Causes And Effects Of Truancy Among Junior Secondary Students

INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Truancy is an educational social and law enforcement problem.
It is the result of one or more factors in a child’s life which prevents regular school attendance.
Traditionally, truancy is defined as an absence from school that is not excused by parents/guardians or the school. National literacy trust (20090. according to LIOYD and STEAD (1972) of Edinburgh University, truancy is a team used to described any international unauthorized absence form compulsory schooling.
Truancy is also an indiscipline problem. A truant is a child who pretends to set for school and then roams the street. He shows dislike for school. The possible cause and the contributing factors of truancy are numerous and diverse and may be seen from different perspectives.
Truancy can affect other students in the class. They can distract teacher’s attention and this cause resentment especially when they go unpunished.
Many teachers feel that truancy is a problem to them when they try to help them catch up with other students.
Truancy causes physical harm in the sense that a truancy is always violent in action.
Truancy leads to other tangible forms of delinquency such as thief, criminal, damage of school property, armed robbers, rape, human trafficking and drug trafficking.
The teacher should pay greater focus on individual children.
Emphasis should be placed on individual intervention such as:
Pupil support
Monitoring schemes

Statement of Problems
The family, the school and the community at large are faced with many problems resulting from truancy in Nigeria today, the problem is reaching serious. Some of these problems are as follows:
i. Tantalization of personal properties: Truancy can lead to this as there is every tendency that a truancy who roams about the street, joins street boys who indulge in criminal activities (Bad company corrupts good manners 1st Corinthian chapter 15 vs 33).
ii. Truancy is costly: Despite the fact that only a small proportion of students are regular truants, teacher and other professionals spend extra time trying to inculcated behaviors when they are discovered.
iii. Poor academic performance: truants tend to have very poor academic catch up with lesson that had been taught when they are not in class.
iv. Drop-out of school: when a truant is having very poor academic performance and finds himself indulging in criminal activities he feels uncomfortable and will be left with no other option than to withdraw from school.

Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is
i. To find out if lack of parental care cause truancy among junior secondary school students in the Enugu South Local Government Area.
ii. To find out how too weak or too rigid administrators in junior secondary school encourage truancy among students in Enugu South L.G.A.
iii. To investigate how the unavailability of academic facilities such as library, sports equipment, class room etc. in junior secondary schools causes truancy.
iv. To investigated how truancy brings about indiscipline or criminality in junior secondary school in Enugu south LGA.
v. To find out how truancy among junior secondary school students lead to poor academic performance of students.

Significance of the Study
This study is very essential to the extent that;
It will help in creating awareness of the problems of truancy among junior secondary school.
It will expose the danger associated with truancy to the teachers and parents/guardian.
It will enable the education administrators in devising appropriate curriculum to check mate the act of truancy.
It will help researchers that are into similar research activities to make provision for the incidence of truancy in school.
Scope of the Study

The scope of the study is narrowed to the case study of junior secondary schools sector in Enugu South L.G.A.

Research Question
1. To what extent does lack of parental care causes truancy among students in junior secondary schools students in Enugu South L.G.A?
2. How does too weak or rigid administrators in junior secondary schools encourage truancy among students in Enugu south L.G.A?
3. Does lack of academic facilities such as library, sport, equipment and classroom etc in junior secondary school causes truancy among students in Enugu South L.G.A?
4. How far does truancy among students bring about economic waste to the family and government in Enugu South L.G.A?
5. To what extent does teaching method causes truancy among junior secondary school students in Enugu South L.G.A?