Author/s:
Makwinya, Noel Mark*
Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania (mtundunyajr@gmail.com)
Abstract:
Links between truancy and academic performance have been well established in research. As such, different measures have been employed to combat truancy across the world. Despite these struggles, current data accessed from different parts of the world show this problem to continue at different degrees. The objectives of the present research were twofold: First, to explore whether the number of students whose truancy is limited to part of the school day is less than those who miss the whole day. Secondly, the study aimed to study the practices of school-administrators in monitoring students’ school-attendance and their impact on combating truancy. The results showed that: (i) there are truants of different types: those who miss whole school-day, those who miss some sessions and those who practice both types, (ii) school administrators rely on the same strategy of monitoring students’ school-attendance regardless of the truancy-style that is predominant, (iii) in average, whole-day truants perform lower that those who missed part of the day; and, (iv) the prolonged use of the same strategies in monitoring truancy, especially if it is well-known by students has; and, (iv) the use of general and one strategy of monitoring truancy has little impact on schools’ struggles to combat truancy. The study recommended educational experts and other stakeholders to categorize truants in their records, and use unique strategies to control different categories of truants.
Keywords: school attendance; absenteeism; truancy; Tanzania
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrse.2016.1515
*Corresponding Author