Chapter II

Review of Related Literature

This Chapter presents a review of related literature which includes

the following sections: introduction, importance of attendance,

consequences of absenteeism, overview of the attendance policy in Public

Schools in the Philippines, descriptions of related attendance policies,

descriptions of related attendance programs, and studies (foreign and

local) related to the current study.

Importance of Attendance

Filipinos have deep regard to for education. Education occupies a

central place in Philippine political, economic social and cultural life. It

has always been strongly viewed as a pillar of national development and

a primary avenue for social and economic mobility. (Philippine Education

for All Primer: Implementation and Challenges. 2015)

The National Government, in fact, clearly placed value on

education higher than any of the countrys needs because the

government has placed a high proportion of budget going to the ducation

sector. Reportedly, the Department of Education (DepEd), the countrys

biggest bureaucracy, is given the highest budget allocation among

government agencies each year as required by the 1987 Philippine

Constitution. (UN Country Report in 2008) The 1987 Constitution

likewise promises the right to education of every Filipino. It provided

that, The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to

quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make

education accessible to all.

The right of every Filipino to quality basic education is further

emphasized in Republic Act 9155 or the Governance of Basic Education

Act of 2001. Along with Republic Act 6655 or the Free Secondary

Education Act, these laws reaffirm the policy of the State to protect and

promote the rights of all Filipinos by providing children free and

compulsory education in the elementary and high school level. This

pertains to six years of free tuition fees for children aged 6 to 11, and free

four years of secondary schooling for those aged 12 to 15.

Along with Education for All, the Philippines is also committed to

pursue eight time-bound and specific targets under the Millennium

Declaration which it signed on September 2000. The Declaration, in

general, aims to reduce poverty by half in 2015 (22.65 percent proportion

of the population below poverty incidence and 12.15 percent below

subsistence incidence by 2015). With the adoption of the Declaration, the

Philippines likewise affirmed its commitment to the Millennium

Development Goals (MDG) geared towards reducing poverty, hunger,

diseases, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination

against women. These goals have been mainstreamed in the countrys

Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) 2004-2010

including policies and plans related to children, access to primary

education and gender equality. Specifically, Part IV of the MTPDP focused

on Education and Youth Opportunity.

However, despite the legal mechanisms, budget prioritization and

increased access, Philippine education has been dogged with issues.

Among the issues that needs to be resolved but have improved lately

include the high dropout rates, high number of repeaters, low passing

grades, lack of particular language skills, failure to adequately respond

and address the needs of people with special needs, overcrowded

classrooms and poor teacher performances. These problems in turn

resulted to a considerable number of illiterate Filipinos and out of school

youths and graduates who are not prepared for work.

The No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law in January 2002,

provides increased accountability for states, school districts, and

schools, as well as more flexibility for states and local agencies in how

they use federal education dollars, in the US. In the Philippines, the

Department of Education has also adhered to the Education for All Policy

of the UNESCO which states that every Filipino should be in school

regardless of his or her social status because in the first place, education

is a right and not a privilege. The Adequate Yearly Progress measures

hold elementary and middle schools accountable for student

absenteeism. [Link]
 Going to school regularly is crucially important for a students

education and social skills. Chronic absentee students are placed at a

disadvantage both socially and academically. Chronic absenteeism is

defined generally as persistent nonattendance from work or school

(McCray, 2006). Webster further defines the word chronic as that which

is marked by long duration or frequent recurrence. Hence, chronic

school absenteeism is absenteeism within the school system that occurs

multiple times over a long period of time.

Chronic school absenteeism differs from the following in that

school absenteeism can also be described under various terms such as

truancy and school phobia, terms that together can provide greater

understanding of school absenteeism. Truancy, by definition, is the act of

staying away from school without permission (McCray, 2006).

School phobia, on the other hand, has been defined as an

irrational fear or anxiety about attending school (Chitiyo, Wheeler, 2006).

However, truancy and school phobia are specific terms that are linked to

possible underlying reasons for not attending school, and while touched

upon will not be the focus of this effort. Instead, chronic school

absenteeism will be used, as the term is more general and denotes the

problem instead of the possible causes.

Due to chronic absenteeism, students miss out on critical stages of

social interaction and development with their peers and at the same time

impacts negatively on their academic progress, as cited in the study of

Batingal (2014). This can result to low self-esteem, social isolation and

dissatisfaction that could well have precipitated non-attendance in the

first place.

Educators have long emphasized the importance of class

attendance. Only in the classroom may the student hear the teacher's

presentation, participate in class discussions, and enjoy the benefits of

spontaneous interactions between the students and teacher. It comes as

no surprise that students with high absence rates earn lower grades

than students with better attendance (Redick & Nicoll 1990). Fleming

and Zafirau found that over three-fourths of school failure rates were

explained by the attendance rate (Fleming & Zafirau 1982).

Consequences of Absenteeism:

A. Increased Number of Dropouts due to too many students who are

frequently absent from school

B. Students who do not go to school regularly are at risk of becoming a

menace to society as they can commit crimes or they become juvenile

delinquents

There are both personal and societal costs of dropping out. The

loss of taxes, loss of production and the cost of assistance provided to

dropouts make the problem of high school non-completion an issue for

every taxpayer. Each year's class of dropouts will cost the country over

$200 billion (Hale, 2014) or more than Php 92 Trillion Pesos during their
lifetimes in lost earnings and unrealized tax revenue. Dropouts comprise

nearly half of the heads of households on welfare and an even higher

percentage of the prison population. The average annual cost of

maintaining a prisoner is at least three times higher than the annual

monetary fund expended to educate a school-age child (Greenberger, E.

and Steinberg, L. (2003)). This cost does not take into consideration the

costs of adjudicating the crimes that sent these dropouts to prison and

the monetary and personal costs of the crimes themselves.

The personal costs of dropping out include earning only half as

much annual income as a high school graduate by the time prime

working age is reached, while the likelihood of living in poverty is nearly

three times higher for high school dropouts than for those who finished

high school. The following students are at risk of dropping out due to too

much absenteeism in their classes.

Students with poor academic performance are the single strongest

predictor of dropping out of school. This is also interlinked with too many

absences from class. Andrea Canter, a School Head of the Minneapolis

Schools (2014) said that poor grades, low test scores and poor

performance task ratings may increase student frustration and reduce

motivation to stay in school and strive for higher education. Additionally,

retention in the same grade level is highly related to dropping out of

school due to too many days of absenteeism. Moreover, some research

indicates that retained students are three times more likely to dropout

that those who are non-retained students.

Another consequence of student absenteeism is behavioral

problems. Students who drop out are more likely to have a history of

serious behavioral problems that those who complete high school, and

this history may be traces back from their primary grade levels wherein

teachers do not address these behavioral problems, instead, the teachers

promote the elementary pupils from their elementary grade levels to

pass on the burden to the secondary level teachers. A case in point is

what is happening in the Public Schools in the Philippines wherein, the

teachers may not have targeted or corrected the behavioral problems of

their students in the fear that these students, when retained will be their

(teachers) burdens again (Batingal, 2014).

School Dropouts have higher rates of chronic truancy and

tardiness than those who stay in school. Attendance problems can be an

early indicator that the student is disengaging from the schooling process

Gausted, Joan (1991). According to Canter (2014), daily school

attendance reflects both student motivation and parental support.

Descriptions of Related Attendance Programs

OHSP (Open High School Program). The Open High School

Program is a program that caters to the need of those who want to finish

high school but prevented by employment, poverty, physical handicap

and other reasons. Through modular instructions, students are not

required to report duty in school. They are given modules to work at

home and are required to report once a week.

([Link]

Review of Related Studies

In a study made by Malik, Ladhani and Bhamani (2003) in Karachi

India, they examined continual student tardiness within an urban

middle school in Karachi. The primary aim of the study was to improve

the punctuality of identified middle school students by providing them

with rewards and incentive on the observation of each decrease in their

tardiness. In addition to their findings, they have developed a new

intervention program which focuses on facilitating and transforming the

behavior of the parents and teachers towards student tardiness in the

school. Malik, Ladhani and Bhamani, Faculty, Department of Education,

Institute of Business Management devised an intervention which lasted

for six weeks. The strategy they devised is a motivation-based

encouragement to learners who frequently miss out on their classes and

commit too many absences for the whole school year. After the weeks of

intervention the post test was carried out using the similar measures.

The data included observations in two phases; pre-intervention

observation and a post-intervention observation by reviewing the

attendance register. The results revealed a significant change in the

students tardiness in the school post intervention. The findings of the

said study highlight the importance of a relationship between

institutional practices of reward and behavior modification in students.

In a study conducted by Suhid, Asmawati, Aroff, Abdul Rahman

Md. Ph. D. and Kamal, Norlaina, (2012), one of the members of the

Faculty of Educational Studies in Universiti Putra Malaysia, who studied

about Factors Causing Student Absenteeism According to Peers, there

are many factors involved in motivating students to attend school.

Students who are not motivated, hence, will usually decide not to be

present in school. Based on several researches conducted, the rate of

absenteeism among students increases annually in the Universiti Putra

Malaysia. As a result, this problem more or less adversely affected the

schools reputation. Thus, their study was conducted to identify factors

that cause students to play truant. A set of questionnaire was used to

collect the information needed. The quantitative data was analyzed using

Statistics Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to obtain descriptive

statistics indices. The research findings were duly discussed.

One of the factors that affected students motivation in going to

school is indiscipline, according to the findings of the study of Suhid,

Asmawati, Aroff, Abdul Rahman Md. Ph. D. and Kamal, Norlaina, (2012).

Indiscipline among students is a perennial problem. One common

discipline problem found globally is truancy. Davies and Lee (2006)

found that school children in the United Kingdom are inclined not to go
to school or choose not to attend certain classes during the school hours.

Truancy also occurs among Malaysian students, and according to Ee Ah

Meng (2003), it has become a social moral issue. Indeed, what is of

concern is that the spread of the truancy problem has given rise to

various moral and social problems among students. This cannot be

treated lightly, because in Malaysia it has been reported that truancy

nearly tops the list of acts of misbehavior among students. Indeed,

Circular 6/1995 of the Ministry of Education (MOE) Malaysia stated

explicitly that truancy was, and stiil is, a behavior that violates school

rules. Various papers have reported cases of Malaysian school children

involved in truancy. This problem of absenteeism is regardless of gender,

race and religion. The act of truancy among students occurs when there

is an attitude problem among students towards schooling to seek

knowledge. Based on the records of MOE, a total of 24,840 students in

2006 and 21,060 in 2007, were found to have committed truancy. Of the

eight types of discipline problems listed by MOE, truancy was then

ranked second highest after lack of politeness. Other discipline

problems were actions that are criminal in nature, time wasting,

personal neatness, delinquency, vandalism and obscenity. The issue is

students who stay away from school without permission will not only be

left behind in the learning process, but worse still they will probably end

up in drug abuse, gangsterism, alcohol consumption, free sex, gambling

and loitering. Certainly, playing truant is a discipline problem, and where

do these truants go to and what they do during the time of their absence

from school are related concerns. There are many factors why children

stay away from school without permission. In Malaysia, these factors

include influence of peers (Mohd. Shubari, 2000; Suseladevy, 2004), fear

of being bullied, fear of teachers, dislike of certain subjects, thinking that

they will fail (Thi, 1994; Supramaniam, 1986), no encouragement from

parents or family problems (Mohamad Yatim, 1999), and the school

factor (Hussein, 1993; Tan, 2006). All of these factors have resulted in

students having no motivation to learn, therefore they turn their

attention to hang around at other places or loitering. Research findings

have also shown that students who do not support and participate in any

school programs or activities are those who are not interested to be in

school (She, 2002). This study has attempted to revisit and identify

factors contributing to the act of truancy. This study is probably quite

unique in Malaysia as it did not focus on students who skip school.

Instead, this study explored the perceptions of students regarding the

reason their truant friends were not motivated to attend school or why

they were absent from certain classes.

Local Studies on Factors Affecting Students Absenteeism

Another study conducted by Gonzaga, Mhizelie Jave F. (2009) in

Agusan National High School, entitled The Effect of Absenteeism to

school and Individual Learning Performances among Third Year Science

High Students of Agusan National High School: Basis for a Conference

Dialogue, where there is a majority of the student respondents who are

females or 20 individuals or the 56% of the Third year High School

Students in the said National High School. Findings to this study show

that for the effect of absenteeism to student individual learning

performance, both teacher and student population agreed that students

perform fairly in class even if they go through regular truancy. In this

certain study by Gonzaga, [Link]. (2009) there is a recognizable fact that in

a total of 34.39 at a verbal description of Fair and at a total standard

deviation of 15.04 at a verbal description of Good the students look at

absenteeism as a factor that fairly hinders the quality of education the

students can have since they are absent. This conclusion is not so far to

what the teachers have perceived. At a total mean of 30.00 at a verbal

description of fair and a total standard deviation of 14.41 at verbal

description of Good, the teachers also sees absenteeism as not good nor

too bad for a students learning performance.

Evidently, the social relation with classmates has the highest in

mean which means that outside influences may be one of the factors that

greatly affect student participation and attendance. Due to the said

statement from Gonzaga, [Link] (2009), a line of judgment can be drawn

that a student who commits absenteeism is sought to be still socially

connected with his fellow student. In their study, Gonzaga et. At.

observed that the student respondents who commit to such habit of

being absent from class have low performances in summative exams and

major performance tasks.

As a summary to the study of Gonzaga [Link]. (2009) for the

teachers comprehensive result, the students scores in quizzes and

variation on abilities have a total mean of 2.36 with a verbal description

of fair. And that indicator 4 and 9 got the peak of the lowest that had a

total mean of 1.71 at a description of fair each. It can then be derived

from the results that the teachers sees a great difference in the

techniques of coping up and speed of analysis and comprehension of a

student who commits to regular truancy.

Factors Affecting Absenteeism

A Study conducted by Melchora Batingal, School Principal of Rufino

Rodriguez on Maigo National High Schools Student Attendance Problems

In the same study conducted by School Principal Melchora

Batingal (2013-2014), a former faculty member of Maigo National High

School (currently the School Head of Rufino Rodriguez Elementary

School), findings show that the prevalent causes of absenteeism among

High School or Secondary students of Maigo National High School are as

follows:

1. Health Issues/ Sicknesses

2. Waking up Late (Time Management Issues)

 3. Noise inside the Classroom (Classroom-related/Classroom

Environment)

4. Parents asking them to be asbent

5. Pre-Occupation with household chores

6. Dental Problems

7. No money to buy snacks in school

8. Bullying/ Students get bullied by classmates or schoolmates.

9. Teacher Factor- Behavior of teachers that could cause students to

shun school than regularly attending class.

The primary factor that causes the chronic absenteeism of the

student-respondents of the study conducted by Batingal (2014) is Health

Issues. Flu and fever are the leading culprits in this category. Oral

health, which according to the Department of Education is the main

reason why pupils or students are absent, is just one of the least reasons

cited in the said category by the students studying in Maigo National

High School for the school year 2013-2014 and as shown in the result of

the survey done by the herein mentioned researcher.

Mrs. Batingal also emphasized in her study that one of the topmost

factors why students are being absent or commit too many absences is

because their (students) parents ask them be to be absent due to the

foregoing reasons:

a. parents need their help in attending to the needs of their younger

siblings,
b. parents work far from their homes and the students are the ones who

are taking care of their siblings to help their parents,

c. their parents have to tell their children to be absent for the latter to

help them work for them to have sustenance,

d. their parents have negative view on education (parents tell their

children no one will get rich in going to school, no job will be given to

their children after studying, and going to school will only complicate

their financial situation.),

e. parents sent their children somewhere far from school to have these

children to work in their relatives houses, and

f. students voluntarily submit themselves to work in urban areas in the

hope that they can have better lives if they work than for them to have

finished their studies. Therefore, based on these facts from the study of

Batingal, family plays a great factor in motivating their children to study,

hence, parents should, according to the recommendations of this study,

be educated with the good effects of having a complete higher education.

Classroom atmosphere, personal attitude, teacher factor and

home-related reasons gained higher frequency rating in the study of

Batingal (2014). There were some certain questions that lead to the

answer as to whether or not the student participants of the study are

pleased with their teachers, the physical arrangement and time

management skills of participants. Based on the findings of the study,

the student-participants were not so much encouraged with their

teachers because of their teachers negative behaviors. The least reason

they give is related to their physical environment of the classroom.

Teachers Behavior May affect Student Participation in Class

Students contracts influence teacher attendance from the

classroom. The teachers attendance has a positive and negative effect on

interested students achieve. How students absences influences their

teachers-students relationship. Teacher and student absenteeism affect

the student test score performance base on extensive data collection

effect, conducted by authors. It presents an economic analysis using

data from over 700 school district in New York State 1986-1987. It

includes that provisions plays a big rule like (the number of unused leave

day by teacher will accumulate and cash in at retirement may

simultaneously bathetic in teachers and student (Pitkoff, 1993).

Teachers who maid and received low performance making tend to

miss a larger number of days than those who did not. Teachers with

marks do not feel a connection to the workplace and believe they are

ineffective in the classroom. This gives an impetus for school

administration to develop teachers growth plan early in the academic

years for low performing teachers than the later in year (Pitkoff, 1993).

To prevent and correct serious attendance problems, schools need

to change the way they structured improves the quality of the courses
and intensity interpersonal relationship between teachers and students

(Epstein and Sheldon, 2002).