Chapter II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Tardiness Affecting Academic Performance

Tardiness is not a hobby. It is the habit of being late or delaying arrival. Being

late as a form of misconduct may be formally punishable in various arrangements, such

as workplace, school, etc. An opposite personality trait is punctuality. Several studies

have shown that school tardiness has a negative impact on learning outcomes. By the

mere nature of arriving late and missing school hours, students receive fewer hours of

instruction than students who are in class when the bell sounds. But not only does a

student who is consistently arriving late to school establish bad punctuality habits, their

tardiness also disrupts the learning of other students in their classes. And there are

some causes why students come late, they sleep too late at night. Most students

nowadays sleep too late at night because of the worthless doings just like playing video

games that causes them to wake up late at the next morning. Second, trying to get one

last thing done. This is a common cause of tardiness. Nowadays students always try to

answer one more email or Facebook, messages before they get out of their houses to

go to school. This may lead to distractions and forget what they are doing. Another,

under-estimating the commute time. Some students may tell themselves it takes only

twenty minutes to get to school, but it actually takes forty minutes to go. And sometimes

they can’t find things they need. Nothing is more annoying than searching for lost objects

when you’re running late. This problem will take most of the time of the students to find

their things. (Retrieved from: jeraldmarkcasilagan.wordpress)

Adrian Scott (2016), a principal from Swan Christian College explained that

for a child, arriving late to school occasionally won't cause major disruption. Inevitably,
children will feel sick or tired some mornings, or other situations will prevent them from

being on time. But chronic lateness eventually takes its toll on a child's overall

educational experience.

According to the National Initiative Attendance Works, missing just 10

percent of the school year in the early grades causes many students to struggle in

primary school, and lateness in later grades is associated with increased failure and

dropout rates. Fortunately, parents can help prevent tardiness from becoming frequent

enough to negatively impact their child's school life. Disrupted Routines, one of the most

important aspects of school is that it is organized, scheduled and predictable. Students

depend on the structure of the day. They know where they have to be and when. They

know the main purpose for being in school is to learn and that routines are in place

precisely to help them focus on that learning. When students are repeatedly tardy, these

routines are disrupted. Children who are often late have trouble settling in and mastering

routines. Tardiness can throw off their whole morning or even their day, especially if the

late commute to school was stressful. Social Criticism, the social experience has a

powerful impact on a child's feelings about school and his or her ability to be

academically successful. When a child continuously shows up late to class, other

students are distracted. Attention is drawn away from the teacher or assignment and

toward the child who has just arrived. Over time, classmates may begin to criticize this

child, affecting how they feel about themselves in school. During adolescence, children

are especially conscious of fitting in and being accepted by peers. If your child is

repeatedly tardy, they may become a target or outcast over time, and negative peer

interactions can hurt their ability to concentrate on learning. According to the

Encyclopedia of Children's Health, children with steady friendships throughout the school

year enjoy school more, and children who can make new friends tend to perform better

academically. Low Achievement, perform well a nonprofit policy research and

educational organization, reports that frequent tardiness is associated with lower grades

and lower scores on standardized tests. It is also linked to low graduation rates. In

addition, students who are routinely late at the primary and middle school levels are

more likely to fail in senior school -- or even drop out. In many classrooms, particularly at

the primary level, morning routines are critical to daily lessons. Warm-up activities may

introduce topics that will be learned later in the day, or review work offers students an

opportunity to review previously learned skills. Responsibility, part of your child's

education is learning to be responsible. The school experience teaches children how to

meet expectations. They learn to follow schedules, obey rules, complete assignments

and keep track of their materials. Learning responsibility in school is a precursor to

functioning in the working world, as noted by William Kirby in his 2010 article "School

Attendance Tied to Academic Success”. Attendance is one of the ways children show

they can meet their obligations. In many cases, a child's attendance depends on his

parents' ability to help him be on time. Parents can teach their children organizational

techniques that will help them get out of the house faster, such as packing their bags

and laying out their clothes the night before school. But parents who drive their children

must also remember to be punctual and responsible. After all, you are the primary role

model.

According to Oxford Advanced learners’ Dictionary the term

“lateness” implies a situation where an individual arrives after the proper,

scheduled or usual. Furthermore, Lauby (2009) puts it as a term used to describe

“people not showing up on time”. Breezes et al. (2010) contributed by saying that

lateness is synonymous with “tardiness”, which implies being slow to act or slow to

respond, thus not meeting up with zproper or usual timing. It is obvious therefore that

lateness could be seen as a system of network breakdown (Difiaghor, 2011); a situation

of not meeting up with programme… a function of time… time is the criteria and

determinant of lateness.

Lyons and Griffins (2008) stated that tardiness or lateness affects not

only the student who is late for class, but also the other students in class,

the teacher instructing the class, the administrators imparting discipline,

school district ratings, eventually reaching work places, and in extreme cases,

expanding court room dockets with potential financial costs to parents.

A study by Hammill Institute on Disabilities (Caldarella, Christensen,

Young & Densley, 2011), looked at decreasing tardiness in primary school-aged

students using teacher-written praise notes. The researchers found that students who

are frequently late to school often miss out on important opening announcements and

academic activities. ‘Teachers can become frustrated as late students disrupt instruction,

often requiring reteaching of what they have missed. Tardy behavior can also negatively

affect the overall classroom environment,’ the study says.

Arriving late to school can also mean that students miss out on activities designed to

build connections with their peers, potentially impacting their social interactions and

creating a greater sense of alienation from their classmates.

Absenteeism Affecting Academic Performance

According to a website called AIP Conference Proceedings, that absence

from classes among students nowadays is a global issue that is not only occurs in

Malaysia. Various researches on absenteeism only focused on the absenteeism but lack

on the relationship between students’ class attendance and academic performance.

Thus, this study aimed to find the relationship between class attendance and academic

performance of the students. A sample of 98 diploma in engineering students who

enrolled in Calculus course in 2016 in UiTM Penang Branch involved in this study. Two
important data were recorded during the 2016 session namely, the student attendance

for 14 weeks and the final scores of the students. The statistical analysis used in this

research is descriptive, student’s t-test, Pearson correlation and regression model. The

findings of this study indicated that there are significant differences between class

attendance and academic performance.

From a website called Kickboard blog said that chronic absenteeism

describes a student missing more than 10% of academic instruction due to unexcused

or excused absences. This is a widespread issue impacting young people across grade

levels. 

According to the Department of Education, about one out of every six

students missed three weeks or more of school in 2015-2016. That is about 100 million

school days lost. With that many days of missed instruction, it is evident that chronic

absenteeism affects student performance and progress. Students cannot succeed

academically if they’re missing three weeks of academic content. For students in upper

grades, chronic absenteeism can be a barrier to high school graduation and ultimately

impacts their opportunities to pursue post-secondary education. 

According to Gina A. Torres (2016), student absenteeism is a major

concern for elementary and secondary school educators. The effects of absenteeism

show that it hurts both students' academic achievement and the school, where it can

cause time loss and morale problems. Absenteeism has many causes and effects. The

causes of absenteeism of students are  according to were the following; Lack of subject

interest, lack of personal interest in studies, available opportunities for entertainment like

malls, movie halls etc., the mental capacity of a students does not match with the course

opted, Too much pamperness from family,  the poor teaching skills of a teacher also
keep away student from the school, lack of confidence ,ragging also cause

absenteeism , lack of allied activities also causes absenteeism like no sports program,

no fresher or farewell parties ,no annual day celebration etc. , poor food of canteen may

also be considered as one of the reasons for absenteeism and poor infrastructure facility

in school such as no place in a library to sit is also one of the reason of absenteeism.

Excess of homework and sometimes fear from examination keep away students from

school. Preparation for the participation in TV shows in dance musical or acting G.K.

contest programs also increase the percentage of absenteeism. Preparation for

examination causes absenteeism. Over expectation of parents also deteriorate the

attendance of a student when she/he is unable to cope with parent nature of making

comparison among their own children of with the friends of their child. Too much

socialization causes absenteeism. And also inferiority complex within student causes

absenteeism.

RELATED STUDIES

From a research study of Caroro, Persida et. al (2017-2018) about

“Tardiness in Relation to the Academic Performance of the Senior High School Students

of La Verdad Christian School”, tardiness has already become a habit of some students

nowadays, being tardy means coming late on school even their house is just beside their

school and it can lead to more serious problems affecting their academic learning as well

as in their performances, if a student is not on time every day the student cannot perform

well in class discussions, when passing their output after deadline is also an example of

being tardy But up to now students are still unaware of what will be the consequences to

their academic performance wherein this study the researchers will aim on finding an

answer to the different causes and how to avoid being tardy.