Examining Truancy And Intervention Strategies In Four Selected Government Secondary Schools In Tanga City

ABSTRACT

The study examined truancy to illuminate the aspects of its causes, educational effects to students, and intervention strategies in four selected government secondary schools in Tanga City. The study sought to answer three research questions that aimed at identifying causes of truancy, educational effects of truancy to the students, and intervention strategies practised in the four selected government secondary schools. 136 participants were involved in the study. These included eight 8 teachers and 128students with extreme truancy record. Mixed method research approach coupled with the concurrent parallel design was employed in the research. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, five point Likert scale questionnaire, observation, and documentary review. Observation and documentary review complemented the data obtained from in-depth interviews and questionnaire. Data from in-depth interviews were analyzed manually and data from questionnaire were analyzed manually and through tabulation, graphs, and percentages by SPSS program. The findings revealed that truancy is caused by the separation of family, poor parental/guardian supervision, poverty and nature of economic activities, problems related to school infrastructure, lack of regular follow-up in attendance at school, failure in studies, strict punishment, boring classes, smoking marijuana, and the lack of parental support. Truancy was found to exhibit effects on students educationally as it was the major cause for students’ poor academic performance and school dropout in the selected secondary schools. Intervention strategies practiced to eliminate truancy are involving parents and authorities. Conclusively, truancy is caused by factors emanating from students’ homes, schools, and students’ individual behaviors. Also, truancy has negative effects on students. On the other hand, parental and the involvement of authorities reduce or eliminate truancy. It is recommended that parents and community should be more involved in children’s learning, and school characteristics should be improved to reduce or eliminate truancy.