FACTORS ON ABSENTEEISM OF LEARNERS IN

ZUBIRI VILLAGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

A Research Paper
Presented to
The Faculty of the College of Education
Quezon Institute of Technology, Inc.

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Bachelor of Elementary Education

REY GAY M. ARELLANO

April, 2025
 CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

Introduction

One of the major factors that can affect the Pupil’s performance in

school was the absenteeism. It has a significant effect on Pupils' learning

since the more absences of the Pupil’s, the fewer lessons they will be able to

gain in class. Additionally, there would be fewer and more disjointed learning

concepts as a result. Regularly absent children are more likely to quit school

early and stop going to school altogether, which could result in

unemployment, low average salaries, and poverty across the nation. School

absenteeism is now a worsening and continuing problem not only in the

elementary school but also in secondary school and even tertiary school. A

noticeable problem especially in public schools is that those Pupils who

belong to the lower sections acquire more absences than those who belong

to the higher sections. Pupils in pilot section tend to attend the class and

grade conscious as compared to the Pupils in lower section, leading to

frequent attendance rather than missing school. Reasons for not attending

and becoming disinterested in school come from the lack of interest and

motivation of the learners and the lack of desire of parents to send their kids

to school. non-attendance of Pupils in school including the lack of

expectations on the subject, they were bored, and the lessons were not being

aligned to their interest (Conel, 2022).

In the Philippines, absenteeism is a common problem of public

schools. According to the study, one out of ten Pupils are marked absent

every day in the classroom. The Department of Education states that in order
to meet the attendance requirement, pupils must be present for at least 80%

of the total number of school days in a year. The Pupil is automatically

dropped or regarded to have failed once their absences reach the permitted

20% of the total number of days in a school year. One of the major factors

that contributed in this status were Pupils distance in school, conflict among

peers and with teachers, experiencing bullying from other Pupils. Still another

major factor affecting the trend of school absenteeism was found out to be

Pupils feeling towards the school. Accordingly, a school environment is

characterized by less feeling of Pupil commitment in its overall interactions

and undertakings. This would make Pupils less interested to attend class,

resulting in an increased sense of alienation among them on what constitutes

Pupils, commitment to their school. As such, in a school environment high

level of perceived value, emotional commitment and sense of security among

Pupils increases attendance and participation. Furthermore, Pupils engaging

in fun episode and vibrant socializing with their peers outside of the school

compound are also among the reason for absenteeism (Dimaisip,2019).

Family problems are one of the significant factors to absence. The

socioeconomic status of the family, the need for the Pupil to work, parenting

abilities, psychological issues, support or neglect, drug or alcohol abuse,

criminal behavior, a lack of consistency, divorce, inter-parental disputes,

family structure and the lack of a conducive environment for homework

completion are all factors that have a significant impact on a Pupil's

attendance in school. The primary responsibility of parents is to ensure their

children regularly attend school. Conditions at home have a significant impact

on children’s attendance and on their promptness. Poor family control and

lack of persistence is perhaps one of the most important factors behind

school absenteeism. Family control can be defined as parents' knowledge

about their child's activities, friends and the information regarding his

whereabouts (Demir, 2016).

Future recommendations include making parents aware of the

attendance policy from the beginning of school and reiterate the importance

of kindergarten and the early grades as they relate to academics and basic

skills. Actively involving parents in the would clarify other reasons for Pupil

absences not considered by the knowledge regarding absences and assist in

future modifications for attendance programs. Collaboration with other

educators and Pupil service professionals could be helpful when devising a

plan to use with Pupils that are frequently truant. Another recommendation

would include adding an additional program concentrating on arriving at

school on time. Using a dual approach to increase Pupil attendance was

effective in reducing the number of absences for the members of the group

(Chang & Romero, 2008).

In addition, using incentives and a daily check-in system increased

attendance, improved academics, and created a sense of belonging. The

Pupils were motivated using this approach. Understanding the root problems

and creating effective programs in the early grades will help remedy the

problem of truancy. Recognizing patterns of early absenteeism will provide

valuable information concerning challenges these Pupils face and allow the

schools to take action. Early intervention with social, emotional, cognitive, and

familial issues will give these Pupils a chance to have a successful career in

school and keep them from falling behind academically. Pupils who lacked
consistent attendance demonstrated signs of anxiety, depression and risky

behaviors along with other problems later in life. School counselors should

promote and help Pupils improve academic achievement and reach their full

potential socially and emotionally (Cole, 2011).

Statement of the Problem

This study aimed to determine the factors of absenteeism in Zubiri

Village, Elementary School.

Specifically, it answers the following questions about;

1. What factors that affect the absenteeism of the Pupils in terms of,

1.1 Physical and Health Factor

1.2 Home-Related and Personal Attitude

1.3 Classroom Atmosphere and Teacher-Related Factors

Significance of the Study

The findings in this study will beneficial to the following people who are

directly involved in this study;

Pupils This study will be beneficial to the Pupils because it can help them

gain some relevant information regarding in the effects on absenteeism in

academic performance. In addition, this will help them to minimize their

absences due to its negative effects in academic performance.

Future Researchers This study will be beneficial to the researchers because

it can help them to gather some relevant information. Future researchers can

use the results of this study as basis for developing their researches.
Scope and Limitations of the Study

The scope and limitation of this study will be the Pupils in Zubiri Village

Elementary School who are being absent.

The researcher will randomly select fifty (50) Pupils.

Definition of Terms

To have the better understanding of the study, the following terms are

operationally defined.

Absenteeism. It refers to absence from work that extends beyond what

would be considered reasonable and customary due to vacation, personal

time, or occasional illness. Companies expect their employees to miss some

work each year for legitimate reasons.

Academic performance. This is the extent to which a Pupil, teacher, or

institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals and is

measured either by continuous assessment or cumulative grade point

average.

Attendance. The action or state of going regularly to or being present at a

place or event.

Counselling. This is a talking therapy that involves a trained therapist

listening to you and helping you find ways to deal with emotional issues.

Sometimes the term "counselling" is used to refer to talking therapies in

general, but counselling is also a type of therapy in its own right.

Disinterested. The act of not havingpersonal involvement or

mindful engaged.

Pilot school. It means a program using a representative sample of

residential and small commercial customers to assist in developing and

offering customer choice.

 CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

The practice of skipping lessons without giving a valid excuse is known

as absenteeism in the classroom. Absenteeism is a truant behavior that has a

negative impact on Pupil’s academic achievement. Absenteeism can be

remedied by providing adequate co-curricular activities to Pupils. Schools

should strive to have up to date learning facilities like libraries as well as

sporting facilities to make Pupils enhance Pupil retention (Keter, 2013). Pupil

absenteeism is defined as the period of not attending to school. It also refers

to the persistent absences from work, school, meeting and the likes.

According to Lannegrand-Willems et al. (2012), when a child misses some of

the classes or not present at the school with or without a valid excuse, it falls

on absenteeism.

When a Pupil has not attended school for a long period of time, they

are classified as truant or absentee. In this manner, the constant absence of

Pupils abstains the opportunity to learn, hence, the learning process is

interrupted. The attendance of the Pupils in school is one variable that affect

the Pupils’ academic performance and may not attain the success of life. One

study of Gottfried (2010) revealed that academic achievement and school

attendance has a positive relationship in attaining high scores in the chosen

field or course. When Pupils were absent, it may lead to academic failure and

other possible risk factors (Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012, as cited in Demir &

Akman-Karabeyoglu, 2015).
 Reasons, why Pupils do not attend school, can be influenced by

several factors ranging from the lack of community support, unsupportive

school environment, family matters, bad weather, transportation problems,

poor health, peer pressure, and the addicted offer of social media (Ingul et al.,

2012). When Pupils are absent from school, there is a wide range of

shortterm educational consequences. First, they will miss assignments which

might lead to perform poorly and out of synch in different subjects. Moreover,

they will miss classroom activities which cause a tendency to be left behind

because of being not involved in the learning activities. In the study of Clark

(2008, as cited in Demir and Akman-Karabeyoglu, 2015), it was found out

that non-attendees generally fall behind their peers in academic

achievements and development of social competence. As Pupils move up to

the higher levels, challenges and problems are more likely to surface causing

them to be frustrated and would cause them to escape in the form of skipping

and not attending classes, and the worst, drop out of school.

In addition to the consequences of Pupil absenteeism, a range of

factors such as inclement or bad weather and transportation problems are

some of the reasons why the Pupils do not attend classes in school. Severe

weather like heavy rains and storms could let the Pupils not be able to leave

their houses. They chose to stay at home rather than going to school

because of the fear of risks such as accidents and getting wet that result in

being sick. Transportation issues such as buses not coming to the house,

risky roads, traffic, and overloaded vehicle will impart a great impact on the

Pupil's ability not to go to school. Minor contributions such as no allowance or

no snacks are also considered a factor. This means that Pupils' absenteeism
in high school leads to more negative effects on academic learning and social

problems (Balkis et al., 2016).

Pupils have many absences have difficulty in meeting the graduation

requirements. With increased emphasis on higher order thinking and scaffold

learning, Pupil’s attendance and engagement becomes even more important.

Every school day has formal and informal learning opportunities that Pupils

cannot capture if they do not attend school. Pupils who have difficulty

engaging in the school environment may choose unproductive activities that

lead to delinquency and problems in later life. Moreover, problems associated

with truancy affect the individual and the community at large (Baker et

al.,2001). Schools that do not engage elementary Pupils who struggle with

consistent attendance, full participation in academic and peer interactions,

and low academic achievement set the stage for high school dropouts

(Spencer, 2009).

Attending school classes has an important role in education. It is the

opportunity of the Pupils to acquire knowledge and enhance their skills.

Nowadays, our school system is facing different problems and challenges

that affect the Pupil’s particular life. One of these is the absence of a Pupil to

his or her class leading to dropouts. This is the reason why there is a large

number of undergraduates in our country. It is hard for Pupils who have

chronic absences to focus on their studies and understand the lesson of their

teacher. They failed to comply with their requirements needed and also failed

in quizzes and major exams. There is a need to motivate Pupils to attend

regularly in their classes. Teachers and parents as well should monitor the

attendance of their children and, if possible, should have open

communication with each other. Therefore, attendance is a critical issue and

as a nation it is recommended to improve the status of attendance in our

schools not only in elementary level but also in secondary and most of all

tertiary level. Thus, the school should provide many ways and means to

minimize the absences among the Pupils (Bas, et al., 2019).

 CHAPTER 3

THE METHODOLOGY

This chapter discussed all about research design, research

respondents, sampling method and procedure, research locale, research

instrument, data gathering analyzing procedure, scoring interpretation as well

as statistical treatment.

Research Design

This study qualitative one, it will use descriptive method of research

because it aimed to analyze and discuss the status of current phenomenon.

According to Calderon 2006, descriptive research is an intentional process of

gathering, analyzing, classifying, and tabulating data about current conditions,

practices, trends, and cause-and-effect relationships, and then providing a

sufficient and accurate interpretation of the data, sometimes with or without

the help of statistical methods.

Research Respondents

The respondents of this research will be the Pupils in Zubiri Village

Elementary School who are being absent from classes.

Sampling Procedure

This study will be used Purposive Sampling Procedure whereas the

research will be getting the attendance of the pupils of Zubiri Village

Elementary School. Afterwards, the researcher will identify the pupils who are

absent and gather their profile.

Research Locale

This study will be conduct in Zubiri Village Elementary School located

at Purok 13, San jose, Quezon, Bukidnon.

Instrument

This study will use a survey questionnaire which will be distributes to

the Selected Pupils in Zubiri Village Elementary School.

Data Gathering Procedure

In this research, the researchers will collect data using the survey

questionnaire through personal interaction among participants and

researchers. The instructions of the questionnaire will be state before the

questions so that the participants will clearly understand on how they answer

the questions. Thus, the participants will be given enough time to answer the

survey questionnaire.

Scoring Procedure

The following shows the scoring procedure that will be use to present

and describe the data of the study.

Table 1. Verbal Interpretation of Factors Absenteeism

Numerical Equivalent Description Qualitative Interpretation

1.00-1.50 Strongly disagree Extremely no effects

1.51-2.50 Disagree Have no effects

2.51-3.50 Neutral Have moderate effects

3.51-4.50 Agree Have high effects

4.51-5.00 Strongly agree Have extremely effects

 Statistical Treatment

The researchers will use the following statistical treatment in the

analysis, interpretation and presentation of the data.

1. Weighted mean will be used to determine the level effects of absenteeism in

the academic performance among the Pupils.

 REFERENCES

Bas, J., Espinosa, A., Gabito, E., Luzong, C., Rodriguez, J., & Silawan, P.

(2019, April 01). Causes and Effects of Absenteeism on the Academic

Performance of Freshmen Pupils in the College of Teacher.

Retrieved from

[Link]

62#:~:text=%E2%80%9CNot%20interested%20in%20school%2C%20i

nfluenced,the%20lesson%20of%20their%20teacher.

Cole, J. (2011). Interventions to Combat the Many Facets. 9. Retrieved from

[Link]

Conel, E. (2022). Factors Affecting Absenteeism among. 16. Retrieved from

[Link]

Demir, K. (2016). Factors Associated with Absenteeism in High Schools.

Retrieved from [Link]

Dimaisip, E. (2019, January 18). Factors affecting absentieesm in the

Philippines. Retrieved from

[Link]

: ~:text=Absenteeism%20is%20a%20common%20problem,every

%20da y%20in%20the%20classroom.

Garcia, E. (2018, September 25). Pupil absenteeism. Retrieved from

 [Link]

and-how-missing-school-matters-for-performance/

Keter, T. (2013, August 11). Absenteeism in School. Retrieved from

[Link]

#:~:text=Absenteeism%20can%20lead%20to%20depression,ea rly

%20pregnancies%20and%20unruly%20behavior.

QUESTIONNAIRE
 INSTRUCTIONS: Please put check inside the box that corresponds to your

answer.

Part I. Profile of the respondents.

Gender: Male Female: Age:

Course & Year: Civil Status:

Part II. Describing the verbal interpretation of the data.

Numerical Equivalent Description

1.00-1.50 Strongly disagree

1.51-2.50 Disagree

2.51-3.50 Neutral

3.51-4.50 Agree

4.51-5.00 Strongly agree

Physical and Health Factor Home-Related Factors and Personal Attitude

Questions 1 2 3 4 5 Questions 1 2 3 4 5

Our home is far from school My parents ask me to be

absent from class

It is unsafe to go to school My parents do not care

about my studies

I have a headache I am not interested in my

studies

I have a diarrhea My friends influence me

to be absent in my class

I have a toothache I cannot concentrate in

my studies
 Classroom Atmosphere and Teacher-Related Factors

Questions 1 2 3 4 5

Our classroom is hot and uncomfortable

It is noisy in our classroom

A classmate bullies me

I cannot understand my teacher’s lessons

I do not like my teacher

Part III. Estimated absences of the Pupils and

General Weighted Average in First Grades

Semester (A.Y 2024-2025)

Estimated number absences in the First 0 1-5 6-10 11-15 15 above

Semester

(A.Y 2022-2023)

General Weighted Average in the First 1.0 1.1-1.5 2.0-2.5 3.0 5.0

Semester

(A.Y 2022-2023)