Parents’ and Teachers’ Perceived Strategies for Reducing Truancy among Secondary School Students: Implication for Students’ Behaviour Modification

Abstract

This study examined the parents and teachers’ perceived strategies for reducing truancy among secondary school students. The population for the study is all the parents and teachers from Onitsha Education Zone in their first year in-service training, University of Nigeria Nsukka. The sample for the study comprised of 91 teachers and 207 parents randomly drawn from parents and teachers offering Educational Psychology 1 (Edu2 11). A 25-item instrument named Perceived Strategies for Curbing Truancy Questionnaire (PSCTQ) was used to collect data. The instrument was validated with the estimated reliability coefficient of 0.97. Three research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the research questions while t-test statistics was used to test the hypothesis. The result showed that parents and teachers have the same perception of the strategies for reducing truancy. However, the result statistically revealed significant difference in the scores of parents’ and teachers’ perception. It is recommended that parents should provide the needed materials for their children’s schooling and also encourage them in their academic work. Teachers should vary the teaching methods they use in the classroom to motivate the students; and they should also report truancy cases of the students to their parents.