from school for many days.

A similar action research was conducted by a fellow teacher

and this was what he had to say about absenteeism:

Going to school regularly is crucially important for

a student’s education and social skills. Chronic
absentee students are placed at a disadvantage both
socially and academically. They miss out on critical
stages of social interaction and development with
their peers and at the same time impacts negatively on
their academic progress. This can result to low self-
esteem, social isolation and dissatisfaction that
could well have precipitated non-attendance in the
first place.1

1
https://www.academia.edu/6713955/Action_Research_on_Student_and_Pupil_Absenteeism_in_School_Stud
ent_Pupil_absenteeism_problem
 School absenteeism is an alarming problem for
administrators, teachers, parents and the society in
general, as well as for the pupils in particular.
Unaccepted absence has a negative effect on peer
relationship which could cause absence. According to
Malcolm, Wilson, Davidson and Kirk (2003) teachers
identified effects of absenteeism on children as:
academic under- achievement, difficulty in making
friends which could lead to boredom, loss of
confidence. Also, prolonged absence can have
deleterious effects for the child in later life.
Students who are absent from school are at the greatest
risk of dropping out of school early.2

Absenteeism also affects the teacher’s ability

present class work in a sequential and organized way.
This can have an effect on the progress of all the
students attending the class.3

The families of habitual absentees can also

suffer. For a poverty-stricken family, it may mean a
continuation of the poverty and unemployment cycle
that may run in the family. This also contributes to
family conflicts.4

The society also suffers as the children of school

age hang around in the streets. They can be found just
gallivanting around. Since they have nothing to do,
they resort to petty crimes like stealing other
people’s belongings and properties. Others may resort
to drug addiction and other behavior that is
detrimental to society. Thus, if the student keeps on
being away from school for too long, he may grow up to

2
Ibid.
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid.
 be a liability of his community and of his country as
a whole.5

It is the aim of every school to lessen, if not

eradicate absenteeism among its students. One way of
addressing this problem is to identify the causes why
students become truant from school. Once they are
singled out, understood and analyzed, specific actions
and measures can be undertaken. This will eventually
redound to the better performance of the students,
teachers and the school in general.6

B. Tardiness

Punctuality is one of the virtues beyond reproach. Much of

the time and wealth will be saved if this virtue will be carried
out to the system of every responsible citizen. Punctuality will
encompass all of the positive action in all aspects. Though it
was less appreciated in other situations like productivity
against punctuality, none the less, it is still very vital in
situations that needed it most.

This study will determine the factors affecting students in

their daily routine during school days. Always and often times
being tardy in the flag ceremony, in attending classes after
recess time in the morning and afternoon class sessions and
during the first period in the afternoon class session. There
are observed instances that during their transfer of room in
their specialization subjects and other activities that needs
outdoor activities, they are behind schedule in attending to it.

In other countries, tardiness is caused either by stress or

late bedtime. But that is not the case here in the Philippines,
circumstances like poverty and distance of the school come into

5
Ibid.
6
Ibid.
place and even the geographical location of the school. Let us
take a look at the study to be cited for us to know how to
identify the causes of tardiness and relate it to our country.

Generally, class tardiness is defined as students not

attending lecture on time and not being present in the time set.
After attending lectures for a period of time, students start
getting to know the lectures are conducted and therefore assume
that there will be no constructive activities happen for the
first few minutes of the lecture. Class tardiness influences the
students themselves as well as others. As generally known,
students who possess regular attendance tend to achieve better
results as success is related to one’s punctuality. Students who
are late to class will also cause disruption to other students.
Indeed, many previous researches indicated that class tardiness
among the students is a common phenomenon. Some of the researches
mentioned that students who are tardy tend to achieve lower
grades compare to others and sleep late is the main reason.
Therefore, this research will further investigate the phenomenon
of class tardiness among the schools.7

The following research conducted will prove to it that

indeed tardiness is one of the factors for poor learning of
students in school all throughout the globe.

Literally, the term “tardiness” implies a situation where

an individual is late in happening or arriving “(Oxford Advanced
Learners Dictionary ,2010)”. The term tardiness is synonymous
with “lateness” which implies arriving after the expected,
arranged or usual time “(Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary,
2010)”. Besides, Tardiness as coming, occurring or remaining
after correct, usual or expected time. Therefore, the term “class
tardiness” has been viewed as students coming late, not attending
lecture on time, missing out initial time from the first period

7
https://www.academia.edu/29467303/Class_Tardiness-_Complete_Research_Proposal.docx
and primarily not being present on time. ” Malik et al., n.d.)”.
Many researchers have developed checklists of “deviant” school
behaviors which are associated with poor school performance.
Tardiness and excessive absences as part of criteria which
predict the like dropping out of school “(Mizell1987)”.
Excessive absences and tardiness constituted the 3rd most common
reason for student failure in school. “(Ligon and Jackson 1988)”.
Low attendance and habitual tardiness were among the common
characteristics of low-achieving high school students.”(Cuellar,
1992)”.Low achievement correlated with chronic absenteeism in
high school students. “(Estcourt1986)”.8

Many school interventions to improve student performance

use tardiness and absences as indicators of success or failure
of the intervention. However, the relationships among tardiness,
absences, and grades and dropping-out or 11 school failure are
complex. The phenomenon of class tardiness in the literature has
been viewed as students coming late, not reaching school on time,
missing out initial time from the first period and primarily not
being present in the time set by the school. Educational
psychologists took a great interest to find the causes of and
solutions to, tardiness and subsequently worked a lot to get the
most accurate findings.9

They were more focused about discovering the root causes

behind tardiness so that this problem is addressed
appropriately. There are many reasons for the students to show
tardiness in the school, few reasons are directly related to the
student that is students are not taking their breakfast on time,
students are de-motivated to come to the school and the young
ones who find it extremely difficult to get up early in the
morning. Whereas a few are not related to the students, but fall
on others like family members, van drivers and others who do not

8
https://www.academia.edu/29467303/Class_Tardiness-_Complete_Research_Proposal.docx
9
Ibid.
support students to be on time. Researchers view tardiness as a
form of absence because this is how students miss a part of their
class. Tardiness is defined as “coming, occurring or remaining
after the correct, usual or expected time; delayed “(Free
Dictionary)”. Therefore, tardiness can broadly be defined as
missing time over a course of a school day. For that reason
researchers reckon it as a chronic problem as two of the classes
which the researchers have taken into consideration, have around
six students who turn up late every other day and show signs of
lethargy and disengagement from school. The familiar faces are
lined up every morning outside the attendance office with no
concern or emotion on their faces whenever the researchers pass
by.10

This attitude can even become more adverse when the students
re-promoted from their middle school to high school.
Unpunctuality in the middle school can develop into high school
lateness where the early slow disentanglement evolves into later
truant attitude. Educational psychologists, stated that school
tardiness and absenteeism accelerate if the students are not
committed to their school. In an earlier study, reached at the
same conclusion, vigorously stating that if students do not at
home in their school environments, they prefer to be absent or
tardy at school. “(Kirkpatrick, Cronsone and Elder 2001)”.11

10
https://www.academia.edu/29467303/Class_Tardiness-_Complete_Research_Proposal.docx
11
Ibid.
 III.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Objectives of the Study

1. Determine the causes of tardiness and absenteeism among

Grade-8 Emerald students in Polangi National High
School during the School Year 2018-2019.

2. Determine the prevalent factors causing tardiness and

absenteeism among Grade-8 Emerald Students in Polangi
National High School during the School Year 2018-2019.

3. Design interventions and strategies which shall

minimize, if not, eradicate tardiness and absenteeism.

Statement of the Problem

1. What are the causes of tardiness and absenteeism Grade-

8 Emerald Students in Polangi National High School
during the School Year 2018-2019?

2. What are the prevalent factors causing tardiness and

absenteeism among Grade-8 Emerald Students in Polangi
National High School during the School Year 2018-2019?

3. What kind of interventions can be implemented to

alleviate tardiness and absenteeism?
 IV.

CAUSES OF TARDINESS AND ABSENTEEISM

Based on the Monitoring and Evaluation Reports of Polangi

National High School these are the following causes of tardiness
and absenteeism among Grade-8 Emerald Students.

The causes are represented in the following table:

Table 1

CAUSES
Tardiness Absenteeism
Distance of School from Home Distance from Home
Child Labor Students’ lack of interest
Health Problems Peer Influence
Wrong Attitude Economic Problem
Some students are obliged to Working Students
help in household chores or
some of them are forced to
support their family
Unfavorable weather conditions Family Problems

These are the common and prevalent factors causing

tardiness and absenteeism in Polangi National Highschool Grade-
8 Emerald.

Attached to this paper are the results of the Monitoring

and Evaluation Reports of Polangi National High School during
the School Year 2018-2019 such is labelled as Appendix “A”.
 V.

STRATEGY AND INTERVENTION

These are the following strategies and intervention

implemented by the school in an attempt to alleviate tardiness
and absenteeism.

 Home Visitation
 Counselling
 Parent – Student Consultation
 Teacher – Parent Consultation
 Family Day
 Students should be educated well
 Notifying parents about the absences of their children
 Advice parents that the students should not take
responsibility when it comes to household chores
during school days.

VI.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This study has come into conclusion that there is a plethora

of factors affecting the punctuality and presence of the
students in the school. But the most prevalent ones are
economically inclined and sometimes its because of the family
orientation of the children, i.e. the children are ordered to
do household chores and support their family during school days
which is understandable because it is directly linked to
economic problems in the family. However, sometimes, it is the
student himself and the Filipino attitude of “Filipino Time”
that makes a student tardy, they just don’t wake up early and
go to school on time. Hence, the researcher has the following
recommendations.
 There should be a serious campaign against child
labor and inculcate among students and stakeholders
the value of education.
 The students should be disciplined to wake up early
 The Local Government should conduct symposiums and
seminars to spread awareness about child labor and
how it affects the education of children in the
Philippines.
APPENDICES

Appendix “A”