„Už mě to tam nebavilo“ – absentérství žáků středních odborných škol v kontextu odpoutávání se od školy

Abstract

Students’ high absenteeism represents a serious issue in Czech vocational education at the upper-secondary school level, and the overall number of missed lessons keeps rising. The aim of the presented study is to reveal and describe how vocational high school and training high school students perceive their absenteeism. Therefore, school absenteeism is viewed from the students’ perspective while reflecting their own experiences with skipping school intentionally while experiencing school disengagement. The qualitative data obtained from eleven respondents were collected through focus groups and individual in-depth interviews. It is evident from the results that absenteeism is closely connected with gradual school disengagement, represents a risk factor of school failure and can result in school drop-out. Students-absentees refuse to attend classes at school usually due to their lack of interest in the lessons, low attractiveness of the lessons’ content or experiencing boredom at school. Classmates and peers play a key role in the whole process as they influence each other in the means of irregular school attendance, and together they also choose and plan the alternative program substituting school attendance. Furthermore, the data analysis revealed inconsistency related to the schools’ rules on school attendance, monitoring students’ compliance with these rules and prevention of truancy. Due to the lack of intervention by the school, the critical consequences of absenteeism are revealed after a long period of time when it is difficult to avoid negative impacts on the student’s educational path.