Use of Tracking Card to Minimize Tardiness and Absenteeism of Grade 9 Students of Lagay National High School

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Since the Department of Education promotes the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policy, it is the duty of the teachers to create programs that will ensure that students are learning. Low academic performance has been observed among students who have been intentionally absent from time to time. The study attempted to determine the factors affecting students' attendance in class of the grade 9 students of Lagay National High School, with an end view of developing an intervention program for students' tardiness and absenteeism.

METHODS

The researchers used the descriptive type of research. Data were gathered by means of validated instruments composed of two sets of modified questionnaires. The set of questionnaires dealt with school climate and factors affecting students' attendance in class. These were treated by means of weighted mean and frequency distribution.

RESULTS

The factors affecting students' attendance in class have the following results: The weighted mean (WM) of Physical Factors is 1.96 (Rarely Experienced), WM of Health Problems is 1.81 (Rarely Experienced), WM of Personal Attitude is 1.14 (Rarely Experienced), WM of Teacher-Related Factors is 1.33 (Rarely Experienced), WM of Classroom Atmosphere is 1.44 (Rarely Experienced) and the WM of Home-Related Factors is 1.38 (Rarely Experienced). In general, it was found out that most students, never experience the factors stated to affect their attendance in class. However, they consider being far from school (physical factor) as the most common cause of tardiness and absenteeism, having a toothache (health problem) ranked second, being noisy inside the classroom (classroom atmosphere) ranked third, having absent from class to find a living (home-related factors) ranked fourth, not understanding the lesson (teacher-related factor) ranked fifth and not waking up early (personal attitude) ranked sixth among the reasons for being late or absent. After using the tracking card, cases of tardiness and absenteeism among Grade 9 students decreased by 18%.

DISCUSSIONS

The developed Operation Eradicate Students' Tardiness and Absenteeism through Recognition (OESTAR) tracking card may be used for addressing attendance issues of students. The study covered only the grade 9 respondents since it was reported that they were the grade level who had great cases of tardiness and absenteeism in class. However, it can be implied that the use of tracking can also be applied in other grade levels.