GIG 1004

KURSUS
LITERASI MAKLUMAT
TOPIK KERJA KURSUS:
THERE HAVE BEEN MANY CASES OF TRUANCY IN SCHOOLS. DISCUSS THE
CAUSE AND PREVENTION ACTIONS WHICH CAN BE TAKEN.
SEMESTER/SESI

SEMESTER 1, SESI 2015/2016

NAMA PELAJAR

FARAH EMIRA BINTI MOHD RAHIM

NOMBOR MATRIK PELAJAR

AEL 150039

NOMBOR KUMPULAN KELAS

20

NAMA FASILITATOR

PUAN NOORSUZILA BINTI MOHAMAD

TARIKH PROJEK DIHANTAR

17 DISEMBER 2015

THERE HAVE BEEN MANY CASES OF TRUANCY IN SCHOOLS. DISCUSS THE

CAUSE AND PREVENTION ACTIONS WHICH CAN BE TAKEN.

INTRODUCTION

Truancy could be defined as the practice by which the students leave home for school but
do not reach their destination rather they stay mid away between home and school when school
close. They return carry their boxes or bags and go home in accompany of their mates in the
pretence that they have close or returned from school. Cambridge International of English stated
that truancy is children who do not attend school without permission. Jenkins defined truancy as
skipping class, leaving school without permission or away from school. He pointed out that often
truant students are absent from school cannot be nurtured his intellectual abilities and other skills
development for their future. There have been a lot of truancy cases involving the students from
the school as well as other schools and this is worrying the school administrators as well as the
parents. It is also considered as a disciplinary problem that has been going on for years. Many
students who play truant are seen in cybercafs and shopping complexes.

There are many causes why the students are playing truant. One of it is because of peer
influence. Students who are involved in this truancy problem are usually students who have
discipline problems. They would follow their friends playing truant and having fun after being
influenced by their friends. Moreover, there is a tendency that the problematic students are also
affected by their disinterest in learning. Some students who have low academic performances at
school are usually losing their interest in learning. Also, these students who are playing truant are

also in the same group after they are being scolded by their teachers in front of their classmates.
Hence, their interest to be in classes would be affected.

The other cause is the lack of attention from their parents. This is because their parents
have to work all day and night to find money for the family. These parents do not have sufficient
time to spend with their children or getting involved in their academic progresses. This will make
their children to revolt and do anything that they like such as truant. On the other hand, stress is
also another cause why truancy happened to many students in school. Some students who are
often being bullied in their schools will go through a great deal of stresses until they are not able
to concentrate in their classes anymore. The problems at school with classmates and teachers
plus those at home will carry the unavoidable stresses. This made the students wanting to escape
from this problems.

The ways as a prevention action which can be taken is teachers should monitor the
students at the schools. Means, the discipline teacher has to take responsibility in this truancy
case. At the same time, teachers also should give warnings to them such as tell them that they
will be handed over to the police if they are found playing truant. Besides that, school
administrator also must play a role to send all this problematic students for counselling so that
they will realise about the effect of mixing with wrong friends and hoping to change for the
better person. On the other hand, the school administrator should hold some interesting school
activities so that they will not boring in school that will attract the students to attend school and
stop playing truant. The school administrator can also organize awareness campaign for the
students at school to prevent the truancy cases occurring and hold motivational talks. Last but not

least, the discipline teacher should meet the problematic students parents and have a dialogue
with them about the problem so that they can advise their children.

In conclusions, the truancy cases which is happening in many schools especially from the
last classes can be cut down with the involvement of all hands. These are not things easily
accomplished but effort certainly should be put into to build the school up as a community.

SEARCH STRATEGY

There have been many cases of truancy in schools. We should know the causes of this case
first before take actions to prevent this truancy case in school. We learned how to research on this
topic by going through 4 steps to get all the needed information from various sources. Starting
with Part A, we recognised the concept for the question which is truancy and school then
come out with synonyms for both words. The alternative words we came out with for truancy
are absenteeism and attendance while the alternative words for school are learning
institutions and educational institutions. We organised the words and came up with a search
statement which is (Truancy OR Absenteeism) AND (School OR Learning Institutions) and
(Truancy OR Attendance) AND (School OR Educational Institutions).

Using the search statement from Part A, we proceeded to Part B. We searched for
materials through the Pendeta Discovery by accessing it through University of Malaya library
website (http://umlib.um.edu.my) and clicked on the Pendeta Discovery. We managed to
find two books and a thesis that are relevant to our topic. All the materials can be found in
the Central Library.

Proceeding on with Part C, we were assigned to search for eight records from the online
databases that have been subscribed by University of Malaya. The online databases can be
accessed by logging into the library portal with our membership identification number and
clicking on the list of databases given. The records we found were seven journal articles and one
news article from databases such as ProQuest.

Next was Part D, we were asked to search for articles using the search engine. Using
the concept and search statement, we searched for articles on Google and found one personal
article, one journal article and a book.

Lastly for Part E, we collected all the records from Part A to D and provided citations
for each record. We checked our citations using the EndNote and compiled all the records.
We also wrote an introduction for our topic based on the information we found from the
records.

OBJECTIVE
a) Identify the definition of truancy
b) Identify the causes of truancy
c) Identify the ways to prevent the truancy cases

LITERATURE REVIEW

Truancy is a constraint most widely accepted discipline and hard to overcome in the school.
Among other things, skipping like a benchmark indicator of the weakness of the Malaysian
education system which is implemented through the National Education Policy. Most of the
media through newspapers, magazines, blogs and so often discuss illegal activity. However, the
government is actively involved with the causes and measures to overcome this problem. The
purpose of this article is to present a summary of the causes and prevention actions which can be
taken. To accomplish this, we conducted a recursive open-coding analysis on an already existing
data set. Findings something that related with the truancy cases in school include the causes and
the prevention actions which can be taken.

Each school day, hundreds of thousands of students are missing from their classrooms-many without a bona fide excuse. Left unchecked, truancy is a risk factor for serious juvenile
delinquency. Truancy's impact also extends into the adult years where it has been linked to
numerous negative outcomes. Consequently, it is critical to identify strategies that intervene
effectively with youth who are chronically truant and that interrupt their progress to delinquency
and other negative behaviours by addressing the underlying reasons behind their absence from
school. This bulletin provides an overview of the problem of truancy; describes the correlations
of family, school, economic, and student factors with truancy; notes truancy's role as a predictor
of delinquency, including juvenile daytime crime; and tallies truancy's social and financial
impacts. Two projects funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention are
featured: the ACT Now program operated by the Pima County Attorney's Office in Arizona and

the Truancy Reduction Demonstration Program, a partnership with the Executive Office for
Weed and Seed and the Safe and Drug-Free Schools. Program. Truancy is an early
warning sign for future problems and should not be ignored. (Baker, Sigmon, & Nugent, 2001)

For youths who skip classes, almost always surreptitiously, increased supervision of their
daily attendance is crucial. Therefore, a practitioner must work closely with teachers (often
multiple ones) and school attendance officers so that any missed class can be reported
immediately to the practitioner and/or the parents. In addition, parents should be encouraged to
work closely with school officials so an immediate response to school refusal behavior can be
implemented. Finally, for youths who miss considerable periods of the school year, practitioners
should focus on family variables that help maintain this condition, perhaps by means of an
interview, the family measures in Table 1, or other relevant procedures. In addition, school
officials should be frequently contacted regarding scheduling, make-up work, policies for
reintegration, and feedback about treatment effectiveness. Indeed, measures specific to youths
with absenteeism are far too few. Instead, professionals are encouraged to pursue some similarity
of protocol in dependent measures so that research samples can be better compared. (Kearney,
2003)

Importantly, in this literature, it is clear there are very few rigorous studies of interventions
to prevent truancy and dropout. Creative interventions have been attempted by talented
individuals on the ground; however, without research evaluations, little can be made of their
effectiveness. Moreover, many evaluations that have been conducted have employed poor

research designs such that one can have little confidence that the intervention caused the
measured outcomes. The studies included in this analysis, judged to be sufficiently rigorous,
showed that targeted programs have small positive effects on dropping out, presence at school,
and student achievement. Specifically, the evidence points to alternative programs, mentoring
approaches, and to a lesser extent, behavioral interventions as those that hold promise for at-risk
populations. (Klima, Miller, & Nunlist, 2009)

Baker, M. L., Sigmon, J. N., & Nugent, M. E. (2001). Truancy Reduction: Keeping
Students in School. Juvenile Justice Bulletin.
Kearney, C. A. (2003). Bridging the gap among professionals who address youths
with school absenteeism: Overview and suggestions for consensus.
Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 34(1), 57.
Klima, T., Miller, M. G., & Nunlist, C. (2009). What Works?: Targeted Truancy and
Dropout Programs in Middle and High School: Washington State Institute for
Public Policy Olympia, WA.

DISCUSSION / CONCLUSION

Truancy should not be synonymous with unauthorised absence, as some authorised absences can
result from the schools refusal to authorise excessive absences for holidays taken during term
time without the prior consent of the school. Due to these definitional problems, most authors
using the term truancy provide situation-specific definitions, as the generic terms often means
different things to different people.

One of the key issues when considering school absenteeism and truancy is to
understand correctly the meaning and definition of the terms. This is not quite as simple as it
sounds. There are various types of school absenteeism. They include specific lesson absence,
post-registration absence, parentally condoned absence, psychological absence, school refusal
and school phobia. This is where the problem begins. For some, specific lesson absence, postregistration absence and parentally condoned absence are not truancy. For others they are, and
are often retitled specific lesson truancy, post-registration truancy and parentally condoned
truancy. For some, absent without good reason can be equated with truancy. For others, having
a reason for the absence. For example, being a parentally condoned absentee means by definition
that this form of behaviour is not truancy.

The causes of truancy and non-attendance have been extensively researched. Research
indicates that findings can vary depending upon the methodology used. For example, data
obtained from whether the methodology utilises school-based surveys, town centre surveys,
pupils self-referral

instruments,

parentally obtained

information

or

teacher-assessed

questionnaires often reveal some significant differences in outcomes on such matters as the
extent of parentally condoned absenteeism. In a detailed report, that school-based factors such as
peer influence, lack attention from the parents, bullying at school, the curriculum and poor
teaching were the preponderant factors in a clear majority of cases. However, all individual cases
contained aspects of social, psychological and institutional features to a greater or lesser extent.
As such each case was unique and often interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary in nature.

The government has begun to attempt to build the foundations for improving childrens
quality of life through Sure Start that raising school standards and attempting to eradicate child
poverty. It recognised, however, that truancy and antisocial behaviour remain serious problems.
Too many children are the victims of crime, bullying and poor parenting skills. Therefore, in the
next phase, the government is intending to create Sure Start Childrens Centres and these will
combine nursery education, family support, employment advice, child care and health services
on one site. It will promote full service extended schools which are open beyond school hours to
provide breakfast clubs and after school clubs and child care, and have health and social care
support on site. It will create more opportunities for children out of school. There will be a large
investment in child and adolescent mental health services, an attempt to improve speech and
language therapy, tackle homelessness and effect significant reform of the youth justice system.

It seems that the truancy in school happens due to various factors or causes. After more
than 100 years of compulsory schooling and a century of research into school absenteeism and
truancy, we are little nearer finding definitive solutions. In fact, some ways research continues to

reveal how increasingly complex the field of study in truancy and school absenteeism has
become.