Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Caraga Administrative Region
Division of Surigao del Sur
AGSAM INTEGRATED SCHOOL
Agsam, Lanuza, Surigao del Sur

Oplan NMT (No More Tardy) through 3 Tier Intervention Tool

MARY GRACE JERNA N. CUADRA

Secondary School Teacher I

February, 2019
II. Abstract:
This action research study focused on data gathered in Grade 10-Dalton Class School year
2018-2019 of Agsam Integrated School. The data gathered were derived from the School Form
2 (School Attendance) from 3rd week of August to 3rd week of September. The researcher
analyzed the impact of Oplan NMT (No More Tardy) through 3 tier method to decrease the
tardiness of Grade 10 students of Agsam Integrated School. Students were made to answer a
survey questionnaire that will give a clear picture of the reason behind their tardiness. After
tallying the results, the students were subjected to a 3 tier method to decrease the number of
tardy students of Grade 10 Dalton. The results were compared using the student attendance
before and after the intervention. Finding revealed that after the intervention there is a drastic
amount of decrease in the number of tardy students.

III. Acknowledgement
The Researcher would like to extend her gratitude to the following for making this Action
Research possible:

 To Our Schools Division Superintendent MARILOU B. DEDUMO, Ph. D., CESO,

Lanuza District In-charge, ARLENE B. SUMABAT and ANALYN R. TEVES, the
School Principal for the approval of the research proposal submitted before the
conduct of the Intervention

 To the Grade 10 – Dalton Students for all the efforts and enthusiasm in accepting
and abiding in a positive way the conduct of the intervention without hesitation.

 To the Ms. Jennifer C. Francis, School Research Coordinator, for the unwavering
technical assistance as this action research is being crafted.

 The class adviser, Ms. Gena P. Handugan for the assistance extended to her
students and to the researcher
  And above all these, to our Almighty Father above for blessing everybody
involved in this study with the energy, perseverance and positive attitude making
the conduct of this Action Research successful.
III. Context and Rationale
Tardiness is one of the major problems that have plague many schools; there is hardly any
school that is spared from this problem. The impact of this great menace cannot be over
emphasized, as it has contributed immensely in a negative way to the academic achievement of
learners and the functioning of the school (Okpukpara, 2007) Tardiness implies a situation
where an individual is coming, occurring or remaining after correct, usual or expected time.
Thus, the term “class tardiness” has been defined as students not attending lecture on time,
missing out initial time from the first period and primarily not being present in the time set.
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. (Vukovic, 2017)

“Time is money and Knowledge is Power” is a famous line from one of Robert Thier’s book,
Storm and Silence, which shows the relevance of time in every endeavor and how it is a crucial
part to learning. There is about 20% of Grade 10 who is always late in attending Science 10
from 2nd week of July to 2nd week of August based on their daily attendance. Science 10 is
scheduled after lunch break. They have one hour of lunch break and yet there are an enormous
percentage of late students who entered the class.

This problem had accumulated from tolerable to habitual state starting the second week of July
and it has a significant impact in their performance at school. Students have difficulty in
optimizing their time as their subject related activities grows in bulk. To figure it out, students set
aside their precedence to study and learn thus the proponent of this research had to find out.
Moreover, the researcher’s intention is to isolate the primary reason of tardiness and proactive
intervention will be executed so as to curtail if it will not utterly do away with the quandaries.

This intervention was implemented to lessen the number of tardy students. It is called a three
tier method because there are 3 levels of intervention that the student has to face if he/she
comes to school late. Each level, the intervention becomes more difficult than the first tier.

V. Proposed Innovation, Intervention and Strategy

The study covered Grade 10 Dalton school year 2018-2019 including the identified late comers
and those who are not habitual late comers. This study was not limited to those identified late
comers because at one point, non-habitual late comers, experienced going to school late in their
school life.

Before the implementation of the intervention, students were made to answer a survey to find
the reason behind their late coming. The adviser was also informed of the intervention prior to
the implementation. Their weekly attendance for the 2nd week July up to August 2nd week, which
serves as the observation period, were computed to find the percentage of tardiness per week.
Upon finding out that there is an increase in the percentage of tardy students during the
observation period the conduct of the intervention was immediately done. They were oriented
on the intervention and was asked if they agree with the 3 tier of interventions and since there
were no objections the intervention was pushed through.

The intervention requires checking of attendance before class starts, whenever there is/are late
student/s they are asked to do the first tier of the intervention which is to sing in front of the
class either CARAGA hymn or Surigao del Sur hymn. First tier intervention barely takes a
minute or two of the time in class discussion. If in case we are negating the situation of using or
wasting the time in the intervention, it can be done during activity or evaluation time. The key
concept in this intervention is consistency and the teacher being in the classroom 5 minutes
before the time. The intervention per tier should be done daily without exception and
consistently done. If the student has been habitually late, being late daily in 3 consecutive days
in a week, they will be subjected to the 2nd tier of intervention which is a written promissory
letter submitted to the teacher to be permitted to attend the class. The third tier is given to
students who have been subjected to the first two tiers who have been consistently tardy for the
whole week. This last resort is done by asking the student to bring their parent to school while
writing a promissory letter that they will not be late again which will also be signed by their
parents at the exact moment together with the guidance advocate as well as the adviser.

After the five weeks of implementation starting from August 3rd week up to September 3rd week,
the weekly percentage of tardiness was computed by dividing the number of late of students to
the total number of students multiplied by 100 each day. Then it will be added (Monday to
Friday) then divided into 5. The data from the implementation week will show if there is a
decrease or increase in tardy students of Grade 10 Students
VI. Action Research questions:

Specifically, the study answers the following questions:

1. What is the weekly percentage of tardiness of Grade 10 students before the
intervention?
2. What is the weekly percentage of tardiness of Grade 10 students after the intervention?
3. Is there a decrease on the weekly percentage of tardiness of grade 10 students after the
intervention?
VII. Research Methodology

a. Participants and/or other Sources of Data and Information

This study was focused on Grade 10 Dalton students both those that were identified to be late
comers and non-habitual late comers.

b. Data Gathering Method

The data collection was based on the result of school form 2 (School Attendance) of August 3 rd
week up to September 3rd week. Weekly percentage of tardiness will be computed by dividing
the number of late of students to the total number of students multiplied by 100 each day will be
added (Monday to Friday) then divided into 5. It was found out by the teacher that the reason
behind the student’s habitual tardiness is due to personal factors such as distance to school,
doing chores at home before going to school, they took a nap and was not able to wake up early
and they took a nap because they were awake late in the evening. The result was based on the
survey questionnaire which the respondents were made to answer.

VIII. Discussions of Results and Reflection

This section presents the analysis and interpretation of data gathered from the study.

Table 1. The percentage of tardiness before the implementation

Month /weekly Percentage
July 2nd week 20.51
July 3nd week 23. 078
July 4th week 25.70
 August 1st week 27. 172
August 2nd week 27.182

Table 1 shows the weekly percentage of late students of Grade 10 Dalton before the
implementation of the intervention. This shows the drastic increase in the percentage of late
students from second week of July 2018 to Second week of August. This five week serves as
the observation period if there will be changes in the percentage of late comers

Table 2. The percentage of tardiness after the implementation

Month /weekly Percentage

August (3rd week) 15. 692
August (4 week)
th
14.72
st
September (1 week) 14.61
September (2nd week) 13.58
September (3rd week) 12.56

Table 2 shows the weekly percentage of tardy students of Grade 10 after the implementation of
the intervention. This shows that there is a decrease in the percentage of tardy students from
the first week of implementation which is third week of August 2019 up to September 3 rd week
2019. This table manifest the effect of implementing the intervention to the students. There was
no instance in the whole duration of the implementation that the student was late for
consecutive days hence the second tier intervention was not used.

After 5 weeks of implementation of the intervention the results have proved it has an effect. This
clearly shows that students develop the sense of time management if they are subjected to
consistent intervention. Tardiness slightly decreased across all students during the same time,
indicating it have affected student behavior.

Findings
From the presentation and analysis, the following findings were realized;
1. Student’s habitual tardiness is mostly due to personal factors.
2. Students who are subjected to intervention was able to manifest proper time
management hence they are able to go to school early.
 3. There is a decrease in student tardiness after the implementation of intervention

Conclusions
In the light of the findings, the following conclusion were drawn
1.) The intervention “Oplan NMT” had greatly helped in reducing the percentage of tardy
students of Grade 10 Dalton
2.) When students are exposed to a consistent intervention, where they are daily checked
and is correctly monitored, behavioral problems such as tardiness can be eliminated
3.) Oplan NMT had helped;
a. the subject teacher in Grade 10 Science to decrease the number of tardy
students hence she can conduct her class without interruptions from late comers
b. The students learn to manage their time efficiently to come to school earlier to
avoid facing the tier of consequences

Recommendations
Based on the conclusions reached, the researcher would like to propose the following
recommendations

1. Oplan NMT (No More Tardy) should be conducted and adopted in every classroom to
address the tardy students.
2. Teachers should be consistent in giving intervention to the students; consistency is the
key to this intervention.
3. Oplan NMT should be continuously implemented to see the effectiveness of this
intervention.

Action Plan:
 Timeline Activity Focal Persons
July 2nd week- Aug 2nd  Observation Period Proponent
Aug 3rd- September 3rd  Conduct of Proponent/ subject teacher/
week intervention Adviser
program
October-December  Analysis and Proponent/ subject teacher
interpretation of
Data
 Completion of
action research
 Submission and
validation of action
research
January- February  Crafting and Proponent/ subject teacher
submission of Final
Report

References
Okpukpara, B. a. (2007). A study in school attendance performance in Nigeria. African
Research Consortium, 1-6.

Vukovic, R. (2017, February 01). The effect of student tardiness on learning. Teacher Evidence
+ Insight + Action.