The Effect Of Truancy On The Academic Performance Of Senior Secondary School Students
[A CASE STUDY OF OGBOMOSO SOUTH, OYO STATE]

CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The review of related literature is presented under the following sub-headings:
-    Theoretical background of the study
-    Causes of indiscipline in schools
-    Implication of truancy on academic performance of students
-    The role of counselling in eradicating truancy
-    Review of empirical studies
-    Conceptual framework of the study
-    Appraisal of the literature reviewed
2.1    Theoretical Background of the Study
    Researchers have tried to explain who a truant is.
    According to Blair et al (2014) “a truant is an individual who just does not want to go to school and makes plans to do something else. He may go fishing attend a movie, visit the circus, take a trip or work on some interesting project in a friend’s house. He may or may not have a serious problem of adjustment. If the activities at school challenge him as much as those outside school, it is certain that he would not be a truant”. In the study Hargreaves (2013) carried out at Lumley secondary modern school in England, the delinquent group is defined by the high status and friendship choices of its members. It contains the central core of boys whose behavious and attitudes are negative in terms of the school’s values. A truant is also a delinquent child. Denney (2014) identifies three types of truancy. First is truancy without the knowledge of the parents. This is the most common form of truant to be in the school and can arise from a wide variety of causes. If a child occasionally absents himself for a specific purpose, such as attending a football match, a deliberate alternative to school has been chosen and the event will probably not be repeated.
    The second category of truancy is the deliberate withholding of the child from school by one or both parents, usually the mother. To keep a child away from school when he has good health and able to attend is, of course illegal. He goes on further to say that the third category of absence comprises those instances in which for some apparently unknown reason, a child can not bring himself to attend school, although, he appears to want to go and both the parent’s are anxious to get him there.
    Boyson (2014) identifies what he calls casual truancy which is the slipping in and out of school by boys and girl. It is becoming more widely recognized that all pupils who register at 9am may not still be in school at 10am or even 9.30am schools with low ratings and numerous gates, ineffectiveness of many teacher in keeping discipline continues lesson changes and walks up to ten minutes between classes encourage casual truancy. The non-enforcement or compulsory school attendance in many countries of the world, has a number of serious consequences. It brings the law into disrepute and children obviously show that they have little respect for the schools they play truant from or the education they are escaping from.
On the other hand, compulsory education could lead to some students playing truant.
In 1979, during the second republic in Nigeria, the Oyo state government made primary and secondary education free. Most parents seized the opportunity to send their children to school whether they liked it or not. The result was that, many students kept away from school for as long as they want, doing their own thing without their parents knowing.
2.2    Causes of Indiscipline in Schools
        Indiscipline refers to a problem behaviour or socially unacceptable behaviour which does not conform to the school regulations. Some of the causes of indiscipline are: parental and home background, corrupt society: physical or emotional sickness of the student: need for social approval by parents and teachers; inappropriate curriculum; government laxity with education; principals administrative style, and teacher personality and methods.
Obe (2004) defines school discipline as the externally imposed or self-generated control of conduct to ensure its orderliness, social acceptability and conformity to school regulations. Truancy is part of indiscipline. Many researchers have tried to explain some causes of indiscipline among students. Turner (2006) says that children brought up in a tolerant atmosphere at home are often shocked by attempts to make them behave reasonably in school. They find themselves having to adopt two quite different behaviour patterns. This can have a traumatic effect upon some children, which is in itself an incitement to discipline. Commenting on the behaviour of high school students, Geinger et al (2002) say that their behaviour is characterized as conflicting and disruptive. It is not uncommon for parents, teachers and administrators to describe early adolescence as a period with students have difficult to manage, defiant of authority and non-observant of school rules. Truancy is very common among adolescents.