SEMIN , JORDAN

Research title: ABSENTEEISM

Related Review of Literature

Absenteeism

Bradley, R. (2015) has defined absenteeism as when any student gets away his/herself from
school maximum 20 days or more than 20 days in known as absenteeism. Dentech, W. O. et al., (2011)
explain absenteeism as when someone get absent from school due to the disturbing reason is known as
absenteeism.

Another Bradley, R. (2015) stated in the paper that, attendance is the important part on any
academic success because regular students result is always good and good result also benefit for the
academy. For the successful academy it is necessary students should be present in academy on daily
basis. Students’ absenteeism from school is very serious issue in the academy. Moreover, absenteeism
mostly found in poor students because mostly issues which become the reasons of student’s absentee.
Family play a serious role in the student’s attendance, if student is regular or not regular all credited
goes to family. Most of the time parents are responsible for child absentee, because of their less
attention toward their children. A child attendance can improve by parents, if parents become serious
towards their child education then they will be regular and also can solve all those issues which child
face in school and out of the school.

Especially they can build strong relationship among teachers and students and it is very
necessary for students and their success. The absent student’s performance in school can improve their
parents if their parents get proper information or training from school authority or teachers.

Kenton, W. (2019) explain absenteeism in his work, absenteeism refers to a person is not visible
in organization or school. Students who do not come to school due to any reason is called absenteeism.
Mostly, students do not attend school due to the fear of harassment, mental sickness, injuries and low
interest in studies. Absenteeism is the broad term in the field of education. The absenteeism effects
come on student’s performance, as well on academy performance. Absenteeism in school do not let
discipline in academies because it creates disturbance in school, this disturbance not only affect school
management but also other students in the classroom.

According to Nova Scotia Department of Education whole staff of school is responsible for
student’s absentee including Principles. They have to make sure why student is absent from school from
many days. School staff must keep communication with student’s parents, every month keep meetings
with parents and discuss all record of their child. It will help both parents and teachers to identify main
cause of student’s absenteeism from school. Principles of schools also have responsibility to identify the
student’s absentee causes and also find solution to stop absenteeism from school because it not only
harmful for student’s future but also harm the reputation of academy.
 Muir, J. (2009) stated in his paper that better attendance is the key of success of students
because regular students do not face trouble in his/her studies, they can achieve good marks in exams.
Mostly students do not attained school due to teacher’s irresponsible behavior towards students, when
teacher do not give value to attendance then students also do not give value to the attendance.
Attendance importance has found in semester system as compare to the annual system of education. In
semester system the absentee students cannot survive because in semester system education there is
the marks of regularity and daily participation in classroom. The students who do not attain semester
classes they cannot achieve good CGPA and they need to improve their CGPA, like students waste their
double feces and also waste their time too in repeating semester and giving again paper.

Absenteeism and student's Life

Absenteeism has a negative effect on student’s life because students are not able to get knowledge
which are necessary. Simuforosa, M. and Rosemary, N. (2016) stated, the students who are absent on
regular basis from schools, they suffer a lot and absenteeism is the main issue in academies.
Absenteeism effects all levels student’s learning. Further, the regular students get more marks and are
consider intelligent students of the class, rather absent students do not get good marks, they mostly fail
in achievement test and they are mostly considering weak or slow students of the class, Study further
explore that the high rate of absenteeism is found in Africa. Poor attendance become the cause of
students drop out from school and this not good for absentee student’s career.

The Impacts of Absenteeism on students’ Performance

Majority of the students were facing difficulty in exams because they do not take interest in their
studies, when they remain absent from the schools. 85% of the students responded that they got fail
due to a burden of homework which remain incomplete because of absenteeism, and they feel lazy after
absenteeism. 74% students said that they feel difficulty in adjustment of the classroom when they
remain absent from the school, only few students(18%) responded that they feel difficulty in
understanding of the missing content and they do not got positive results(20%

Relationship Between Attendance and Student’s Success

Patnode, A.H. et al., (2018) explain in the paper that students must need to attained school because
good attendance lead to an individual success. There are a lot of cases can find in any educational
academy about absenteeism and its negative effects on student’s attitude and future. Mostly absentee
students suffer in Mathematics and English subjects because they do not get command on it at home.
These are the subjects which can be understand by experts and different activities and these are
provided to students at school. When student’s do not take regular classes so they also unable to take
highest marks in exams. Further, school can help students and parents to improve attendance of child.
Mostly absentee cases occur due to irresponsibility of school and their staff.
Factors that Influence Absenteeism by Students and Recommendations

Woods and Montagno (1997) purport that the teacher attendance rate has a negative effect on
student achievement. The study looked at students in grade three in schools in the states of Indiana and
Wyoming. They discovered that in classes where teachers had the greatest number of absences,
individual standardized test scores were lowered, student rank in class was lowered, and over all school
scores were down as a result of frequent absences. Bell et. al (1994) writes that truancy is associated
with sexual promiscuity, alcohol and drug abuse, and dropping out of school. Teasley (2004) believes
that truancy from school may be one of the “first sign in a series of antisocial behaviors that lead to
negative personal and developmental outcomes” (p.1). Moreover it is influenced by a “lack of
community support, an unsupportive school environment, disorderly family life, inclement weather,
transportation problems, personal deficits, and poor health.” Students in urban settings are confronted
with many challenges. According to the study, as childhood poverty increases nationally, truancy rates
have skyrocketed to new levels. Students who go to urban schools where the majority of the students
are minority and have low socioeconomic statuses experience a larger teacher absent rate than their
peers in rural or suburban settings. Since many of students in urban schools operate in the affective
domain instead of the cognitive domain, these students tend to believe that school and teachers do not
care or believe in them and are more apt to skip or be truant to class. As a result, more staff
development must be established to better aide teachers and administrators in discovering ways to
build relationships with these students.

Causes of Student’s Absenteeism

Qureshi, M.I. and Ahmed, A. (2019) article identified some causes of student’s absenteeism. The
reason of the absenteeism has identified in this study, that is teacher’s non effective teaching, when
teachers do not deliver their lecture in effective way so students do not give value to the specific subject
and mostly keep their self-stay away from the same class or period. In addition, the student’s absentee
effects can see on students and teachers both performances. In student’s case students become unable
to compete with others and in teacher’s case, teacher organization in the class room or her planning
does not work efficiently as teacher has planned and introduce. Absenteeism effects can easily see on
students as they look so lazy and sleepy all the time, they always seen in the stress, they get low
division/marks in exams/test and they mostly have ill mannered.

Effects of Absentee on Students

There is strong relationship between attendance and academic performance, and this bound cannot
be neglected. Any academy success lead to student’s success. Absentee effect child personality and
behavior. Continually absentee become the cause of child depression.

Absentee is quite dangerous for the child future especially for job. Poor attendance students also face
trouble in making friends because nobody keep friendship with them and also not share homework with
them. Teacher also not properly help absentee children (Malcolm, H. et al., 2003). According to Ali, M.
and Ayaz, H. (2010) absentee has some serious effects of student’s performance and attitude. Study has
identified six effects of attendance which are mentioned bellow:

Hurdles in making friends

 Less confident

 Engage in sexual activities

 Poor academic achievement

 Low motivation

 No skills developed

Pupil’s Absentee Effects on Teachers

According to Ali, M. and Ayaz, H. (2010) study students’ absentee not only affects the students but
also affect the teachers in different ways such as:

 Cannot give proper attention to absentee child which may disturb her

 The bed result of absentee students also the question mark on teacher’s performance

 Give extra time to absentee children and do not have extra time for own official work

 Hurdles in balancing the accurate result among absentee and regular students.

 Unable to make effective relationship with students

 Pressurize all the time

Effects of Absenteeism on Pupil’s Academic Performance

Student attendance and performance have a strong relationship and this reality cannot be
neglected. Students do not attend classes regularly their academic performance found weak and poor as
compare to the regular students. Poor attendance of students ruins their entire career. When student
attend daily routine class, they learn many things from teacher, friends and books. Bradley, R. (2015)
argue that, the irregularity of any student effect his/her personality and academic performance.
Absentee on any student effect teacher’s attitude with student, class performance and characteristics of
course.

The Reasons for Student Absenteeism

The reasons for student absenteeism are discussed under the family, student, environment, school
and legislations headings.

The Family: Adverse socio-economic conditions of the family are among the most significant reasons
leading to absenteeism. Especially financial problems have a substantial impact in this regard (Reid,
2003; Ozbas, 2010; Oztekin, 2013; Akuzum, Yavas, Tan, &Ucar, 2015). The amount of absenteeism of
students who are married at a young age, employed as seasonal workers or in another job, or who must
take care of their siblings is increasing (Kose, 2014). In most cases, absenteeism is unavoidable if a
student's family lives far away from the school and he must leave class to visit them.Within the family,
tensions between the father and mother (Oztekin, 2013), fragmented families (Kose, 2014) and parents'
inability to be sensitive to their children (Akuzum, Yavaş, Tan, & Ucar, 2015) may lead to absenteeism by
driving the student into despair. Parents' negative attitudes towards education, not giving due
importance to education (Gomleksiz & Ozdas, 2013; Kearney, 2008), their low level of education
(Akuzum, Yavas, Tan, & Ucar, 2015), or both working (Sahin, Arseven, & Kılıc, 2016) are also among
important reasons.

The Student: In this heading, which can also be put forward as personal reasons for absenteeism, there
are reasons such as dislike of school, academic failure, lack of purpose, and lack of self-confidence (Kose,
2014). Health problems are reported to be the primary justification for absenteeism caused by the
student himself (Oztekin, 2013; Sonmez, 2019). Reasons such as falling asleep, preparing for the
university entrance exam and studying, poor social skills, and internet and television addiction (Sanlı,
Altun, & Tan, 2015) can also be mentioned under this cause.

The Environment: The student's social environment is a significant determinant of absenteeism.

Students in a group of friends who are unsuccessful, absent, or never go to school, addicted to
substances, and commit crimes are highly prone to absenteeism (Ozbaş, 2010). Thoughts that spending
time with friends is more enjoyable than school are also among the reasons for students' absenteeism
(Hosgorur & Polat, 2015). On the other hand, peer bullying is also reported as another major cause
(Reid, 2003).

The School: The reasons for students' absenteeism related to school are manifested as the pressures
exerted by school administrators, the inadequacy of social activities, the ongoing block lesson practice in
some schools, and the fact that students find school boring (Sanlı, Altun, & Tan, 2015). According to
Strickland (1998), the quality and effectiveness of teachers, guidance specialists, and school
administrators are associated with absenteeism. Students' inability to move to areas appropriate to
their interests and abilities, failure to use methods to increase the student's interest in the course, and
lack of cooperation and communication between the school and the families are among the factors of
school-related absenteeism (Pehlivan, 2006).

The Legislations: At the secondary education level, the full use of the right to 30 days of absenteeism
with and without excuses specified in the Regulation on Secondary Education Institutions of the Ministry
of National Education can be one of the critical reasons for absenteeism According to the law, limiting
late arrivals to the time determined for the first lesson hour, counting every five instances of tardiness
as a halfday absence, and identifying late arrivals outside of this period as absenteeism may result in an
increase in absenteeism rates (MoNE, 2019).

Gender. In some studies, the effect of gender differences on school absenteeism was also examined,
and it was found that male students demonstrated absenteeism behavior more than female students
(Girgin, 2016).One aspect to emphasize is that teachers and students think differently about the source
of absenteeism. Students view the school and its teachers as the causes of absenteeism, whereas
teachers view the students and their families as the perpetrators (Pehlivan, 2006). Accordingly, it is seen
that single causes of absenteeism have a complex, multifaceted, and intertwined structure. This issue
should be considered in understanding the problem of absenteeism and in developing solution
proposals.

Types of Absenteeism

According to some experts there are various type of absenteeism in schools.

Authorized Absenteeism

This the type of absentee where student properly inform school and take permission through
application for the holidays. This absence has valid reason and also mentioned days of absentee.

Unauthorized Absenteeism
 Absentee is the opposite of Authorized Absenteeism. When student do not inform school and get
away his/her self from school without taking permission from school and school also do not the reason
of child absentee is known as unauthorized Absentee.

Truancy Absenteeism

In society mostly children found who do not attend school without telling their parents. These types
of children do not come to the school but in front of their parents they pretend as they are regular
student of school. This type of absenteeism known as truancy absenteeism .Rivers,B.(2010) explain
truancy absentee in his research paper as, habitual absentee of the students and they do not take any
type of permission from any one. Truancy absentee badly effect student’s entire life because in this case
they can adopt any kind of habit which may ruin entire life of that student. This absentee considers
more dangerous because parents and teachers both are unaware from the activity of the child. Parents
think that they go to school and teachers think that child is at home but child in not at home and school.
Moreover, Patnode, A.H. et al., (2018) reported about chronic absenteeism in their research report.
Chronic absentee meaning is when student get away his/her self from school more than ten days is
known as chronic absenteeism. in other words, we can explain chronic absenteeism is the absentee
where student absentee percentage is higher than total school present days in consider as chronic
absentee and this absentee can be reasonable and without any reason.

Another study of Ali, M. and Ayaz, H. (2010) has explain two types of absenteeism which are explain
bellow:

Innocent Absentee

This is the type of absenteeism where students to not go to school due to their illness and other
serious issue. Innocent absenteeism refers to blameless absentee.

Culpable Absentee

This is the type of absentee where students without any reason and permission get way from school.
This type of attendance count as blameworthy attendance. Research further explained that it is easy to
identify the type of attendance if parents keep contact with teachers and every month meet with
teachers to know about their children’s performance. Khunger, N. et al. (2014) has explain causes of
student’s absenteeism into different perspective.

Student’s Perspective

According to student perspective, the reasons of absenteeism are poor health, early marriages, less
interest in studies, home responsibilities, fear of teacher’s punishment and taking care of younger sisters
and brothers.
Teacher’s Perspective

Teachers has shared their point of view about student’s absentee that they get away their self from
school due to early marriages and they are not train to manage both lives at once, specially girls have to
do house works and they get enough time to complete the home work and memorize the test, weak
financial position and most of the time students are studding in two different institute in morning and
evening shift. These are the causes of absentee which observed by teachers.

Principle’s Perspective

According to some principles of school explained their observation regarding poor attendance of
students that, financial problem in family, broken family the phobia of weekly tests in school and friends
or class mates.

Overall this research study tried to find out the major factors of absenteeism and its impact on
students’ academic performance. The results of the study highlights that three types of factors were
causing the students remain absent from the school. These three factors belongs to the 1) schools
factors, teachers attitude; school environment and school teaching practices, 2) home factors, home
practices; home distance from the schools and parent attitudes towards students, 3) personal factors,
student health issues, student interest level and motivational level. So it is concluded that the
absenteeism affects the literacy rate of the country, so this issue needs attention to of the authorities
and educational officials.. Absenteeism adversely affects the academic and social development of the
student. Strickland (1998) revealed a negative relationship between high school student absenteeism
and graduation scores. Altınkurt (2008) also found an inverse relationship between students' academic
achievement and their unexcused absenteeism.