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

His assessments of the truants were made in accordance with the Bristol social Adjustments Guide, a very detailed analysis of the emotional conditions of children for which he was responsible, and which is widely used to assess social and emotional adjustment in children. The guide was filled in either by the child’s class teacher or from the reports of the welfare officers. He found a high level of maladjustment among the truants both boys and girls.
    Turner (2006) says that it seems to be far more likely that persistent adolescent truants have problems with peer-group relations rather than school being at fault. The school can be a sort of benevolent foster-parent in the lives of exceptional children, especially clever ones from working-class or disturbed backgrounds; but in most cases, it is merely concerned with the tuning of a process which is dictated by agencies that have nothing to do with the elaborate rituals of education.
    Fontana (2003) states that the child who consistently absents himself from school for no good reason is signalling clearly that the consequences to himself of not going to school are outweighed by the consequences of going. The reasons according to him could be for fear of being bullied by other children, for being afraid of the teacher for fear of punishment or could associate school with failure, so school refusal could be a way of protecting his self-esteem.
    Glueck (1980) found out that, teachers influence children through emotional atmosphere of their classroom, if teachers are demanding, harsh, domineering and authoritative they arouse hostility of the children who find a way out by playing the truant. He suggests the need for teachers to show love and understanding to their pupils.
    Murray (2008) points out that a number of professionals and observers have suggested that learning disabilities (LD) contribute to delinquent behaviour (truancy inclusive).
    In view of the policy implications that a demonstrated relationship between LD and delinquency would hold. Murray also examined the available evidence on the topics focusing on the hypothesized link between LD and delinquency. The more familiar explanation described by Murray, the school failure rational proposed that LD lead to poor academic performance labeling as a problem and negative self-image which in turn leads to increase opportunities and incentives to engage in delinquent behaviour. The second explanation, the susceptibility rationale proposed that learning-disabled children are more susceptible to delinquent behaviour as a consequence of the personality and cognitive characteristics associated with LD (e.g general impulsiveness and poor ability to learn from experience).
2.7    Appraisal of the Literature Reviewed
    There are many ways truancy can be eradicated. The role of teachers, parents and the society on eradicating truancy among students can not be over – emphasized. Burt (2007) says he was introduced to a boy called Jeremiah Jones, who was a thief, a truant and a murderer. It happens that Jerry had an accident and his skull was fractured. He was sent to a hospital and then to a home for convalescents. His school was some twenty minutes walk from his house, and Jerry, returning from his ten weeks’ holiday, found it agreeable to linger round the tube-station and the railway terminus (both alluringly close to the school gates), instead of submitting to the discipline of a well-ordered classroom lettering, figuring and sitting still upon a bench.
    To correct his truancy, he was sent to another and a nearer school and later as the habit persisted, his mother was cautioned. She then  thought it cheaper to bargain with a neighbour to look after the young defaulter for six shilling a week, while she and the grandmother were away at their work. And so for a month, his wondering ceased. Saunders’ (2009) states that early identification and apprehension of the persistent truant is essential and demands friendly vigilance on the part of teachers friendly so as to provoke further truanting as a form of retaliation, or from a sense of competition. Many schools have introduced a system whereby known truants carry with their cards or which attendance all the classes is recorded by the teacher and then checked by a member of the pastoral staff. He also says that if truants find school so lacking in reward that they vote with their feet, than the teacher should try to create satisfying situations by the preparing work that is interesting and at which these children can be successful and by building up rewarding personal relationship. He suggested that some attention for instance, might be paid to structuring learning groups so that the truant is brought into contact with other pupils with whom he is more, rather than less compatible. Williams (2005) writes that truancy is a form of indiscipline. Truancy has been and continues to be on important concern within the classroom. The research on the types of discipline used has focused upon the behaviour of the target child, the behaviour of the observing peers, and the traits attributed to the disciplinary teacher. Since the observing peers, and the traits attributed to the disciplinary teacher. Since the observing peers represent an important and powerful environmental variable, in shaping the bahaviour of other children, knowledge of the personality traits attributed to the target child by the observing peers should be a major determinant in the control of the target child. Petrie and Conochie (2001) say that children who do not conform to school rules are reckoned as bad. If they do not accept the ethics of the school, every offer is made to induce them to do so. We have truants and thieves, drug takers, and so on. We groom them, cherish them and perhaps suspend them temporarily from school.