Project Music in Me: A Strategy for Pupils' at Risk of Dropping-Out

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

School absenteeism is an alarming problem for administrators, teachers and parents particularly in Gibanga Elementary School. Unacceptable reasons of absences have negative effects on the academic performance of pupils which can cause further absences. According to Malcolm, Wilson, Davidson and Kirk (2003) teachers identified the effects of absenteeism of students as: academic under-achievement difficulty in making friends which could lead to boredom and loss of confidence prolonged absence can have deleterious effect for the child in later life Students who mare absent from the school are the greatest risk of dropping out early.

This result prompted the researcher to develop and determine the impact of Project Music in Me, a Lyre and Drums Activity, as a strategy to minimize, if not eradicate absenteeism or truancy.

METHODS

This study utilized quantitative method of research. More specifically it used a descriptive type of study focused on the effectiveness of the Project Music in Me,a strategy to augment absenteeism among the pupils of Gibanga Elementary School of the School Year 2016-2017. Twenty-five selected pupils were chosen purposely. Daily attendance records were kept by the school head and regularly filled in by the grade level teachers. Questionnaires were used as the primary data gathering instrument. Formula for weighted mean was used to treat the data.

RESULTS

After the implementation of the Project Music in Me, it is observed that the pupils at risk of dropping out wereactively engaged in the lyre and drums related activities that increased their participation and attendance in school. The number of pupils at risk of dropping out was decreased by 13% from its previous record. Seven (7) of them identified the causes of their absences as:*three (3) pupils with health-related problem (asthma)*one (1) pupil for distance of school from home*three (3) pupils’ preoccupation with household chores

DISCUSSIONS

Engaging pupils in different activities is a key to have active participation in school. They have to enjoy every single minute of stay in the school. Give extra attention to those who are left behind in the lessons. They created wonderful experiences that they learned the competencies that the curriculum expected of them. This study thereby proposes to continue the implementation of Project Music in Me as a strategy for pupils at risk of dropping out (PARDO) and to capacitate all teachers as learning resource developer.