Assessing the Causes and Effects of Truancy on Public Secondary School Students in Ilorin West Local Government, Kwara State

Abstract

This study assessed the causes and effects of truancy on public secondary school students in Ilorin West Local Government, Kwara State. It adopted descriptive research design. The population of the study was 1,357 in the 42 secondary schools in the area. Proportionate sampling technique was used to select 266 teachers out of the 868 in the sampled schools, via the use of Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table for sample size determination. Causes and Effects of Truancy on Students Questionnaire (CETSQ) was used for data gathering.  The instrument went through validation process and its reliability test through the use Cronbach’s Alpha yielded overall reliability index of 0.81. Research questions were answered using Mean and Standard Deviation, while t-test was used to test hypotheses. Mean scores less than 2.50 were considered ‘Rejected’, while 2.50 and above were adjudged ‘accepted.’ The study found that broken home (Mean = 3.71), poor interest in learning (Mean = 3.05), peer influence (Mean = 3.32), poverty (Mean = 3.40), poor parenting (Mean = 299), nonchalant attitudes of teachers (Mean = 3.22), bullying of students (Mean = 3.09), weak school management (Mean = 2.79), societal distractions (Mean = 3.02) and family type (Mean = 3.15) were causes of truancy. The study recommended among other things, that School counsellors should periodically sensitise students on the consequences of truancy, to make them see the reasons they should always be in their classrooms during the school hours to acquire knowledge.