WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF TRUANCY



According to Adams (1978), when it comes to analyzing root causes of truancy, there are the wildest divergences of viewpoints and theories –the effects of a sick society, the abandonment of religious beliefs and moral values, the consequences of an unjust social and economic system or even as I have heard it convincingly argued, as a result of damage done to the nervous system by excess lead in the urban atmosphere in which many of us are condemned to live and work’. But this divergence is more apparent than real. Explanations fall under two broad headings. Children play truant either because their schools are not so well organized in some respects as they might be, or because the children themselves are ill-equipped to deal with the normal pressures of schooling. Each of these in turn will be examined. Let us sub-divide these broad headings into:-


Children and their Backgrounds           
            In their introduction to what remains one of the principal texts on the subject, Hersor and Berg (1980) state with untroubled confidence that “the epidemiological contributions to this book clearly demonstrate the importance of age, sex and social background in determining the prevalence of unjustifiable absence from school.” They added that it is still uncertain to what extent factors within the school contribute to the problem.
            (Tyerman, 1968) elaborated the first concept of “school phobia”, describing how some children stayed away from schools that had been used by them and their parents as air raid shelters during the great war. They associated schooling with fear of death and became “neurotic’ when compelled to go there.
            According to various primary and secondary teachers interviewed by Farringdon (1980) truants were lazy, lacked concentration, were restless, were difficult to discipline, did not care about being a credit to their parents, and were not clean and tidy on their arrival at school. The above has associated truancy with delinquency. Otherwise, truants are said to do badly in intelligence tests (Farrington, 1980), to have low levels of self-esteem (Reid, 1982), and to tend towards unstableness and uncleanliness (Tyerman, 1968). These authors have gone so far to explain that children need to be brought up properly at home to deter them from this act.

School Factors               
            Carroll in a study carried out in 1999 doubt if children or their backgrounds can be the sole or even the principal cause of truancy. Reynolds and Murgatoryd (2000) are careful to show that the schools served” a relatively homogenous community with very small differences in the social class composition of the people who live in the catchments areas of the different schools”.
            The study, yet finds that patterns of deviancy and attendance vary greatly between different schools within this homogenous catchments area. The suggestion is that the schools themselves play at least some part in causing these variable rates. Ogunlele (2001) while quoting Cloward and Ohlin (1961) regarded truancy as a part of a wider delinquency caused by “blocked opportunity within school. He stated that working class children begin their school careers reasonably confident about their aims and ambitions in life. But the middle class bias of school tend to denigrate these aims and ambitions and to push others in their place that the children, dislike, but lack the sophistication consciously to examine and reject. The result is a disaffection with school and its ideals that can result in delinquency.
            The relationships within school, between teachers and students could be another cause of truancy –Ezekugo 2003. Sometimes some teachers discriminate among working class or well-to-do students and the less privileged ones, and this could seriously lead to truancy. Izeogu (2002) in her own contribution supported the fact by saying that poor preparation for lessons by teachers, use of abusive words by some teachers, frequent punishments et c. can contribute to pupils or students staying away from school. So far, from the facts gathered from the reviewed literature, it is obvious that generally, school condition, especially regarding social behaviour in school, contribute to truancy.

Socio- Economic Situation     
            In 2002, Mussen states that socio-economic problems and parent-child relationship could contribute to the delinquent behaviour of truancy. To support this view (Tyerman, 1968; Farrington, 1980; Reid 1986) wrote that the backgrounds of truants are believed to be unfortunate. They are said to come predominantly from poor families, where the father-if actually present and working –has a job with low earnings and low status and low security. They live usually in the inner cities, in bad and overcrowded properties (Galloway, 1980; Tyerman, 1968) there is the tendency for their parents not to care about punctuality or attendance to homework (Reid, 1986).
            Down here, most parents and guardian are unable to provide the children and wards with basic school needs, therefore the students take to the market and the closeness of the Eke and Nkwo in Ezzamgbo; Idokpo and Okwo in Ngbo; Effium and Inikwi in Effium makes it easier for them to play truants for reasons of making money in order to supplement the ones provided by their parents or guardian.
            Whether- as by the teachers interviewed by Farrington (1980) we regard truants in a moralistic light, or as the pitiable victims of circumstance, the conclusions reached by this line of research are straightforward. If children play truant, it is because they are for various reasons unable to cope with school. Truancy is their problem; and any attempt to stop them from playing truant must be concerned with readjusting them.

Peer Group Influence   
            The student’s peer groups and class mates influence his truant behaviour. A child tends to free himself from dependence and control of parents and other adults, and falls on peer groups for direction and control. Members of peer group put aside their personal feelings and follow the dictates of the peer group in order to remain relevant in their group. Due to this strong feeling of attachment, peer groups have generally been viewed as the vehicle through which students learn acts of truancy.
            Accordingly, Ubaezuonu (1998) says that students can easily mess up a dozen friends in school. He maintains that a child is usually good at the formative age of ten and fourteen years. But when he enters secondary school, it does not take long for him or her to be corrupted by his peers. Then, parents begin to wonder if he/she is still the same child who was enrolled in school few years back.
            Dewey (2006) states that the need for students to conform and be like their fellows may bring the student into conflict with his own family. The secretive young person is anxious to please his fellow young men and to maintain prestige in the eyes of his own generation. This type of act can lead students into abandoning everything they are supposed to be doing like: maintaining regular and constant attendance to school and classes, and choosing to move from place to place in search of where to get money to be like members of his peer group. When this happens, the student never understands what goes on in class because he is always absent from school.
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