A Phenomenological Study of Senior High School Students’ Absenteeism

Leader: Pacot, Bianca G.

Members: Pableo, Lester Jay

Pablo, Fairlane Rhea

Pablo, John Harvey

Pacayra, Rexlie

GAS 11-08
 A Phenomenological Study of Senior High School Students’ Absenteeism

Introduction

Background of the Study

Going to school regularly is crucially important for a student’s education and

social skills. Students are shaped up to become responsible who would be able to take
up ones task and duties without much supervision. It will help them to seek their future.
But the kind of surrounding or environment the students have creates negative force
that affects their mind and behaviour. When a student chooses to be absent in school,
they will miss some school activities. It will be a disadvantage both socially and
academically. They will miss out their social interaction and development that leads to
low self-esteem, social isolation, dissatisfaction and such. To make it exage student
may eventually drop-out of school moving to lives of delinquency, crime, poverty and
unemployment, proving that absenteeism has far-reaching effect and consequences.

Absenteeism, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary it is a chronic disease.

School absenteeism is an alarming problem for school administrators, teachers, even
the society as well as for the students. It can be in elementary, secondary and tertiary
level. Absenteeism becomes the nature of students. It is a behaviour that gives negative
effect. In most countries such England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, the
Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Russia and even the Philippines, absenteeism is
considered to be one of the standard problems in education system. It is revealed that
absenteeism is associated with many factors. In general, cities have the higher
frequency of absences than in rural areas. Absenteeism among students is also
attributed to an extremely cold and impersonal learning environment (Sokrates
Programme COMENIUS 2.1., 2003)
 Rationale

Absenteeism in school is a habit of students to stay away from school without a

proper reason of not attending to class. Absenteeism is a behavior that gives a negative
effect on a student performance in school. It is alarming for teachers, parents,
administrators, society and students. It gives dissatisfaction for the teachers and school.
Parents consider absenteeism a big deal for a student as it reflects it to their
performance and future. Some students, attend to school once/twice a week without a
formal letter of their absence. It is not surprising for the other to do the same and will
continue until the next generation. Research done on school absenteeism/ non-
attendance/ truancy at the primary and secondary levels suggests that it is a
phenomenon with no single cause-effect relationship (Cameron, 2004). Absenteeism is
caused by many factors that known for the students. These factors can be identified by
the students. These factors can be identified by the student since they know what is
wrong and right.

Therefore, we believe that this issue/problem is very serious. Students like us,
that is particularly involve should take an action to look into its causes, factors, and
solution for this problem that is timely to our generation. At the same time we can know
some information about it as an awareness.
Theoretical Framework
 Research Questions

1. What are the factors that affect the absenteeism of Senior High in the
Philippines?
2. How do the administrators minimize the effect of absenteeism?
3. How the teachers help in minimizing the absenteeism of Senior High in the
Philippine university?

Significance of the Study

The study will be conducted with mostly Senior High School students being the
population involved. The outcome of the study should give insights to the effects of
absenteeism to students as they are the main subject of the research. Knowing the
implications of absenteeism to students, it shall give people the awareness to their
responsibility of upholding a peaceful environment. The importance of the study
includes:

The students: The students will learn some knowledge about the factors and
effects of absenteeism. They will have better understanding on how valuable
education is to their future success. Students will realize that not going to school
affects him/herself and the people around him/her.
The teachers: They will find out the causes of students absenteeism. Also, they will
be guided on teaching the students on proper manner. Also, they will know what will
do to students who are always absent and understand on why some students skip
or even absent to class.
The parents: They are to encourage and guide their child in going to school every
day. They will be more on interacting with their children. Lastly, it will help them to
learn the action of their children.
The administrators: The administrators may do preventive actions regarding to
absenteeism.
 Methodology

Research Design

Phenomenology will be use for this study. Phenomenology refers to a person’s

perception of view on the event, as opposed to the event as it exists externally to that
person. The focus of this research is to know what people experience in regard to some
phenomenon. This research design attempts to understand people’s perception,
perspective and understanding in a particular situation. Our research requires different
perspective of students and the people around them that is involved, to know such
factors that affect the school absenteeism and their view on this timely issue.

Data Gathering Procedure

In gathering our data, we will conduct a survey. We will conduct a survey for us
to know every student, teachers and administrator’s perception in absenteeism. But
before we conduct a survey, we must ask their permission. To start our survey, we will
ask them several questions related to our topic. Recording the video will take more than
90 minutes for all the participants.

Participants

The subject will be selected from the University of Perpetual Help-Molino

campus. We will take 10 participants from the 20 survey questionnaires. We will
distribute it for Grade 11 students, teachers and administrators during free time.
 Instruments

We will be conducting a survey to know their perspective in absenteeism.

We will need to use papers for them to answer the questions. We will also use camera
for recording the video.

Interview Protocol

1. Are one of the students who are often absent? Why/Why not?
2. Do teacher’s motivations affect the absenteeism of students?
3. What is the reason for you to not attend school?

II.

1. Do you think absenteeism is an alarming problem in our university?

Why or Why not?

2. Is there a way to lessen the absenteeism of the students?

3. Does the record of absenteeism of Senior High School affects the image of
our University?

III.

1. Do you think absenteeism affect the performance of the teacher?

2. What do you do to students who are always absent?
3. Do students absenteeism affects the whole class performance? Why or Why
not?